North Ridge of Baker

[ilookeddown]

It's been awhile since I have been on this site but live in NorCal now. Planning a trip up to Washington next week. Wondering if the NR on Baker is in. I've climbed it in August before but haven't seen any recent TR's. 

Any info would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[genepires]

it has been getting climbed pretty often by the guide services.  reports from them have been making it sound good.  I will try to find the recent one and give it to you here.

 

[genepires]

from 8/15 so not that long ago but things do change quickly. 

One thing to note that may not be in the below report as it is expected that most guides know this already as it a situation that has been around for a month or so now.  There is a large crevasse running end to end (may be the 8800 crack in report below) on the coleman glacier which would be your decent route.  Wont see it on the way up.  End running it to the east or west will put you into potential ice fall danger from baker or colfax.  either run quickly through there or some have been rappeling off of some fixed pickets.  No idea if that is still accurate.  Should be exciting!

 

Hey Crew,

 

Just wrapped up a 1:1 summit day on a 3 day North Ridge with Mountain Madness. We are camped at the hogsback and figured I'd spend some tent time sharing conditions.

 

The slope immediately above the hogsback is now a combination of recently glaciated terrain and dry glacier, making travel in the dark slow. We took the standard ascent to the football field that you would for the CD, thinking that this would help us avoid some shenanigans on the low traverse but in retrospect, I don't believe we gained any time by doing so. On the descent we went hard skiers left and managed to stay on a combination of snow and dry glacier with only a few short sections of loose 3rd to link everything together.

 

The 6600 traverse is holding strong but Jeff's words from late July are certainly still true. There are several spots that require exposed movement on dry glacial fins that are a little sporty. I personaly wouldn't want to be in there with a guest that's not solid on their feet right now. 

 

Running water is available in one spot early on, moving across the Coleman but I did not encounter any after that.

 

Once on the route, a friendly boot pack allowed for short roping almost all the way to the ice step, requiring just one short pitch to the the right side of the nose. 

 

The exit straight up is still holding strong, above which there was a track heading to a bridge that is about to collapse. We managed to gain the summit plateau a few hundred feet climbers left of this bridge but you will likely need to end run the whole crack within the next week or two.

 

The 8800 crack has a super solid rap anchor above it and a 60 left us ample rope to spare. There is also enough room to comfortably stage pre rigged guest between the anchor and the lip. Thanks to whoever put that in!

 

Colfax has been shedding nicely, I'm attaching a photo. We opted to move through the debris and it took about 5 minutes total with a strong guest.

 

The firn line is creeping up fast and starting to expose some of the slope above the football field.

 

Ignore the straight line at the beginning of my track, my phone was still in battery saver mode.

 

Let me know if you have questions.

 

[trumpetsailor]

On reviewing my photos from Skyline Divide yesterday, a party of two climbed it yesterday.  The climbers are visible in the photo below as a dark dot above the NR cliff.

 

If you were in that team of two, please get in touch for a few more photos: charlie@charliehagedorn.com

[genepires]

wow!  that top out is really broken up.  times are a changin over the eyars.

 

 

[Eric Carter]

On 2019-08-19 at 8:38 AM, trumpetsailor said:

On reviewing my photos from Skyline Divide yesterday, a party of two climbed it yesterday.  The climbers are visible in the photo below as a dark dot above the NR cliff.

 

If you were in that team of two, please get in touch for a few more photos: charlie@charliehagedorn.com

That's a beautiful photo!