eeelip Posted June 21 Posted June 21 Noah and I left Wenatchee at 2:30pm on Friday with the intention to climb Coleman Headwall. After our bout with the typical Seattle traffic jam, we were walking up the snow covered road about 1.2 miles from the Heliotrope Ridge trail head by 7:30pm. Snow conditions were good, and we reached a flat spot below Gargoyle Rocks ~6,500' at 10:15pm. We passed 3 other tents on the way up. We spent around 45min searching for a sheltered place for camp, but to no avail. We finally settled on an exposed location that had the one good quality of being flat. Once above the tree line, the temperature had dropped seemingly far below what we were expecting, and winds picked up and gusted all night. From my modest experience I would estimate single digits. I had the absolutely genius idea to not bring a tent, only a Tyvek ground cloth to protect us from the elements. Our last few winter trips had been in great weather, and I was tired of packing such frivolous luxuries up into the mountains. Of course, my bluff was called, and we spent one of the more frigid and uncomfortable nights we had experienced anxiously awaiting sunrise. At 6am, I got up and started boiling water. I took a moment to study our intended route, and it looked to be in very fat snow conditions. Wind slabs near the top of the face were a major concern, especially due to the high angle of the face. I returned back to our sleeping spot to contemplate. Keeping the stove's isobutane canister warm with my bare hands was very uncomfortable. After a hot breakfast and water bottle fillings, we started up just before 8am. I briefly discussed conditions with Noah and we decided to take the standard route to the top. Noah just needed a summit to check Baker off his uncompleted WA-Top 10 list. We made great time following the skin tracks of two other groups. Snow pack was good, and crevasse danger was nil. Once we reached the ridge around 9,000', the real winds hit and we were freezing. Noah did not have warm enough gear to be comfortable, so we tried to keep moving constantly to stay warm. At around 9,200' we transitioned into crampons/boots and slogged up to the summit plateau. We switched back to skins/skis and walked up to the true summit by 12:30pm or so. Winds were howling, so we snapped a few pics and skinned back across the crater. In my mind, I was having an internal conflict over skiing the Coleman Headwall to redeem the trip for myself. Snow conditions up high were much more solid than I was expecting, and the angle of the face actually looked to be doable from our side-view on the way up. I said a quick prayer, asking for guidance, and after a moment more of consideration I told Noah that we should go for it. He agreed, and we ripped skins approximately at the entrance point I had mapped out on my phone. Noah, being the far better skier, started down. The face was largely not visible from the top, but we had photos from below to reference. After 100' or so of descending, it started becoming alarmingly steep. I would say 65+ degrees. We were too far skier's left, and we traversed over to the right to terrain with less avalanche hazard. Slopes were around 60 degrees with 12" of powder. We made careful jump turns for around 1k', then started to work our way back to skier's left to avoid the massive ice cliffs shown in our route photo. That worked out well, and we even encountered some more moderate slopes nearing 45-50 degrees. We continued left all the way to the base of the Roman Nose to avoid the bergshrund at the bottom of the route. The skiing was very scary for me, but very fun with just enough powder to slow us down after each turn. The face is certainly the most consistently steep feature I have ever attempted to ski. After crossing onto the glacier, we skied the moderate and enjoyable slopes back to our camp to pick up our gear. This was also where I realized our GPX track had stop-started twice. I'm not sure why, but it's quite annoying and seems to be another one of the many bugs that plague AllTrails. From our camp, it was much icier and firm snow conditions back to the trailhead. My quads were absolutely gone after the steep decent and a long workout on Friday morning before our drive. Noah left me in the dust once we started skiing the trail below the tree line. After the trailhead, it was an easy road ski back to our truck and fresh water bottles. We reached the truck at 4pm and were home by 8:30pm. Overall, this was a cold winter trip, and a ski descent that was beyond my current skill level. For people attempting to ski this route, and especially climb it, I would recommend careful condition assessment. Avalanche risk is real. GPX Track: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/mount-baker-coleman-headwall-2a51262 Gear List: https://www.packwizard.com/s/JM2YQPe Video: Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.