North Ridge Mt. Baker

[chelle]

Anyone been up there lately? The lower half looked sweet from Skyline Ridge on Saturday (upper part was in cloud).

[Climzalot]

I tried to climb the Coleman Headwall on Saturday morning and it was really warm so we bailed. A good freeze is essential for both of these routes to be safe and enjoyable. A few friends climbed the North Ridge earlier in the week and said conditions were good on the route. The approach is beginning to ge a bit more problematic. We approached up the Coleman Deming and started traversing over and down once at the Roman Nose. After bailing on the route we went straight down the Coleman and this was quite a bit harder to navigate than the way we came in. I would recommend the approach we used for the Headwall for both route right now. There is stil plenty of snow on the cut off slope so you dont have to go to the toe of the ridge yet.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[chelle]

Thanks. Approach problematic because of crevasse navigation?

[catbirdseat]

Onetoole was up there a couple weeks ago.

[Dru]

it looks really good from my office window right now

 

except for the thunderhead

[wscottf]

I was up there last weekend. The conditions were fine, but a little warm out. We got to the base of the first 70 degree section around 8:00am. The first pitch was good, as it stayed in the shade, but the second picth was in the sun and was getting soft. I wouldn't have wanted to climb it much later than when we were on it.

 

Aim for getting through the steep stuff around 7:30 or 8:00 and you should be fine.

 

It's pretty easy, I took my wife up it (her first glacier climb, and she'd never swung an ice tool before) and she made quick work of the route.

[mike_m]

Did it June 28/29. Went straight up the Coleman from the 6000' sites, and the route-finding was pretty complicated in the dark. The traverse under the Roman Nose appeared to be much more straightforward. The righthand start to the ridge was easy and in great shape, just an easy step-over schrund at the bottom followed by a long line of steps. The ice wall was fun. We belayed no pitches, ran out about 3 ropelengths on running belays up and around the left end of the ice wall, traversing left under another barrier and up a steep snow/ice step back onto the ridge. The upper ridge was easy, steep plodding in good snow.