Mt. Baker?

[chucK]

So with this nice weather I was driving around town and noticed big ol' Baker up there!!!

 

How hard is it to ski Baker (summit) the easiest way? Could a BC gumby like me (ample lift skiing, and hiking) summit Baker and ski off pretty easily?

 

Would I have to know what I'm doing? What if I found someone who knew what she was doing, is there much new skills over slogging and downhill skiing that are necessary to do this?

 

Thanks in advance for your substantiative replies!

[JoshK]

Of course, like any mountain around here, conditions are going to dictate everything. If you are a decent skier you should have no problem skiing the coleman demming route in good conditions. It's a great ski with spring corn. The roman wall is the steepest part, but itsn't very steep. I skied it in mountaineering boots, so it can't be that hard.

 

As for getting up the thing, that totally depends on your comfort. If you are planning on skiing down, then I would want as little crevasing as possible and would just skin up without a rope. Your comformt level may very. My recommendation would be to simply find another person who is interested in doing a ski climb and has that experience and go along with them. It'll be a great time.

Edited February 14, 2004 by JoshK

[cracked]

Go for the Squak, fewest crevasses. You'll be fine, just watch out for crevasses (ie don't let loose and forget that you're on a glacier). It's an easy ski, even I can do it.

[ashw_justin]

I've climbed it a few times, and boarded down once. Coleman-Deming is the shortest approach, which is good for a one-day ascent. You still want to get on the route early in the day though so that the climbing is easier.

 

You should make sure you're comfortable in that kind of environment before you bring your skis though. You're still mountaineering (well kind of) and that of course adds more into the equation. You make it sound like you don't have any experience with glacier travel, so it would be good to get comfortable with that first.

 

That said, if you can get yourself down all the runs in your ski area without wiping out, you should have enough skill to handle it.

[ScottP]

In the early 90's, I skiied the Easton as a n00b in April. Besides a long slide after a fall one turn below the summit plateau, it was a pretty casual weekend. (I was skiing on old school cables and straight cut skis.) We skiied from the top of the railroad grade(?) to the crater rim and then to the summit plateau. It seemed most of the crevasses were to the west of us on this line.

[cman]

i skied the easton a couple years ago. it is pretty low angle except for the headwall at the top. not too many crevasses, you should be ok as long as the weather is good.