Suz Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Climb: Mt Baker-Easton Glacier Date of Climb: 4/25/2004 Trip Report: Friends Lin and Jon and I headed up to Mt Baker on Sunday, 4/25 (our Mt Stuart aspirations thwarted by a reported lack of snow), intent on enjoying a great climb and ski down. Heading out Sunday morning, we happily noted that no one else had registered to be on the mountain the next day (Monday), and reached the end of the driveable road about 2.5 miles before the trail head. In typical spring-Cascade fashion, there was one stretch of snow that blocked the road (complemented by a whole mess of snowmobile trailers), followed by another mile or so of dirt walking. I proposed an hour or two of shoveling to open up the worst bumps and a quick advancement of the -no wheeled vehicles beyond this point- closure sign, but this didnt seem to excite my partners... We vaguely followed the alternate Scott Paul Trail, east of the Railroad Grade approach, angling up and west once we hit treeline to reach the upper edge of the Easton. A great bivy site by some rocks provided a beautiful view, almost-warm rocks to cook dinner on, a little windbreak, and a glimpse of sun setting over Puget Sound. Radiant cooling meant hard snow at 5 the next morning despite the forecast 10,000 ft freezing level. Skinning onto the glacier, we made good progress for the first few hours, until the steepness of the hardened slopes made me ditch my skis for crampons. Lin was on teles with ski crampons, and Jon had crampons on his split board, but our three different preferred styles of slope climbing made for some interesting lines... We passed a few opening cravasses on the way up, peeked over the edge of the steaming crater on the way by, and made it to the summit by 12:30, hoping conditions would soften by the time we started back down. A good breeze kept the sun from raising the freezing level, so the snow was still hard on top. A couple of pictures, then off with the skins, and time for some skiing! The first slope off the summit plateau was a little hard but skiable, then conditions softened beautifully for a few thousand feet, past the crater to the lower glacier. Scouting crevasses and doing much-accelerated route-finding was great - much more enjoyable than hiking back down in your own tracks! Mashed potatoes set in around 7500 ft, and we met two snowmobilers who were using them as a backcountry snowboard lift and offered us a run. Thanks! but no thanks. Found our site among the rolling hummocks below the glacier, packed up, and enjoyed cruising down the rolling terrain. Assuming that all the drainages led back to Schreiber Meadows, we got waterfalled-out and had to hike up a ridge or two to find the right one. Oh, well - thats why they call it backcountry skiing... A great first summit ski. Mt Baker is always a beautiful mountain, and even more so when you have it all to yourself - we didnt see a single person Monday until the bottom of the glacier!!!! Go now, before the highway gets tracked in for the summer... Gear Notes: 60m x 8.1mm rope, picket, fluke (crevasses still mostly closed, but a few opening up) next time: ski crampons!! Approach Notes: Road is driveable to within 2.5 miles of the TH, skiable about 1 mile before the TH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
To_The_Top Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Sounds nice. Any pics to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suz Posted April 29, 2004 Author Share Posted April 29, 2004 Sadly, my old-school actual-film camera needs to finish its roll before I can post pics. Hopefully my more technologically advanced ski buddy will send hers along soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashw_justin Posted April 29, 2004 Share Posted April 29, 2004 Splitboard mountaineering There's a good chance of a splitboard assault on the Coleman-Deming this weekend... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkemp Posted April 29, 2004 Share Posted April 29, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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