[TR] Mt Baker- Boulder/Park Cleaver 8/1/2004

[Alex]

Climb: Mt Baker-Boulder/Park Cleaver

 

Date of Climb: 8/1/2004

 

Trip Report:

I usually don't have much interest in volcano slogs, and when I do them I usually don't write about them, however this route was different enough to warrant a few words!

 

The East side of Mt Baker in a word - solitude! This was a very different kind of trip to a side of the mountain that is not scarred by signs of human passage. There are no trampled climbers paths, no real obvious and well-used climbers camps, and no hordes of climbers.

 

My partner and I hiked in on Saturday evening, taking 2.5 hours from car to camp. Although this trip can be easily done as a day trip by fit parties (estimate 14 hours car to car) , its such an infrequented and quiet side of the mountain you might as well stay a little while and enjoy it. The hike in is at first a flat path through a steamy forest, which ends in a "bog". It really is a bog! At the other side of the bog, make a sharp right and climb up through the trees. (There is a sucker trail that also leads down the steep hillside to the creek below-dont take this!) The steep up through the trees takes about 20 min to where you start breaking out onto more gentle rocky terrain, and then the long grind up the moiraine to camp begins. Beckey says "4 hours" and with really large packs you might take that long, but 2.5 or 3 seems more realistic. A short pitch of 3rd class basalitic rock (an unusual feature!) leads to the alpine meadows of the moraine, and in 20-30 more minutes running water and flat camping spots.

 

 

Although my partner says this route is popular with the Mountaineers as a basic trip, we found the approach trail indistinct at times, no real obvious camps in the alpine meadows, and no one else around. The entire area seems really infrequented, and the reason is pretty obvious: the 3rd class scramble keeps most hikers at bay, and the routes on this side of Baker are not currently in any of the Select (Nelson/Potterfield, Kearney) guides.

 

The Boulder/Park Cleaver itself is not very interesting for its first half (the Cleaver proper), mostly a hike. We elected not to rope up for this portion and found excellent cramponing conditions. We made fine time to the top of the cleaver, where the route starts veering left to join the summit ridge (and the Easton route) near Sherman peak.

 

 

Here (currently, Aug 1) there is a section of hard ice that you must negotiate, and some very tricky crevasse navigation (ice screws handy, a "real" ice axe handy). Once past this section, the route steepens considerably. A leftward traverse with several end runs around large cracks leads through multiple large bergschrunds over the course of about 1000 vertical feet to the summit ridge.

 

Only a few hundred feet shy of the summit did we see any other people. We spent a short time there (thanks to the woman from B'ham for feeding me!), and then headed down. Descending, we found a slightly different but no less "heads-up" way through the short section of crevasses that separate the upper mountain from the top of the cleaver. The descent back to camp took us around 2 hours - the first hour to the top of the cleaver is slow going, as it's traversing above large 'schrunds and then though the icy crevasse mess. The second hour (3500 vert) back to camp is primarily glissading.

 

 

On the way out we saw more goats than people. This side of the mountain is REALLY nice if you want to get away from the crowds!

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe with steel head, ice screws, 33m glacier rope, crampons

 

Approach Notes:

The trail to basecamp is sometimes indestinct and hard to follow for short sections.

[BreezyD]

Sounds like a route I need to put on my volcano tick list ...

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

[mvs]

pics! pics!

[DPS]

Not only are there pics, but Alex made a movie as well and I bet I don't get left on the cutting room floor like some people would do.

 

Alex's reference to a steel headed axe is warranted. He led a very steep, exposed pitch out of a crevasse using a light weight aluminum headed trekking axe. My thought at the time - better him than me.

Edited August 2, 2004 by danielpatricksmith

[mvs]

hee hee!

[chelle]

Glad you guys had a great time. I enjoyed that route immensely when I did it 3 summers ago on the weekend I signed my lease here in Seattle. Very fond memories. Thanks for sharing.

[Alex]

Added some pics...

[DPS]

During the last few years I have come to think of myself as a has been. Upon further introspection I have come to the realization that I have been flattering myself and that I am not so much a has been as a never was.

 

Nevertheless, trips to beautiful places with great old friends are just as rewarding as they always have been. These trips may not induce the same neural buzz that climbing a big, hard Alaskan peak does, but provide a feeling that I know I can find for many years to come.

[catbirdseat]

While it is true that the Boulder Route is sometimes lead by the Mountaineers as a Basic Glacier Climb, it is one of the more challenging routes and is probably only done by about one party a year on average. I climbed the route in 1998 and it was really fun with only one other party of three on the route, which followed us all the way. The neat thing about the Boulder is that you have to do your own route finding, as there may not even be tracks to follow. Parts of it can be steeper than either of the other two more popular routes.

 

The original trail was built by the Mountaineers many years ago. It wanders about in wet areas and is really unpleasant. The Forest Service plans to reroute or rebuild the trail in the near future so that it is out of the low areas. They considered running it on the ridge, but rejected that because the meadows up there are supposed to be frequented by elk or goats and they didn't want them disturbed.

 

I remember that third class section on the approach quite well. There was a manky old rope tied to a tree to use as a hand line. On the way down, most of the people in my party decided to rappel the section. I down climbed while they spent a long time setting up. Combined with some fast hiking, I ended up with an hour long nap at the cars before the rest showed up.

[Alex]

Thanks Brian, good info. The fixed rope is gone, by the way.

[DPS]

I noticed Forest Service survey stakes and flagging on the trail indicating where the trail would be rebuilt in places. I did not find the trail to be particualarly unpleasant, I just felt bad tampling the wet land and heather meadows.