Coleman Icefall Climbing

[dmuja]

Just wondering if people think this is a good time of year to practice (toprope) on the coleman ice fall (Mt Baker)? I haven't done this yet, but figured I could sink some pickets and screws on some solid looking ice, rap down, self belay and climb up. Is this a really bad idea? Is there ice there that is stable right now? Of coarse just stepping on a glacier solo is a risk so what if there wer 2 of us? (I'm serious in my question, I can't wait for the beating to come

[Jason_Martin]

This is the perfect time of year for ice climbing on the lower Coleman. You don't have to worry about crevasses or roped glacier travel because the glacier is dry. You don't even have to rappel down to the base of your routes most of the time. You can build a top-rope anchor and then walk around.

 

You probably won't be able to use pickets because there is no snow for them. Instead screws will work well. The word of warning for this time of year is to watch your screws, they can melt out in the sun.

 

To keep your screws in place longer you can put snow or ice chips on top of them. Another alternative is to top-rope off of V-threads which don't melt out in the late summer sun so easily.

 

Be aware that the seracs on the right hand side of the glacier tend to be more stable than those in the middle or on the left. If the cliffs on the right side seem short to you, there are many crevasses which you could lower into and climb out of as well.

 

Jason

[Don_Serl]

gord betenia, the king of the baker seracs, has already been down - he can't even wait till autumn, poor fellow. the report is that the seracs are more mellow than last year, which is good, cuz last year was pretty restricted to gently overhanging and radically overhanging formations.

cheers,

[catbirdseat]

I second, Jason's suggestion of using V-threads instead of ice screws. The latter can melt out surprisingly fast, especially when they are loaded. In your case, you might be soloing and won't be monitoring your anchor, so you want something that is totally bomber. When I am top roping glacier ice, I usually use two equalized v-threads. Call me anal, but I don't want to have to worry about my anchor.