[TR] Coleman Headwall - 3-13-5 - Coleman Glacier Headwall 3/13/2005

[OlegV]

Climb: Coleman Headwall - 3-13-5 -Coleman Glacier Headwall

 

Date of Climb: 3/13/2005

 

Trip Report:

My first encounter of Mt. Baker was last summer when I spent three rainy days on a lower Coleman Glacier practicing ice climbing. The weather wasn’t that good, so we had to retreat without a summit. That’s why when Chad (vw4ever) called me and asked if I want to attempt Coleman Glacier Headwall, I was more than intrigued. Chad’s previous attempt of this route was unsuccessful because of various factors including difficult route finding. Two of us left Portland Friday morning and were at the trailhead late afternoon. Our plan was to hike up to the base of the headwall next day, spend a night on a glacier and climb a headwall Sunday morning. We spent the rest of the night in the back of the jeep (fondly named ‘Hotel Anderson’) eating, drinking and reading horrifying climbing stories in ‘Rock & Ice’ about climbers falling off El Cap or freezing to death (doesn’t add confidence). At 3 am three alarm clocks went off simultaneously. Quick snack and we were on our way to unknown. We encountered two more climbing parties heading up a trail, and with whom we had a visual contact for a little while. We loose any site of them as we cut across the Coleman Glacier aiming at the Roman nose.

 

Even though the weather was clear and cold, the strong northeast wind started kicking in changing our light-minded intention to camp on an open glacier field. To move more efficiently, we didn’t take a tent and only carried bivy sacks and light 20-degree synthetic sleeping bags. By the time we neared the headwall, the wind became unbearable forcing us to crawl into a small nearby crevasse at 8500 ft. We liked this crack on a spot. A small, 15 ft long and 4 ft wide platform, confined on three sides by icy walls. We didn’t run stability test, even though that thing might have been a roof of something bigger. It will become our castle for the next two days that protects us from the wind and potential icefall. We spent the rest of the afternoon brewing hot drinks, chatting, napping and simply staring at damn beautiful glacier. Incredible feeling of solitude and inner piece! To draw a mental picture of our tomorrow route, we make a short unroped trip to the base of Roman nose. I noticed gigantic blocks of ice, one - size of a truck, resting on the left outskirt of a headwall. They projected off the scary-looking ice cliffs that will become our first real obstacles tomorrow morning. The mountain kept the silence (except for the wind) rewarding us with a spectacular sunset. We set an alarm for 2 am and crawled into our cocoons for a short unsettled rest.

 

There were two different ways to climb this headwall – protected or unprotected. Both are equally dangerous, either because of a longer exposure to objective hazards or from the fall. We guessed that the route condition will vary and that our best bet is to simul-solo it. I heard the headwall doesn’t give you a second of break and a slope varies from 50 to 70 degrees (some books say vertical) for 2000 vertical ft. We roped up and headed down the glacier first losing and then gaining altitude. As we approached the steep part of the headwall (~8400 ft), we unroped and started moving up and left in a hope to find an easier passage through the ice cliffs. I was barely with Chad, who moved efficiently and restlessly. As we approached ice cliffs, I was struck by their dimension and complexity. We took our first break here sitting on the lip of the crevasse, snapped some pictures and moved on. Climbing across the ice cliff was relatively straightforward but steep. A lot of the route didn’t retain in my memory as it was a continuous zigzagging around crevasses, steep steps and cliffs. Often it was nothing but a guess game. I hope Chad will compliment my picture of the route with his memories as he was often in the lead. We began cutting across the slope to the right where, we thought, there was a clear passage through the schrund. You can see this part on the picture as a steep traverse under the rock band. This spot was particularly memorable because of bad ice conditions. We both felt the whole wall of ice was going to slide down. In general, the route varied from hard snow to sections of water ice requiring full swing - no sloppy movements here. Once we crossed the rock band, we got to the longest the most exposed part of the wall. Violent morning breeze started kicking amplifying the sense of insecurity. On the top of this pitch we hung on a screw for a minute, took the first daylight picture of the route and went for the final push. We completed Coleman Headwall in 4 hours returning to our camp in six. We named this day as “the perfect climb”.

Bivy site

View from crevasse

Route

First rest

Second rest spot

Summit - Chad

Summit - Oleg

 

Gear Notes:

2 ice tools

1 ice screw

[Dru]

nice

I can see this whole route from my office window.

[slothrop]

Sounds great!

 

OK, gotta ask: anyone know of previous winter ascents? Beckey lists one of the nearby Roman Nose, but they ain't the same.

[Chad_A]

Good job, Oleg! I think the only two things that I remember differently, are the elevation of the bivy---8100 ft, and the line that we went through on the route. Still, that's a perfect TR. It was great fun, and right up until the nasty ice crust during the traverse, totally secure.

 

Here's some pics:

Baker Splendor:

A better picture of me...that one from Oleg's post is the worst I've seen...hahaha:

The Headwall:

 

Colfax:

 

Hotel Anderson:

 

Getting warm in the sun in Hotel Oleg:

 

Oleg and Colfax:

 

Oleg at the crevasse rest on the Headwall:

 

 

Oleg on the final slope of the HW:

 

Oleg on the summit:

 

IPA goodness post-climb:

 

And finally: The route.

 

Forgive the crude red line! Don't have photoshop, darnit.

 

Oleg was a great partner. Have to do it again sometime, man!

[DPS]

Really nice job fellas.

[OlegV]

Thanks, Chad. Great pictures, by the way! I downsized mine too much. The line you draw is probably more accurate. A section between ice cliffs and shitty traverse was kind of sketchy. It's been great climbing with you!!!

[Alex]

We were the other party you hiked up the trail with on Saturday. We were wondering whether the wind kicked the crap out of you like it did to us, glad to hear you stuck it out and made it up!

[Alex_Mineev]

This is awesome!

[swaterfall]

Oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

Me likey!

[sweatinoutliquor]

Awesome trip report and photos you guys! It seems like you picked a good time to be up there. I wonder how long into the season glacier routes like this will be "in"? I wish the N. Cascades weren't so damn far... I gotta get up there. Thanks again!

[Chad_A]

Thank you all for stopping in to take a look, and for the compliments!

[Chad_A]

[Ade]

Nice TR and great photos!

[Dru]

Sounds great!

 

OK, gotta ask: anyone know of previous winter ascents? Beckey lists one of the nearby Roman Nose, but they ain't the same.

 

Oh c'mon people from Vancouver and Bellingham climb Baker routes almost every month of the year.

[slothrop]

Yeah, but I don't hear about it, so I gotta ask. I figured you'd pipe up.

[mattp]

I climbed the headwall in January or February 1978, the day of what I believe was probably the first winter ascent of the route -- but so did at least two other parties ahead of us the same day. There had been a rainstorm to the summit the week before, followed by clear cold weather. Everyone got the same idea at the same time and there was quite a party in the Kulshan Cabin the night before. The FWA was made by at least eight people.

[slothrop]

Thanks, Matt! The flavor of the month effect, even before cc.com existed...

[esugi]

Great pics Chad and Oleg. Would have liked to join you guys but I had a fun outing of my own, Southwest Couloir of South Early Winter Spire. It was fun and I will post a TR as soon as I figure out how to put pictures inside the post. How do I do this??

 

Chad - hope I can climb with you soon (from our e-mail conversations).

[jeffh]

Great trip report. Way to get out there and get it done!

[atomic]

Nice climb, and a pleasure meeting you. I was the one on skis that you met while descending the Coleman glacier. We talked--or yelled, with the wind like it was--while my GF worked her way up below us, trying to get more comfortable with the ski crampons.

 

If I had know exactly which line you took when you mentioned you climbed the headwall, I would have made my "wow" much more pronounced. I almost took a picture of the mountain at sunrise that morning--you would have been on the route. How cool would that have been? (could'a, would'a, should'a....)

 

And Dru, you'll be happy to know that we met a fine group of Canadian skiers Sat. night around 8 pm as they were descending the mountain after summiting shortly before sunset. They skied up to our tent after I turned the headlamp on after hearing them scraping their way down the icy slopes of Heliotrope Ridge. They were all smiles after a pretty long day, with more to go. Of course I'm just jumping to conclusions about them being Canadian, but with the core ski day, as well as all the "eh's" and talk of centimeters and beer, I'm just assuming....

[Dru]

well baker (mountain not ski area) is one of the few areas left with enough snow to ski near vancouver these days, although it seems more like ice than corn

[atomic]

Yes, icy for sure. It surprised me that we didn't have more corn, even in the afternoon, but then again it's still only March. There were fingers of almost-corn on Heliotrope that could be exploited with tight turns. But then back out onto ice. The Coleman never softened. Good for crampons, though, as I'm sure Oleg and the vw master found.

[OlegV]

Thank you all!!! It was great meeting all of you guys! I was very impressed with Baker, it felt like we are in Himalayas - remote, cold and very "calm" environment. If something falls, it will be the size of a truck.

 

We were so lucky with the route conditions. I was kind of wondering, what if the weather goes bad, there is no way one could make any progress or hide in this jumble of ice. Very impressive route!

 

Esugi, you first have to downsize your pictures (mine are too small - 1 Mb medium quality JPEG), upload them to the Gallery, and than insert pics from your gallery into your TR.

[Alex]

And Dru, you'll be happy to know that we met a fine group of Canadian skiers Sat. night around 8 pm as they were descending the mountain after summiting shortly before sunset.

 

Thats a long-ass day, considering that group was already heading up the glacier at 9am!

[Chriznitch]

nice work

Max slope?