NORTH RIDGE OF BAKER

[highclimb]

can anybody out there give me beta on the north ridge i know its early to be thinking about it but just cant wait.

phil?

Aidan

[Thomas]

I climbed the North Ridge a few years ago in early May, so its not too early to be planning a trip.

We camped on the coleman glacier and headed across the glacier around 2 am or so. Even with the early start we didn't reach the summit until around noon. It's a long route.

I felt that one of the cruxes was simply navigating our way across the Coleman glacier. There are some huge crevasses, and picking the ideal line through them in the early morning light is difficult. The actual ridge itself is very straight forward. There's lots of steep snow, but nothing too serious (avg 45 deg). We only had one axe each and it wasn't too bad, as only a pitch and a half (or so) were alpine ice (grade 2 to 2+), but that was early May. If I did it again I'd definitely bring Ice tools though.

The exposure on the Ridge is minimal, but the views are fantastic. It's a great route, one that I'll always remember. Hope your trip works out.

Thomas

[erik]

i clmbed the north ridge in 97' may or june. me memory is fuzzy. we left helitrope around 2pm and camped way out on the coleman. thomas is right about navigating the glacier, especially this year. we positioned our camp, so we would not have to carry over. worked great.

we left camp at 1am and arrived on the summit around 7:30ish. the route is straight forward with the single in pitch going very easily, though i would say when we did it, it was closer to ai3 or so. we took two tools and one ice screw.

it is nice to be on top of the mountian when all the rest of parties from the easton and coleman routes show up and you are already there. then you get to desecned before them.

we desceded quicklry back to our camp and hurried home. reachinf back to the car around 1ish. for less the 24hrs on baker. next time i do it, i will be going from the parking lot in a push.

[scott]

one other thing to think about is icefall from near the coleman headwall. the night before we went in a piece the size of a house came down. we walked over the pieces the next morning on our way to the north ridge. try to move through there real quick. most of the route is very easy, but it sounds like getting on to the upper glacier can vary. we belayed for one 20 foot step that was pretty steep and was hard blue ice running with some very cold water. once above that it eases again-- we cut left before the summit.

my partner punched through to his chest twice on the way across the glacier.

have a good time all the time

[philfort]

For getting across the Coleman... You might want to tromp a route over to the base of the ridge from your camp the afternoon you get there, so you've got footsteps to follow the next morning in the dark.

[highclimb]

i know i cant spel but giv me a brak. haha. i apologize now for any future mispellings.

Aidan

[highclimb]

when i look at pics of it there seems to be a huge ice cliff looming at the top of the ridge waiting for its next pray......i know thats when the steep climbing comes in but does it pose objective danger?

thanks

Aidan

[none_dup1]

Aidan:

In the interest of helping America's future leaders such as yourself, you might make this mental note: The word is "prey." As in, you better pray you don't become the ice cliff's next prey.

Your pal,

John

 

[Thomas]

Aidan,

With respect to that "looming ice cliff", I remember crossing a huge crevasse once we were on top of the summit ice cap. It looked as if a 'HUGE' piece of the ice cap was ready to scrape the North Ridge off of the mountain.

As far as objective danger, that piece has probably been waiting to go for a long time. I would be more worried about the avalanche danger from the Coleman Headwall. Philfort mentions stomping a trail the afternoon before, but be wary as we saw a massive wet snow avalanche come off of the Coleman Headwall and travel a fair distance across the glacier the afternoon we got to the glacier.

I agree with Eric that the route could (should) go as a single push from the parking lot. No point in carrying a tent (and associated gear) for only a couple hours sleep.

Thomas

 

[DPS]

The character of this route changes from year to year. When I did it a couple of years ago, there were no threatening seracs. There were ~2 pitches of beautiful, steep alpine ice. The only thing that came down were the dinner plates my partner and I knocked loose.I would have called it AI 3.

A day trip is very feasible, we did it car to car in 12 hours at a leisurely pace.

One can avoid crossing beneath the Coleman Headwall by following the hikers trail to the hikers veiwpoint overlooking the Rosevelt Glacier seracs, then hiking straight uphill to the North Ridge. There are some nice bivi sites on dirt.

[This message has been edited by danielpatricksmith (edited 04-12-2001).]

[john]

I have climbed the route a couple of times and for the most part it isn't that bad. I would recommend that you spend some serious time from camp looking for a way through the glacier as this part of the climb can eat up a great deal of time. Depending upone how much snow there is avlanches become an issue. If there is alot of snow I suggest getting on the ridge much lower than normal. The ridge for the most part is 45 degrees but can be ice up towards the top at the base of the headwall. Depending upon which line you take up the headwall expect 70 to 90 degree climbing and bring 1/2 dozen ice screws. This is a long route so try to leave early in the morning.

[highclimb]

Has anyone been up there in the past month? anyone know conditions on all baker routes?

Aidan

[AllYouCanEat]

I ran up there for the day a few weeks ago with the intention of going to the summit and skiing down that afternoon.

There was:

- Two miles of snow on the road before I got to the trailhead (more or less).

- A deep windpac/snow

- Bad Avi danger

I turned around because I had a bad feeling about the snow. Now days I tend to listen to those things.

[gregm]

We just climbed it over the weekend. Left the parking lot a little after midnight Friday night and got back the following afternoon. The ascent is in good shape. Bring ice screws and pickets. An easy line was found by climbing the lowest point of the the ice cliff and then getting on a ramp that headed left. We punched through many crevasses descending the Demming-Coleman.