Baker Beta: Coleman Headwall

[selkirk]

Anyone been up there recently? Or even just been up there? What's reasonable to expect this time of year in the way of snow/ice conditions, steepness, how sustained etc. Any info at all would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[OlegV]

Steep, icy, sustained, plenty of bad ice, watch out for falling junk, go fast and superlight. Good luck!

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/s...true#Post443914

[Chad_A]

Looks like it will be warm up there this week (12.5-14.5k freezing levels) after the clouds clear out. Might want to be careful with that, or make a super early alpine start. I've seen really big stuff calve off that route when it's warm. The North Ridge might be a better idea if it's warm up there, but things could even be slushy there?

 

Other than that, I'll bet it's in great shape right now.

[NYC007]

I heard from someone that a few weeks ago it was in mint cond, great neve the hole way..

[Chad_A]

Sweet!

[G-spotter]

a lot can change in a few weeks.

 

of course with clear skies it doesn't matter what the freezing level is, snow surface will still freeze overnight due to radiative cooling

[jmace]

True very true..but dont forget these nights this weekend will be among the shortest...as well light or no winds are very favourable for the best radiative cooling..

[jordop]

What's with this radiative cooling. Radiant wasn't good enough for you geonerds? I hope you realize nobody's gonna be renaming the Radiant Glacier just for your pedantic asses

[G-spotter]

There is no such thing as radiant cooling. That would be like saying conductant cooling instead of conductive cooling, or convectant cooling instead of convective cooling. Different suffix entirely. Go back to teaching high school Mr Arts Major.

[G-spotter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiative_cooling

[jordop]

I swear people used to say radiant. Not me though. I always knew the real reason for heat loss was due to the nocturnal thermal absorption properties of iceworms

[kurthicks]

it looked good this morning. i have a one washed out photo... the NR is in good condition as of 12 hours ago. Neve more or less from camp to summit and back.

 

 

[Chad_A]

Well, there's evidence of a good snowpack for ya. Doesn't look any more difficult than when Oleg and I did it in February '05

 

Edit: thanks for posting that, Kurt

[northvanclimber]

was up on the north ridge on june 25/26. VERY warm up there. there's still enough snow on the glaciers that routefinding up towards the headwall isn't too bad (but personally i'd scout the approach the day before to make things easier). unfortunately, with the warm temps the snow isn't freezing up at night, despite "radiative cooling". personally, i wouldn't go anywhere near the headwall area until things start to cool off again. saw lots of stuff coming down all over the place as we descended.