Baker Easton Conditions?

[Brewer]

Will be on the Easton in two weeks (I know, still a ways off). Has anyone been up there recently?

[Bigtree]

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Main/60124/Number/804992#Post804992

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/conditions/mt_baker_climbing_notes.shtml

 

"06/02/2008 Easton Glacier

2.5 mile hike to Schriebers Meadow Trail Head. Lots of snow from Trail Head to railroad grade 5 feet of snow at 5400 feet along Railroad Grade. Route was difficult to follow. Avoid ice balls on west side. No summit attempted, because of time. Heavy fog at 8200 feet. Everything well filled in, looking great.

 

06/01/2008 Coleman-Deming

Unsafe crossing of cracked Bridge over Grouse Creek at beginning of Heliotrope trail. Route strait forward with no crevasses open. Also snow shoes or skis are very useful."

[patob]

I was there last weekend. The road is down to a little more than a mile of snow covering and melting fast. The glacier is really covered. no problem navigating crevasses or the shrund below the caldera

 

pat

[Brewer]

Thanks, patob. Is there a decent boottrack, or do you think snowshoes would be handy? I imagine after this spell of warmer weather it might consolidate enough...

[woodchips]

I was up there yesterday; snowshoes weren't necessary. There are more snowmobile tracks than boot tracks, but hopefully in a couple of weeks the road should be melted out to then end and the sled season will be over. There were alot of sleds up there yesteday; I don't know how many you would normally see up there, but there were at least 10 extra up there for the body recovery of the climber killed on Friday, so that may have been alot more than normal.

 

The crevasses were starting to open up, but not too much.

[patob]

I would concur, no snowshoes needed. The track is pretty beaten in and the top of the railroad grade is mostly bare.

[Brewer]

Thanks for the info. Forecast calls for 30% chance of snow for the next couple days and snow likely this weekend, with lows in the mid to low 30's. Hopefully we don't get much new snow up there this week, I'd really like summer to quit screwing around and get here already.

 

Thanks again.