[TR] Mt. Baker - Heliotrope Ridge :: In search of freshiez 10/18/2008

[jon]

Trip: Mt. Baker - Heliotrope Ridge :: In search of freshiez

 

Date: 10/18/2008

 

Trip Report:

My gf and I, along with a couple friends, hiked up to Heliotrope ridge in a desperate attempt to get our first turns for the fall. Worst case was that we were going to get a good workout and not find any snow, and that is pretty much what happened. It's just an icy pebble covered base destroying mess right now, and I'd highly recommend not going until there is some significant snow fall. We skied about 200 yards after bailing on the idea of heading up higher. Unfortunately it appeared there were others with similar optimism heading up late Saturday.

 

Gear Notes:

Tim Bits

[Tom_Sjolseth]

BundledUpSurfer and I headed up with skis late Saturday, but we were able to salvage the weekend by climbing Baker and Colfax on Sunday.

[Val Zephyr]

Hi,

I, along with three others, also tried Baker on Sunday. No skis though. Did you guys (or anyone else up at Baker Sunday or after) see a red bivy bag and assorted gear inside? Mine blew away Sunday afternoon while we were on the mountain. We were camped on climbers left of Heliotrope ridge and I believe that the wind would have taken it down the meadow towards the trail. I know that it's a long shot, but I'd love to get my stuff back. Thanks.

[Farrgo]

Tom,

 

Did you come at Colfax from Pumic Ridge? It seemed like there were more footsteps coming off Colfax than I saw on the way up to the N Face.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Yeah, we came at it from Pumice Ridge. There were already several sets of footprints before we arrived, so not sure if there might have been more folks doing the C/H route on Saturday.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Val,

I'm assuming you guys were camped right next to us (we were in a yellow Bibler Eldorado). BundledUpSurfer tried to steady your guys' gear as we noticed it blowing in the wind upon returning to camp. He restaked the tent, and I believe he put some rocks in it. We didn't notice the bivvy bags being affected by the wind gusts, only the tent which was very nearly lost before BUS went over to restake it. I don't think he even touched the bivvy sacks.

[BundledUpSurfer]

As Tom said, we didn't notice either bivy blowing away so I just secured the tent. If only I had known...

 

Good luck finding your stuff. That sucks.

[Val Zephyr]

Thanks for saving the tent! We noticed the extra rocks inside. We arrived back at camp just as it became dark. The gusts were really intense by then. We had to have two of us sit inside the tent while the other two people tried to quickly take it down. With that wind, I was amazed that the tent was still there. Good job with the restaking!