Mt Baker - Road to Coleman closed for the season

[waterboy]

Hello,

 

Can you please help by writing an e-mail to the US Forest Service and ask them to reconsider not opening the Glacier Creek Road (#37)until the fall?

 

This road provides access to the Coleman Glacier Climbing route, the North Ridge route, and ice cragging on the lower Coleman glacier.

 

Given the facts that:

1) The Federal Governement is almost literally begging to give away tax dollars as part of the stimulus package, and...

2) The Road accesses the #1 glacier climbing destination in North America.

 

I don't know how this got missed, but clearly climbers are not being represented as a user group.

 

The e-mail should be addressed to Jim Mitchell: jbmitchell@fs.fed.us and Jon Vanderheyden: jvanderheyden@fs.fed.us

Phone number for the Sedro-Wooley ranger station is: (360) 856-5700, ext 0.

 

I apologize but I don't know who the appropriate congressional representative would be.

 

So if I'm going about this wrong, I'm open to other suggestions. If there is a coordinated interest group already going, I'm happy to get on board. I would think that guide companies have some revenue at stake, as well.

 

Thank you.

[Toast]

Thanks for raising awareness. I just sent email to Jim Mitchell and John Vanderheyden. I also sent email to Congressman Jim McDemott and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

 

I'd encourage people who have a spare few minutes to do the same.

 

Washington State Congressional Districts

 

email Senator Murray

 

email Senator Cantwell

 

[CollinWoods]

Thanks for doing this waterboy and Toast. Ill bring awarness of this to House rep. Bill Hinkle. He might have some say for this.

[TRbetaFlash]

Wait, here's the information I saw. It looks like damage to a section of the road. Pretty standard, no?

 

Glacier Creek Road (FS Road 39) CLOSED. Storm damage that washed out Glacier Creek Road has closed access for snowmobilers and hikers. The road is closed at the Thompson Creek Bridge crossing, eliminating access to the Heliotrope Ridge trailhead and the Mt. Baker Vista Viewpoint. Engineers estimate the road will not be open until October or November.

 

source: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/conditions/index.shtml#glaciercrkrd

 

more info on roads/conditions

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/conditions/mt-baker-climbing-notes.shtml

 

...or was there another reason they closed it (or will take that long?)

 

[MarkJ]

is this real or one bad joke. Is there any other way in? I mean what are the guides doing for all the courses in there this summer?

[Dan_Miller]

I think one has to assume that all the Mt. Baker traffic will likely end up on either the Easton or Squak Glacier routes. Doubtless, expect crowds on the southside this summer.

[Clarence]

It's a pretty gnarly washout. Here's a picture from 5/20/09

[woodchips]

The upside to this is fewer crowds on the coleman glacier side. We were up there yesterday, and saw no one on the CD. It's about four miles and 2000' from the washout to the trailhead, and bikeable nearly to the trailhead. Another week and you should be able to bike all the way.

[TRbetaFlash]

That might not even be the biggest of all problems. If the blown-down trees are even close to as bad as last year, you'd better bring a chainsaw for the walk up Heliotrope!

[MarkJ]

Has anyone biked or hiked from the washout? 4 miles isn't that bad...but I assume you can't park at the washout, so what's the total travel to the trailhead?

[woodchips]

Has anyone biked or hiked from the washout? 4 miles isn't that bad...but I assume you can't park at the washout, so what's the total travel to the trailhead?

 

Biked/skinned it about a month ago. It's not bad. It's probably a total of 6 miles from the "official" parking to the washout. We were trying for a car to car trip, which made for a pretty long day, even though we turned around at Pumice ridge due to weather.