danhelmstadter Posted July 18, 2009 Posted July 18, 2009 (edited) Trip: Mt. Baker - Park Headwall +... Date: 7/16/2009 Trip Report: I left the trailhead around 7pm on Wensday and hiked up to "high camp" in the cooling evening air. I set out around 6 the next morning, packing up camp and bringing it with me. The boot pack up the Easton was easy to follow, there were maybe two sketchyish snowbridges, but I had been forwarned by an attractive, nice, female guide - a leader of one the few roped teams I encountered on the otherwise monotonous ascent - which would have been a lot quicker had I not toted my camping gear, rope, ice screw/picket, skins, and two tools up with me. (I brought rope and pro for possible glacier shenannegins on the Coleman Glacier.) The summit was cool and windy, orographic cumulous grew and rolled in from the west. I downclimbed the intimidateing Park Headwall several hundred feet as to get a feel for snow conditions. What I found was a little discomforting - there was good snow on the Park - a lot of it - but there were also many patches of ice - thick ice crust that is - lurking a half inch beneath a friendly facade of soft snow. Hmmm, I almost bagged it - but instead came to the decision to ski it slowly with care. I climbed back up for a snack. Lunching on the summit mound - I noticed two figures equiped with skis ascending the upper Boulder Glacier - I know that goofy sun hat and whippets! Amar! is that you? - you and Dave Brown? what - I can't hear you said the wind, but sure enough it was them. A very pleasant, unexpected and welcomed surprise. We snacked up the summit mound but quickly parted ways as the clouds were begining to thicken and brush us with their foggy chill. I watched Amar and Dave elegantly dissapear down the Boulder Glacier, while I buckled my boots alone in the eerie air that precedes an extreme descent. (I would not consider this an extreme descent if powder or quality corn conditions existed.) Park Headwall video: The ski was a little scary because of the ice - I could not open up and slay it like I had wanted, there were a few sections of unedgeable ice crust barely hidden by snow. I was glad to have two tools for the climb back up. (I used my whippet a few turns from the top, this was just a velcro move of precaution in auto-reaction to hitting an icy patch - it wasn't a desperate attempt at self arrest. [video:youtube] After reataining the summit, I skiied the Roman Wall down to the Coleman/Deming Col - where I set up camp and unwound a little from the icy scare scar of the Park. I woke around 6am, and skiied down firm snow on the Coleman Glacier, winding around mazes of huge crevasses to the base of the Coleman Headwall wich was the days ski objective. After makeing the short traverse through the crevasse junglejim at around 8k - The coleman Headwall appeared in full view - clearly melted out beyond the point of worthy skiing. Another one for the wish list... I must admit I dropped my ski pole into a massive crevasse as I was putting on my coat, the wind did it... the pole slid by itself... no exuses, it was my fault - my first such dropping I am proud to say. I had to do some funky vertical climbing to retrieve it - glad I brought two tools and some rope/anchors. I climbed the 1500v' or so back to camp - packed it up and skiied the Easton - which was in fairly good ski condition - a little runnled midway - but the upper and very lower parts were smooth as can be. Edited July 19, 2009 by danhelmstadter Quote
powdherb Posted July 19, 2009 Posted July 19, 2009 Sounds fun. Too bad the Coleman headwall is gone... Quote
skykilo Posted July 19, 2009 Posted July 19, 2009 Thanks for doing the legwork, Dan. I can put the CHW pipe dream to rest for the season. Quote
Amar_Andalkar Posted July 21, 2009 Posted July 21, 2009 (edited) Hey guys, you know there's a webcam looking straight at Coleman Headwall, right? This one, from the Abbotsford, BC, airport: http://visibility.pyr.ec.gc.ca/gvrd3.html If you zoom in on the photo (you have to zoom in, else this is pointless), it's easy to get some idea of snow coverage on the Headwall. Obviously it's too low-res to tell you when the CHW will go crevasse-wise, but it could tell you when it might go versus when it is totally out of condition like now. Best of all, there's an archive of half-hourly images extending back to 2002 at http://visibility.pyr.ec.gc.ca/gvrd3-archive.html, so you can compare this year to other years. Here are bunch of photos from July 17 the past several years (camera timestamps are UTC, hence most show early AM on July 18), there are so many more exposed rocks on the 2009 image, compared to years like 2006: 2009: Not much snow 2008: Even less snow than '09 2007: Fatter (photo from July 16, the 17th and afterwards was cloudy) 2006: Much fatter 2005: Looks fat, despite being the worst snowfall year on Baker since 1977; a snowy spring helped 2004: Old lower-res camera, so hard to tell (photo from July 22, after several hazy/cloudy days) 2003: Old lower-res camera, so hard to tell 2002: Old lower-res camera and fuzzy, so hard to tell (photo from July 16, the 17th was cloudy) Edited July 21, 2009 by Amar_Andalkar Quote
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