[TR] Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker in single push - Fisher Chimneys (Shuksan) and Park Glacier (Baker) 8/13/2011

[fromsealevelbaby]

Trip: Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker in single push after bicycling from sea level - Fisher Chimneys (Shuksan) and Park Glacier (Baker)- and returning

 

Date: 8/13/2011

 

Trip Report:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/08/21/2148673/kirkland-man-pedals-103-miles.html

 

I bicycled from Bellingham to Heather Meadows above the Mt. Baker Ski area. Climbed both Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker, and then bicycled back to Bellingham, all in a single 33.5 hour push. I hired Pro Guiding Service (PGS) as my guides (Aaron, Ben and Trevor) and one porter, Leah(seems like last names are generally not posted on this site so for now I won’t until I’m sure it’s okay. Mine is in the article, so the cats out of the bag on that). One guide (Aaron) summited both mountains with me, and I had an extra guide on each that worked a single mountain. I also had six volunteer porters at Camp Kiser to bring in fresh climbing gear for myself and one guide. There's really so much to tell that unless I edit/add to this later, it's best for me to be brief. This was two years in the making, involving a lot of planning and training. Please read the article. Aaron and I climbed climbed both peaks last year, each in single pushes, along the same routes in order the gauge the time and effort it would take. On game day, Sat. Aug. 13th 2011, the weather was perfect and the conditions were great. I bicycled up the 58 miles in 3.5 hours (roughly 0-5000 ft), semi-conservatively but still fast. We had to hike straight up to the trail head from the Visitor Center, but otherwise there was just enough melt-off after such a large snow pack that it didn’t slow us down too much. Ben and I reached Lake Ann in 90 minutes, where we met Leah and Aaron, geared up and headed off. We climbed both Fisher Chimneys and the summit pyramid each in 45 minutes, and our round trip time from the Lake Ann Trail head was 11.5 hours. Then came nightfall, and as we took a short break to eat from our cache the heavy fog rolled in obscuring the full moon we were counting on for navigation. Route finding was challenging initially around Table Mountain (my fault), but we eventually we were back on track and arrived at Camp Kiser at the stroke of midnight. Our transition there was sort of long, at almost an hour (party atmosphere), but before long Aaron, Trevor, and I headed for the Portals. We had to weave our way around crevasses below the Park glacier, but then worked our way up. Finding a way across one particular crevasse further up was time consuming, and access to the bergschrund was more difficult than last year. The condition of the interior was not as inviting either, but we succeeded in positioning ourselves to ascend the arête and then push for the summit. We topped out at 8 AM on Aug. 14th, now in a cloud with no view but happy to be there. We descended the Coleman/Deming route, running past rope teams left and right, and met my Heliotrope Ridge Trail team for a transition to trail running shoes for a run down the trail which went surprisingly well considering how much my feet had hurt in my boots. Lake Ann Trail head to Heliotrope Trail head took less than 14.5 hours. After a fast and fun mountain bike ride on damp 8 miles of road down to Glacier, a switch to a road bike was my final transition on my way back to Bellingham. In all it took less than 33.5 hours, of which about 3.5 hours of that consisted of the combination of seven transition points, plus time spent on the summits plus a few short breaks to put on or take off layers, etc. As the crow/hawk flies, the summits are 17 miles apart and it took less than 17 hours between them, while the path is anything but straight. That’s about all I should say for now or else I’d launch into a lot more of the finer detail. I loaded photos which you can view in my photo section. I didn't embed them in the post.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Nothing special.

 

Approach Notes:

The trail through the wooded area along the swift creek valley floor had mostly melted out by then, thankfully. The big winter avalanche sites on either end had made it difficult to find the optimal way through earlier. A climber even needed to be rescued after getting lost a few weeks earlier on a day I'd been through there training. The Ptarmigan Ridge approach to Camp Kiser was generally fine, even in the dark and fog, and at this time up year it was expected to find lots of crevasses on Mt. Baker lower down especially but it was manageable.

[notclimbinenough]

That is so bad ass. Way to go!

[Sol]

whoa! nice job!

[PowderHounder]

Nice work! I was in the group that saw you at Lake Anne and again camping at the base of Winnie's slide. We were wondering how you fared. You were an inspiration to all four in our group. Great job!

[Dave7]

wicked sweet.

 

 

Great job!

[Ed_Hobbick]

Sic

[Mauri]

That is a great job. We met you on Ptarmigan Ridge on your wand application trip on August 6th. You did not put them in very far, for daily melt a couple had fallen already, so we reset them the next two days.

[Dan_Miller]

Great 'human powered' adventure!

[fromsealevelbaby]

Thanks! Yes I remember you guys. We talked to you and your party both at Lake Ann on the way up, and at Winnie's Slide on our way down. I discuss that a little more as a reply on your trip report. Give Shuksan another try! It's fun to see that people we ran into read my trip report! Your were at the pyramid looking over and seeing the cloud that we were in on Baker. Wild time.

[fromsealevelbaby]

So glad that you had a chance to see my trip report. That sounded fun what you were up there for....snow measurements, etc. Hey, thanks for re-setting my flags. It really helped the porters, and the one near the chain lakes turnoff was important. At night in the fog we got lost for a short bit, even using GPS. About the time we got back on track I saw a flag emerge from the fog....that's happiness. One of your party mentioned a relay race comming up, but I haven't found anything on it yet to see if I'm avaiable.

[fromsealevelbaby]

One more thing, I added a photo of your party (not a close up), ascending the ridge. I recall it was 3 guys and one women. I hope you learned some good things about the snow.