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[TR] Mt. Baker - Park Glacier Headwall 6/29/2013


dugdaled

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Trip: Mt. Baker - Park Glacier Headwall

 

Date: 6/29/2013

 

Trip Report:

James and I had been considering a steep route on Mt. Baker—the Glacier Creek closure led us to go for the Park Glacier Headwall route on a much less visited side of the mountain. We parked at the ski area parking lot, and hiked the road to the trailhead. From there it was almost all snow with lots of side hilling and a gradually upward course along the route to Camp Kiser. There were some brief talus fields, but overall conditions were quite good, with snow that was firm enough to avoid sinking in, but took step kicking well. We found running water about 15 minutes before Camp Kiser which was a blessing given the relentless sun and warm temperatures. From there, more side hilling first to a saddle straight ahead, then dropping down the Sholes Glacier, around the Portals and up the Boulder Glacier to the toe of the Park Glacier, and our camp. Although crevasses were open, navigating around them was easy. We had a very scenic and flat campsite and could view the next day’s route.

 

We started moving at 1:50 AM the next day, with the darkness creating some challenges to finding the best route through crevasses. About 700 vertical above our camp, we eventually found a straight shot nearly crevasse free route to the bergschrund. This section had quite a bit of soft snow with postholing to slow us down. We reached the edge of the schrund, after a little bit of crevasse winding near the top of the glacier. The ideal point for crossing was about halfway between the 2 rock features on the posted picture, just below and right of a patch of dirty snow. From there, James led us 2.5 rope lengths of mostly soft snow to 45-50 degrees up to the summit ridge that forms the upper end of the headwall. We were careful to climb in old slide paths on this section as much as possible. From the top of the headwall, more postholing led to a windy summit of Mt. Baker with beautiful views—my 1st time!

 

To descend, we reversed course. The headwall downclimbing was straightforward using our uphill steps. It was somewhat unnerving as several soft slides came down various parts of the headwall, but fortunately not exactly where we were. They were definitely large enough to dislodge a climber! We made our retreat to the lower angled slopes as hasty as possible. From there, it was a slog back to our camp, and then more, seemingly endless side hilling back to the parking lot which we gained at 8 PM.

 

Thanks James for leading this climb—a very rewarding one!

park_glacier_approach_4.JPGpark_glacier_headwall_pitch.JPG

 

Gear Notes:

Pickets, 2 tools

 

Approach Notes:

Long snow slog with lots of side hilling.

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