9-17-08, Mt. Baker, Easton
9/17/08
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
8128
8
Hit the trail a little before noon, and enjoyed the easy, well maintained trail through the beautiful wetlands and slightly forested grasslands of Schriebers meadow. I bumped into a hard working - pick swinging - trail crew halfway up the switchbacks which led to the "railroad grade". I was struck by the scenery, and wide open views offered by the trail which led up the crest of the massive lateral moraine.
The weather - which had been very humid, hazy, and partly cloudy, turned to mostly cloudy, but the clouds were mid - level stratus clouds for the most part, and the air temperature remained very warm, with no wind, so I continued on in hopes of finding soft snow. Soft snow I found upon reaching the foot of the glacier. I followed a ribbon of snow on the north side of the icy glacial tongue, and met the only other climber I had seen that day, he said he turned around part way up the glacier cause he was worried about the advancing clouds, we exchanged pleasantries and I continued up on the well tracked snow.
The boot pack was much more direct than I remmember it being last year. I just went pretty much straight up, with small detours around massive gapping crevasses.
The snow remained high quality smooth corn for the most part, it remained soft as I gained elevation. I stopped at the Sherman - Grant saddle to scope the crater, which was emitting a lot of steam with a surprisingly loud noise - definitely steam related, but the first time I've heard a noisy fumerole outside of Yellowstone.
The snow on the slopes of Grants peak was perfect buttered corn, the last 30 feet to the summit was very dirty/rocky wet low angle ice, - which was entirely skiable, but I didn't want to trash my poor edges, so I ditched the skis and hiked the last 30 feet to the summit plateau, which was cold and windy, but the sky had amazingly cleared, and the late day sun gave the snow a beautiful yellow hue. Clicked on the skiis and enjoyed 4k of corn.
The sun was getting low by the time I was descending the railroad grade, the haze and the few remaining clouds filtered the sun to fiery colors, which reflected off the Puget Sound and the glaciers of the Twin Sisters. I cannot remmember the last time I've seen that kind of natural beauty.
I made it back to my campa with the last light of dusk.
The weather - which had been very humid, hazy, and partly cloudy, turned to mostly cloudy, but the clouds were mid - level stratus clouds for the most part, and the air temperature remained very warm, with no wind, so I continued on in hopes of finding soft snow. Soft snow I found upon reaching the foot of the glacier. I followed a ribbon of snow on the north side of the icy glacial tongue, and met the only other climber I had seen that day, he said he turned around part way up the glacier cause he was worried about the advancing clouds, we exchanged pleasantries and I continued up on the well tracked snow.
The boot pack was much more direct than I remmember it being last year. I just went pretty much straight up, with small detours around massive gapping crevasses.
The snow remained high quality smooth corn for the most part, it remained soft as I gained elevation. I stopped at the Sherman - Grant saddle to scope the crater, which was emitting a lot of steam with a surprisingly loud noise - definitely steam related, but the first time I've heard a noisy fumerole outside of Yellowstone.
The snow on the slopes of Grants peak was perfect buttered corn, the last 30 feet to the summit was very dirty/rocky wet low angle ice, - which was entirely skiable, but I didn't want to trash my poor edges, so I ditched the skis and hiked the last 30 feet to the summit plateau, which was cold and windy, but the sky had amazingly cleared, and the late day sun gave the snow a beautiful yellow hue. Clicked on the skiis and enjoyed 4k of corn.
The sun was getting low by the time I was descending the railroad grade, the haze and the few remaining clouds filtered the sun to fiery colors, which reflected off the Puget Sound and the glaciers of the Twin Sisters. I cannot remmember the last time I've seen that kind of natural beauty.
I made it back to my campa with the last light of dusk.
Pretty.....nice pics Dan! Top o' Roman Wall looks like ass all the way across from Coleman Gl. to Easton/Squak side. Funny, Lani & I were just talking about that last night. Only skier up there 'eh? Don't you know that's dangerous? At least you didn't get reprimanded like some we know ::)
- by the likes of your reports Dan, I would think that your descents are well calculated. Thanks for the inspiring report ... Rob
Nice pics, way to bag the Sept. turns!
Just curious: in mid-summer there was a large crevasse with a diagonal bridge at about 6000'; did you encounter that? And what was the schrund at the base of the Roman Wall like?
Cheers
Cheers
Telemack; I don't remmember there being a tricky/sketchy bridge at 6K or anywhere on the route, all the bridges were phatty. It looked like the standard/heavily tracked route now traverses over from the Squak at about 8k as I could easily tell from the bootpack. The bergshrund bridge posed no problem - it's still large and well intact.
Cheers
Cheers
author=danhelmstadter link=topic=10914.msg44733#msg44733 date=1221950327]The bergshrund bridge posed no problem - it's still large and well intact.
Do you have any pictures of this? I'd be curious to see what it looks like at this time of year.
Jonathan - click on the thumbnail for the biggy, - webshots should allow u to zoom it further without signing up as a member. (let me know if they don't let u zoom in)
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