July 2, Mt Baker, Squak Glacier
7/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
1912
1
Our friends Tyler (Chmnyboy) and Brian (skier8484) invited Jeff and me to join them on a climb/ski of Mt Baker via the Squak Glacier. We bivied at the Schriebers Meadow trailhead Wednesday night. Due to the warm temps predicted for Thursday, we started hiking at 3:45 am. There was patchy snow below the Sandy Creek saddle (4,600 ft) and continuous snow above this. We started skinning just above the saddle and, with the exception of a short, steeper section at about 8,500 ft, we skinned all the way to the crater rim.
The snow was very firm all the way to the crater rim. There were several open crevasses on the upper glacier, but all of them had wide, solid bridges. We carried glacier gear and a rope but never felt the need to use it. We followed Kyle and Amars downhill tracks from a couple days earlier most of the way up the glacier, thanks guys for showing us the way!
We were the only party on the route. We did see a solo climber and a 3 person rope team climb the Roman wall as we passed 8,000 ft. We saw Lowell & companys tracks along the crater rim leading to the summit of Sherman Peak, nice work guys. We elected to crampon up the Roman Wall due to the still firm snow surface. We passed the climbers we had seen earlier as they descended. We reached the deserted summit at noon. We spent almost an hour here, as there was little wind.
The descent from the summit to about 7500 ft was on smooth well-consolidated summer snow. From here to 6,500 ft the snow softened and became more runneled and sun cupped. From there down to 4,600 ft it was a bit of a bumpy ride on soft snow. Overall, a great ski, we were quite happy to have a 6,000 ft continuous ski descent in early July.
Thanks to Lowell for the route info and to Amar and Kyle for the great tracks to follow!
The first picture is Tyler, Brian and Jeff on the upper Squak Glacier
The second picture is Sherman Peak and the crater
The third picture is Jeff skiing the Roman Wall with the Deming Glacier in the background
Here is a link to some additional pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/GaryJanH/20090702MtBakerClimbSki#
The snow was very firm all the way to the crater rim. There were several open crevasses on the upper glacier, but all of them had wide, solid bridges. We carried glacier gear and a rope but never felt the need to use it. We followed Kyle and Amars downhill tracks from a couple days earlier most of the way up the glacier, thanks guys for showing us the way!
We were the only party on the route. We did see a solo climber and a 3 person rope team climb the Roman wall as we passed 8,000 ft. We saw Lowell & companys tracks along the crater rim leading to the summit of Sherman Peak, nice work guys. We elected to crampon up the Roman Wall due to the still firm snow surface. We passed the climbers we had seen earlier as they descended. We reached the deserted summit at noon. We spent almost an hour here, as there was little wind.
The descent from the summit to about 7500 ft was on smooth well-consolidated summer snow. From here to 6,500 ft the snow softened and became more runneled and sun cupped. From there down to 4,600 ft it was a bit of a bumpy ride on soft snow. Overall, a great ski, we were quite happy to have a 6,000 ft continuous ski descent in early July.
Thanks to Lowell for the route info and to Amar and Kyle for the great tracks to follow!
The first picture is Tyler, Brian and Jeff on the upper Squak Glacier
The second picture is Sherman Peak and the crater
The third picture is Jeff skiing the Roman Wall with the Deming Glacier in the background
Here is a link to some additional pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/GaryJanH/20090702MtBakerClimbSki#
I certainly wish that I could have taken advantage of your offer to allow me to tag along with your party. I am going to block out a big section of my late June/early July 1010 calendar for a Squak Glacier climb. With the weather forecast of the day, I am surprised that you needed to wear all that winter clothing at the summit.
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