August 8, 2009, Squak Glacier: Mount Baker

TNT, trooper & Scott left Mill Creek @ 530 and arrived at TH @ 730 and on the trail by 8 a.m. Happy to say I got no ticket for no Use pas (which I will never purchase).

Scott Paul trail is such a great trail. In great shape right now. With the clouds and mist it was hard to see the climbers trail for Crag View. Bummed out that I had trail runners on since all the heather and ovegrown grass carried copius amount of water. Soaked them in about .0001 seconds.

After reaching crag view, we tried to scramble over it to get down to the Squak, but trooper (the golden/chow) was not safe, so we back tracked and made our way down between the 2 craggy vistas. Skinned from there (about 5600') up to the toe of the glacier where it meets upper crag view.

Skinned up from there across and inbetween some gapers, although most were only 15-20 feet deep. Trooper stayed safe behind Tim the whole way, which was very cool. Topped out at about 7200' where a large crevasse stopped our pssing. There was a small snowbridge, but unsafe for our canine friend and we were running out of time. Had some great turns on the glacier with hardly any suncups. We were also above the clouds at this point as the photos will show:

http://www.climbwashington.com/reports/bakerSquak080809.asp

Tim and I took copius amounts of video, which I am sure he will link quite soon. Above the small gaper we encountered at 7200, you can easily have a safe and direct run all the way up to about 8500-9k where the classic crevasse will stop most people in their tracks.