May 6, 2004, Mt. Baker, Coleman-Deming

I was lucky enough to venture into the mountains during the good weather pocket yesterday, and splitboarded the Coleman-Deming route on Mt. Baker.  6-12 inches of dry wintery powder covered most of the route above 6500 feet.  Even the Roman Wall had pockets of powder.  High winds and cold temperature made the climb less than comfortable, but subdued sunlight sustained through noon so it wasn't too bad.  I saw a few skiers on my way down the Coleman Glacier.  I was a little worried about avalanche potential on the leeward side of the summit ridge because of all the snow being blown over by the high winds.  I was also starting to see some slabbiness on the higher parts of the Coleman Glacier, but since only about 8" of snow had fallen, things weren't too sketchy.  I played it safe by boarding down most of the ridge and only saw a tiny sluff.  My apologies to jimjar and snoslut that the good weather had to fall on a Thursday...