Home > Trip Reports > April 13, 2012, Komo Kulshan via Coleman Deming

April 13, 2012, Komo Kulshan via Coleman Deming

4/15/12
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
5130
9
Posted by lrudholm on 4/14/12 6:24am
Of particular note: I set of a little slab(maybe a foot deep) near the Coleman on a north aspect on the way down. It was a really steep spot that I had to work my traversing to get to and had no consequence. Might be good info for different higher routes on similar aspects.


Alecapone, BS and I started skinning (plus a little road walking) at 4:30 am from 1800 ft. We broke up the monotony of the road slog by cutting through some of the trees since some of those switchbacks are pretty flat. It may have saved us 10 minutes.
          Next, we went near the top of Heliotrope via grouse creek and took a little break watching the alpine splendor. We made our way over to the Coleman where we briefly crossed paths with a group of three heading towards the Thunder glacier. They had a sled assist somewhere to the top of grouse ridge and took the high ridge line traverse on Heliotrope.
          The Coleman glacier is such a nice route right now. There are only a few giant crevasses showing and it held the best snow. The rest of the standard route was pretty straightforward, other than leaving Scott on the lower section of Pumice Ridge for what looked like a pleasurable nap. We should have booted all of the Roman Wall instead we were stubborn and didn't switch to booting until a little over half way up.
          We summited rather late around 5:00 p.m. (I should work on my speed.) and the amount of heat from the sun and very little wind kept us worried on the Roman Wall.
            Our route down was not fancy. Roman Wall, down the steep face of Pumice ridge and then right back down the Coleman glacier near our skintrack. Hotdogging it down the Coleman and across the heliotrope traverse line was pretty rad. Grouse creek was  just starting to crust up which resulted in some exaggerated jump turns. The ski down the road felt like it took just as long as the skin up and is a mighty fine pump track for skiers right now.

After 8900 vertical ft and some miles a recovery drink and a beer hit the spot. Hmmm that sounds like a interesting product idea.

Damn good day in the high alpine with friends and incredible weather.

Fin
9K and a snooze in the sunshine. That's a top day.

Looks like a rad day on the mountain!

yeah man!

Stellar day! I've spent plenty quality time napping on Pea gravel ridge. At least this time I didn't get secon degree burns on my lips.

Ben leading the way...


having fun...

leyland


ben


thanks for the great day guys!

Looks like you guys got it, nice work! Wish I didn't have class on friday.

back in my eastern sierra days, i used to think 6000 feet was a "big climb".  but now that i've been to the top of my first cascade volcano, i've got a new definition for that term! 

for once, i've got no pictures to add, as i forgot my camera in the predawn hustle.  thanks to both of you guys for taking some great shots to document my longest climb to date!  sure we could have done it in less than 12 hours but it was mighty fun relaxing all the way to the top with good company and beautiful weather.

what a spectacular day!!!!


Fantastic! Great weather and powder too, nice work making it happen!

Pure volcano magic!

I keep telling myself to transition to summer/spring mellow mode, but I have a strong desire to unlock some more routes on Baker.


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9713
april-13-2012-komo-kulshan-via-coleman-deming
lrudholm
2012-04-14 13:24:37