Home > Trip Reports > May 12, 2005, Mount Baker, Sherman Peak

May 12, 2005, Mount Baker, Sherman Peak

5/12/05
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
24824
12
Posted by Amar Andalkar on 5/12/05 8:01pm
Sherman Peak is the prominent 10160+ ft satellite summit of Mount Baker, a sharp conical spire which crowns the southern rim of Sherman Crater. I'd wanted to ski Sherman Peak for a long time, having skied past it numerous times on the Squak and Easton Glaciers, and David Coleman and I had even made an attempt to ski it last month ( last year, and we decided to give it another shot during a forecast weather window on Thursday. Our gang of 6 (including Barry, Justin, Paul, and Patrick, but unfortunately not David who had work commitments) met at Sky's house at 2:30 AM, and set off for Schriebers Meadow. A thick cloud layer hid the mountain and the dawn, but the Seattle forecast discussion had stated that the cloud deck was isolated to a stable layer between 3000 and 5000 ft with a 9000 ft freezing level. We shall see.

We hiked up the Scott Paul trail at 5:30 AM in gloomy conditions, the fog slowly wetting our hair and clothing. The trailhead has 0-12" of patchy snowcover, and the trail has numerous drifts up to 3 ft deep but also lengthy bare sections. We finally switched to skis at 4200 ft, and skinned the trail to the 4600 ft saddle with only a couple short bare patches. From there, we headed NW and then north well to the right of the trail, aiming blindly towards the edge of the Squak Glacier near 5800 ft east of Crag View. Then, as we neared 5600 ft,
to our right floating above the cloud deck. It was going to be a fantastic day.

We skinned
, eventually skinning to 9800 ft just below a saddle west of Sherman Peak with a panoramic view looking back SW at the , small and narrow with dizzying drop-offs on three sides, with an in-your-face view of Boulder Glacier tumbling down the upper cone of Mount Baker above the steaming sulfurous depths of Sherman Crater. (View a 10-image panorama showing the crater rim, Mount Baker summit, Boulder Glacier, and Sherman Peak, at 3 resolutions: 1600, 3200, and 6400 pixels wide.)

The descent back down onto the Squak looked to be in great shape, as numerous snow-filled gullies lead down from the crater rim just west of the summit at angles of 40-50 degrees. But our plan all along had been to ski the SE-facing Talum Glacier instead () instead of skiing it directly, thus depositing one onto gentler slopes and a small flat at the top of the Talum after a heart-stopping second or two. The .

We turned back onto the Squak at the obvious connection below 8800 ft, with some of us skiing a
if you maintained a head of speed. We re-entered the cloud deck at 5600 ft (numerous holes had appeared in it during the day, but it never burned off) and skied down to just below 4500 ft on the trail before hitting the first bare section. A post-holing slog down the trail brought us back to the cars by 4 PM, and we soon headed for Mexican food in Sedro-Wooley. It was a great way to spend a Thursday, just over 7000 ft of ascent (counting ups and downs on the trail) for 5700 vertical ft of turns from a spectacular summit. Or as Sky calls it, a rest day.

Amar Andalkar
click here for an enlarged version of this photo.



Awesome  ;D I was wondering what you guys would do. Great stuff! Your TR made me feel like I missed out, but I'm sure the pictures will make me feel like I was there, leaving the jealousy to wilt. Now I'm going to go look at the forecast and see if the boulder park is worth doing tomorrow or if biking might be my better bet.

Good stuff.  Looks like that is the right side of the mountain right now, considering the sparks we were getting off the "powder" on the upper CD last weekend.

Transcendence
Sky
Nomad surfs the headwall-ish slope below Sherman

Random comments:

-I think the aspect that we descended was soft long before we got there; the higher slopes were nearly out of the sun by that time.  The opposite side of Sherman, where we climbed, would have probably offered firmer conditions or alternatively a crust.  There were lots of options over there too.

-not just Mexican... El Gitano.  A spicy, fresh oasis tucked away within the rural wilderness of the Skagit Valley.

A good ski. Worth the sunburn that has my face oozing today.

I've opted to stuff a bunch more pics into this thread. Nothing special, skip this post if you've got anything remotely worth doing.

Layers of clouds.
Justin displayin' the knuckledragger steeze.
Dr. Barry decided that the snow did not suck.
He'd rather be working a 48 hour shift.
Amar liked it, too.
The snow got a tiny bit chunky.
Tracks. From the left, mine, Sky's, and Barry's (right?)
Justin managed to take a photo of me! He tilted the camera, too.


A very fun day with a strong crew. This spring and summer might help my no-winter blues.

Barry, Patrick, and Amar, please email or PM me your email addresses, and I'll get everyone all my pics.

Amar, Justin, Paul, thanks for the photos and the good times.

Amar, you were telling me about your trip to Muir years ago, when you realized you were on to something good.  I think that yesterday I had something like that experience.  I feel myself becoming hooked.  Not long ago, where alpine adventures are concerned, I was focused almost entirely on the ascent as the portion worthy of attention.  Now I see what I've been missing!  ;D  Next time I'll bring a camera so I can return the favor.

Wow, there's a ton of ski porn in this thread! Thanks everyone for the great photos and TR.

I see Sky used a pair of TLT4Pro boots. Interesting.

Nice job with the tr amar!   Pics looked great too.  Seems we definitely picked the right day to be up there to reap the nice corn up top.  Next time we'll have to do it twice over to satisfy Sky.

Sorry Paul, wrong answer.  Mine are the ones displaying only two turns on the viewer's right.  

I'm plenty satisfied now; I just finished two hours of full court hoops and some weights.


Awesome!!!!
Great climb and TR. Thanks for sharing the pics Amar and crew. That is a climb you just don't get out of the car in your sneekers and hit.
Joe


Paul: nice legs.  ;D

;D

Nice, makes me wish I lived in the North Cascades.

Aaron

Reply to this TR

2318
may-12-2005-mount-baker-sherman-peak
Amar Andalkar
2005-05-13 03:01:39