July 2-3, 2014, Mt. Baker, Squak Glacier
7/2/14
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2687
0
This marked the 7th Annual trip up the Squak for me, with much better weather than last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUX8-ZKcLQ8
Anyhow, it's all trail up until treeline, which bummed us out, but we went much later than usual. There is a huge tree in the middle of the trail a few miles in. Be careful, the upside trail is slippery in ski boots. I think we should have hiked in trail shoes opposed to ski boots, but whatevs.
PHOTOS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/millcreekmm
Good snow coverage once out of the trees. We made it up to Crag View in little time and found a most awesome site. Only other group was Mountain madness in their matching Hillebergs. It was very warm that night, but we started hiking at 6:30 with crampons as it was very firm. Traversed across the Squak and met up with the Easton route. Little to no crevasses, no bridges and very straightforward. Although I did poke my ice axe into a crevasse at one rest stop - which quickly made us fin another spot. The Roman Wall on had 2 crevasses, but a calf killer with crampons and the firm snow. We made it to the top at 10:15 and enjoyed the windy summit for about 3 minutes before heading down. We left our skis at the crater rim due to the wind and firm snow/ice. The first few turns were a little sketch but got better once we got down to around 9500. We traversed across the Squak at about 25 mph and hooked up once again with the beautiful fall line that keeps us coming back year after year. Crater rim to Crag View only took about 20 minutes or less.
The hike down once at tree line in ski boots was a GD Death March. #propain.
If you want this, go get it now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUX8-ZKcLQ8
Anyhow, it's all trail up until treeline, which bummed us out, but we went much later than usual. There is a huge tree in the middle of the trail a few miles in. Be careful, the upside trail is slippery in ski boots. I think we should have hiked in trail shoes opposed to ski boots, but whatevs.
PHOTOS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/millcreekmm
Good snow coverage once out of the trees. We made it up to Crag View in little time and found a most awesome site. Only other group was Mountain madness in their matching Hillebergs. It was very warm that night, but we started hiking at 6:30 with crampons as it was very firm. Traversed across the Squak and met up with the Easton route. Little to no crevasses, no bridges and very straightforward. Although I did poke my ice axe into a crevasse at one rest stop - which quickly made us fin another spot. The Roman Wall on had 2 crevasses, but a calf killer with crampons and the firm snow. We made it to the top at 10:15 and enjoyed the windy summit for about 3 minutes before heading down. We left our skis at the crater rim due to the wind and firm snow/ice. The first few turns were a little sketch but got better once we got down to around 9500. We traversed across the Squak at about 25 mph and hooked up once again with the beautiful fall line that keeps us coming back year after year. Crater rim to Crag View only took about 20 minutes or less.
The hike down once at tree line in ski boots was a GD Death March. #propain.
If you want this, go get it now.
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