1/7 Baker - north side
1/7/15
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3773
1
Icy but easy driving to road closure at ~3100' on Glacier Creek Rd. A little under a mile to the TH.
Road EZ skin but will probably need to boot up trail to past last creek crossing-Kulshan cabin zone-ish.
Super firm up there - ski crampons from below the Hogsback to Coleman-Deming saddle. Stopped tour there - upper mountain all jacked up as expected and still a bit windy up high. One person w/o ski cramps went to boot cramps multiple times on ascent.
Coleman Glacier has some open holes but filled in plenty to make for ez route finding as usual. Go climbers left toward the Moustache ~7900' if you are a nervous nelly about skinning really firm snow above big holes.
Skiing down was firm but smooth and fun all things considering - have skied way worse up there. Rain runnels starting at 7300' made the firm snow a little more interesting.
+10,000' Freeze levels don't mean shit on a clear day in January on shady slopes . . . the frozen surface never loosened up until we got back down to where it never froze in the first place.
In hindsight after poking our heads over to the Deming to get out of the wind realized should have been skiing south facing terrain above 5000' to 6000' - a little more blown-in and sun effect softening things up nicely. Too bad we were too lazy to drive to the south side from B'ham this morning . . .
Easton, Squack or anything else you can think of that is south facing, in the alpine and doesn't have a mudslide or downed trees blocking the approach road would probably be nice skiing around midday.
Hope this helps anybody out trying to figure out a plan for the next few days.
On the other hand climbing conditions in alpine would be pretty prime if you are into that sort of thing - not that there is anything wrong with that . . .
No pics - I think we all know what Baker looks like by this point.
Road EZ skin but will probably need to boot up trail to past last creek crossing-Kulshan cabin zone-ish.
Super firm up there - ski crampons from below the Hogsback to Coleman-Deming saddle. Stopped tour there - upper mountain all jacked up as expected and still a bit windy up high. One person w/o ski cramps went to boot cramps multiple times on ascent.
Coleman Glacier has some open holes but filled in plenty to make for ez route finding as usual. Go climbers left toward the Moustache ~7900' if you are a nervous nelly about skinning really firm snow above big holes.
Skiing down was firm but smooth and fun all things considering - have skied way worse up there. Rain runnels starting at 7300' made the firm snow a little more interesting.
+10,000' Freeze levels don't mean shit on a clear day in January on shady slopes . . . the frozen surface never loosened up until we got back down to where it never froze in the first place.
In hindsight after poking our heads over to the Deming to get out of the wind realized should have been skiing south facing terrain above 5000' to 6000' - a little more blown-in and sun effect softening things up nicely. Too bad we were too lazy to drive to the south side from B'ham this morning . . .
Easton, Squack or anything else you can think of that is south facing, in the alpine and doesn't have a mudslide or downed trees blocking the approach road would probably be nice skiing around midday.
Hope this helps anybody out trying to figure out a plan for the next few days.
On the other hand climbing conditions in alpine would be pretty prime if you are into that sort of thing - not that there is anything wrong with that . . .
No pics - I think we all know what Baker looks like by this point.
Thanks for the TR. I think pictures often describe the conditions better than words.
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