January 10, 2003, Mt. Baker (Summit ski)

Well I knew he would be in, wanting to take advantage of the high pressure window quickly, Mr. Mount Baker (Sky Sjue) and I decided to venture once again up the Coleman Glacier with our goal being to ski the 35-40 degree chute along the Roman Nose.  Left parking lot (again, over a mile from the trailhead due to winter regulations) at 8:20am.  Skinning through the trees was difficult due to the downed timber (quite evident from our last couple of windstorms).  Once broke out of trees skinning became challenging due to the raincrust from previous week's high freezing level.  Due to the steepness of the drainages and the unbreakable rain crust below Marmot/Heliotrope Ridge, we decided to crampon up the slope until we reached the high point on the ridge.  Once there, conditions became quite variable as we found ourselves in-and-out of powder, rain crust and a true breakable crust.  Once we reached the true Coleman Glacier this rain crust was quite prevalent and provided for a challenging skin.  

Above 8,500', conditions improved somewhat with a softer breakable crust than we had encountered below the ridge, as well as some pockets of powder.  Reached saddle of Coleman-Deming just after 2:00.  After a healthy break for lunch we pushed forward.  It was from this point on that the skis were on the pack, and crampons were a necessity.  The saddle itself clearly experienced the high winds from our storms of the previous week as there was a significant sastrugi layer up to about 9,600'.  Beyond this the Roman Wall conditions were much more forgiving due to the southern exposure.  Winds were light on the entire route.  Reached summit at 4:00 with clear skies.  After a couple of summit photos we began our long ski descent.  

I had indicated to Sky that it appeared my desire to ski the chute along the Roman Nose would have to wait.  I was not confident that conditions would have favored skiing that steep of a slope with the exposure it presented.  We had noticed that conditions appeared favorable along the Deming Glacier due to it's southerly exposure, so we decided to ski the Roman Wall and down a portion of the Deming that hugs the saddle to approx. 8,900'.  Below 9,300' there were definitely a couple of steep sections where the rain crust provided for reliance on your edges as falling was not an option due the crevasses below (albeit they are filled in significantly as compared to summer/fall months).  By far the best skiing was from the saddle back down to the base of the Coleman Glacier.  The breakable crust was soft enough that it wasn't pulling one's skis.  We were able to ski some nice pockets of powder in sections for several hundred vertical.  Found ourselves skiing in the true alpenglow, but we were safely off of the glacier (below 6,500')before dark.  Moonlight provided for good visibility from 6,000' to 3,900'.  With the exception of the wooded segment due to the downed timber and lack of snow coverage, skied the entire route back to the car at 2,800'.  Although snow conditions were a far cry from what we experienced up there 2 weeks ago, it was a great winter summit with 8,000' of vertical climbed and skied in 1 day - a record for me.  Hey Ben...hope conditions were better for you up in Whistler  ;)