April 30, 2006, Mt. Baker, Easton Glacier
4/30/06
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3540
4
It took a while to get all the troops assembled at the end of the drivable road, which was at about 2,500' and approximately 4 miles short of the trailhead. Some of the member of our crew of 8 had not met before, but everyone there knew Leah. Leah herselft, unfortunately, couldn't make it, because she broke her scapula on Friday when she was run over by a clueless driver while riding her bike. We were all thinking of her while cutting some freshies!
Snow conditions in the morning were firm from the night freeze, which made much of the touring easier, but side hilling and chopped up snowmobile ruts became more challenging. The weather was overcast with occasional small snow flakes and occasional glimpses of blue sky. We skied into the clouds just below tree line and poked out of them around 8,500'.
Given the huge amount of rain in Seattle the day before, we were expecting lots of fresh wind-slabbed snow higher up and were fully prepared to retreat if avalanche conditions became scarry. However, little more than a trace of fresh was found anywhere on the mountain, except in small drifts. It was more or less icy with just a few softer stretches all the way up to the summit.
At 9,500' the party split, with Dan and Aaron dashing for the summit, and the rest of us climbing up to the crater rim to admire the stinky fumaroles. The views were nice, but not many peaks were visible above the clouds.
The descent was icy and choppy for about 2,000', gradually softening up. While our ascent route had been two ridges over from the RR Grade, our descent mostly followed the RR Grade, and we found some fairly nice sections of "Cascade powder" and consolidated corn in between the sections that had been all chopped up by snow mobiles.
Sadly, a great day was bookended by a four-mile slog on the road, which had been churned into an endless stretch of whoopdidoos. Nobody in the party (not even Dan!) was enthused about having to finish off a 7,500' vert day with 4 miles of skating whoopdidoos in tele/AT gear. My guess is that road should melt out another mile or two in the next couple weeks.
Kudos to Shauna and Marcus, neither of whom had ever been on any real backcountry trips, for surviving 7,500' of vertical, some fairly challenging conditions, and Sven's bad jokes - all without a single complaint!
Snow conditions in the morning were firm from the night freeze, which made much of the touring easier, but side hilling and chopped up snowmobile ruts became more challenging. The weather was overcast with occasional small snow flakes and occasional glimpses of blue sky. We skied into the clouds just below tree line and poked out of them around 8,500'.
Given the huge amount of rain in Seattle the day before, we were expecting lots of fresh wind-slabbed snow higher up and were fully prepared to retreat if avalanche conditions became scarry. However, little more than a trace of fresh was found anywhere on the mountain, except in small drifts. It was more or less icy with just a few softer stretches all the way up to the summit.
At 9,500' the party split, with Dan and Aaron dashing for the summit, and the rest of us climbing up to the crater rim to admire the stinky fumaroles. The views were nice, but not many peaks were visible above the clouds.
The descent was icy and choppy for about 2,000', gradually softening up. While our ascent route had been two ridges over from the RR Grade, our descent mostly followed the RR Grade, and we found some fairly nice sections of "Cascade powder" and consolidated corn in between the sections that had been all chopped up by snow mobiles.
Sadly, a great day was bookended by a four-mile slog on the road, which had been churned into an endless stretch of whoopdidoos. Nobody in the party (not even Dan!) was enthused about having to finish off a 7,500' vert day with 4 miles of skating whoopdidoos in tele/AT gear. My guess is that road should melt out another mile or two in the next couple weeks.
Kudos to Shauna and Marcus, neither of whom had ever been on any real backcountry trips, for surviving 7,500' of vertical, some fairly challenging conditions, and Sven's bad jokes - all without a single complaint!
How were the crevasses? Anything open or scary looking?
author=jdclimber link=topic=4637.msg19756#msg19756 date=1146674780]
How were the crevasses? Anything open or scary looking?
We only crossed one identifiable crevasse, perhaps 50-100m long. It was completely open on it's east side, showing some sag in the middle where the snow mobiles had crossed it, and barely visible on its west side. Everything else was completely filled in if you were skiing a straight line between the crater/Roman Wall and the RR grade. Some crevasses were visible to the west and east.
Thanks for the TR, I've been wondering about conditions - esp. snowmobiles. Were there any up there at the time? I guess I'll wait a couple weeks - those whoopdedoos don't sound fun.
We ran into half a dozen bilers on the road up to the trailhead. Later we could hear some way to the west of us, somewhere near the RR grade presumably, and then I saw two fresh tracks up around 9,500'.
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