Mt Baker June 27 and 28

Bill Shigley Kate Gengo and myself climbed and descended the Coleman Deming route on the evening of June 27th and the morning of June 28th. THe weather was HOT so we decided to camp in the trees at the base of Heliotrope ridge to avoid being baked in the afternoon sun.  We got an early alpine start. I think we set out from camp a little before midnite. As we climbed toward the hogsback at the top of the ridge I was amazed at how big the Bellingham sprawl has gotten. Between 12:30 and 2:00 a.m. A faint showing of borialis was visible due north as there was no moon and the milky way was brillaint as we climbed toward the black buttes. My partners were a little unconditoined for the 5500 ft gain to the summit and our pace was slow and slower. We gained the summit at 9:30am. Over nine and ahalf hours after leaving camp. The weather was perfect and we found shelter from the breeze on the summit and sacked out for a couple of hours to give the sun some time to warm up the snow on the roman wall.  The snow was still firm and a little icy when we dropped in but it was carvable if you stayed lite on your edges. Once we gained the saddle and lower slope angles the snow softened up quite a bit and the corn was tasty down to 7000 feet. All and all a great trip