February 17, Coleman Glacier, Mt Baker
2/15/07
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2374
0
Originally planned to take a couple of days to climb Baker over the weekend with some out of state friends in for the weekend. With only one day of good weather forecast the snowshoer crowd headed over to Mt Baker Ski Area to camp out and hike around leaving only the two skiers amongst us to try a one-day climb. A mad gear scramble ensued to lighten the packs from 2-nights to nothing. We got a couple hours of sleep before starting up the snow covered road (we stopped about 5.3mi up the Glacier Ck Road) just before six. Once past the trailhead, the trail was very easy to follow and involved de-skiing only a few times to cross creeks. As we broke out above treeline, everything turned to unskinable ice. Switching to boot-mode, I discovered in my hasty weight-loss program I had removed my crampons from the pack, so the only option going forward was 5000' of step kicking. 8) Joy.
We roped up after a while and made our way steadily up the Coleman. At around 8000' we started getting pummeled by high winds that brought blowing ice and knocked us down repeatedly. During the lulls we'd push on, only to be forced to the ground after another 20 steps or so. The ice mercilessly stopped blowing after the first 20min, but the winds remained the rest of the time as the snow switched from ice to breakable crust. Visibility began to decrease as we neared 9000', so with no sign of improving weather we pulled the plug and switched back to skis, just a couple hundred feet shy of the saddle between Colfax Pk and the main summit.
Initially the snow wasn't too bad to ski on (since the crust only broke while booting) as we threaded our way down between the major crevasses. Things became difficult on the ice when strong winds would gust. Lower down we both lost our edges and went for long rides on the ice. After reaching treeline again we took our time the rest of the way out since the winds and clouds were only on the upper part of the mountain and we had plenty of daylight left. Probably should've started earlier to avoid the weather, and crampons would've been a plus, but with the winds up top I'm not sure if we really would've made it. Definitely a sphincter-tightening descent however... ;D
We roped up after a while and made our way steadily up the Coleman. At around 8000' we started getting pummeled by high winds that brought blowing ice and knocked us down repeatedly. During the lulls we'd push on, only to be forced to the ground after another 20 steps or so. The ice mercilessly stopped blowing after the first 20min, but the winds remained the rest of the time as the snow switched from ice to breakable crust. Visibility began to decrease as we neared 9000', so with no sign of improving weather we pulled the plug and switched back to skis, just a couple hundred feet shy of the saddle between Colfax Pk and the main summit.
Initially the snow wasn't too bad to ski on (since the crust only broke while booting) as we threaded our way down between the major crevasses. Things became difficult on the ice when strong winds would gust. Lower down we both lost our edges and went for long rides on the ice. After reaching treeline again we took our time the rest of the way out since the winds and clouds were only on the upper part of the mountain and we had plenty of daylight left. Probably should've started earlier to avoid the weather, and crampons would've been a plus, but with the winds up top I'm not sure if we really would've made it. Definitely a sphincter-tightening descent however... ;D
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