Home > Trip Reports > June 2, 2007, Mount Baker - Coleman Headwall

June 2, 2007, Mount Baker - Coleman Headwall

6/2/07
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
6423
7
Posted by Jason_H. on 6/3/07 10:16am
MOUNT BAKER - Coleman Headwall


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"How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself." ~ Charles Lamb

Saturday morning, I was befuddled and frozen in place, stopped just as I was about to break out tree-line by views of Mount Baker. Moments would pass before I could again focus on my path ahead. I was no longer as excited, but I would be again. I felt more like that days Jackal and Hyde wind, which would warm then cool. For a second, fear would burrow under my skin and I€™d find myself looking up at the mountain trying to convince myself that conditions were perfect. "They were," I'd determine and I'd continue on with confidence.

Today€™s adventure The Coleman Headwall was a project that had snuffed me three times before and I knew that finally this was the day. There€™d be no excuses, she was gonna be mine or €¦ I€™d be hers.

People were everywhere and there were already skiers flying down the mountain. Not many years past you'd never see more skiers than climbers. Maybe now, people are learning that €œSkiing can be fun.€ Watching a group of climbers slog down, clothed in every scrap of clothing imaginable and packs loaded for expedition: Everest, I suddenly felt guilty about my shorts on and skis comfortably and quickly whisking me by. One last look shows the heroic leader post-holing to his knees and in the back another climber falls on his face. €œWhat an awful experience,€ and I wonder if any would ever climb again? In hindsight, I know they would. For many this had been the time of their lives!

Phil and I took it easy, meeting a polish skier from Abbotsford, Canada and another party of two skiers. Like I am apt to do, I stuck up conversations with both, which made the long haul to the Col easier. I probably talked too much, but that€™s nothing new.


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Reaching the summit cap, I veered left away from the crowd on or about the topmost point. The snow was as soft as I€™d seen it on the summit, but I was still afraid of what I€™d find on the face. Dropping in blind is a demoralizing experience and one that I don€™t take lightly! Conservative, conservative, conservative is the ring-tone of any ski-mountaineer who plans on being around long. Phil wanted to take a break and I waited for as long as I could.

Scouting down the mountain turn by turn, further and further down the ever-steeper roll, I came to a place that hung above the top most ice-cliffs. Turning around took effort and I finally ended up swallowing my pride and not turning here; it was mind-numbing to look down, but it looked better to the left. I made a switch turn, which probably wasn€™t any safer than turning would've been. Further to the left, I sighted Phil where I had sent him. He was right on course. I played scout again and spotted black ice patches. I didn€™t want to get anywhere near those and so decided not to ski the central headwall. Plus, the bergschrund was an unknown factor and I couldn€™t say for sure if it was even there. What if I was wrong? Again I chose to be conservative.


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Further down I was able to traverse and what an experience that was for me. Here I was, on the face I had dreamed of skiing and the turns were spectacular! This was where we found the best snow and thus my confidence which was beginning to eke its way back into my legs until, €œWhoa, ICE,€ hollered Phil. It wasn€™t really icy, but there was a layer of corn snow on top of a hard layer. I€™ve skied this kind of snow before and it€™s not good when it melts, since it tends to break away and leave you with nothing good to ski down on. In a few places that layer would poke its nose out.

We decided to rest on a safe shoulder of rock, but ice-cliffs appeared too formidable to temp. They could wipe us off like vermin in a second. Below us there was one final schrund to get around. To the far right there was a nice snow-bridge and right below us I thought I could see another way, but before I could go down and check it out, Phil took the lead. The next thing I noticed was him falling and a holler. Even at the very bottom of the route, it wasn€™t a good place to fall. Right below him, just feet away were hungry crevasses. €œWatch the drop, the snow is soft,€ is all Phil shouted to me as he skied away. It€™s best not to dally and think about it. I looked into the hole he nearly fell into and thought about how much that would€™a sucked. No matter how much you think about it, you can never qualify how close it really was.

€œI didn€™t even look in the crevasse,€ Phil told me on the glacier. €œI don€™t know how deep it was?€ I didn€™t have to tell him, he knew I was lying when I said it wasn€™t that bad.

After winding our way up and down, over and around and all over the Coleman Glacier, we came to the boot-pack on the standard route. Here I took a moment to look back and appreciate. Right then, the risk and price of such an adventure didn€™t bother me and maybe it should have. In the youth of your life, most of us take risk. For me it€™s better than smoking and drinking or wasting my life in front of video games and TV. In a sense, sitting there and looking back, the reward was fear-reversing/relief-enhancing and that was quite a feeling. You could say, satisfaction was in blossom and today I had won out. In the beginning of this trip I had said, €œ€¦she was gonna be mine or €¦ I€™d be hers.€ Given today€™s events, she was mine, but don€™t forget this, someday I€™ll be back in her arms. Maybe in this way I'll always be hers.

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Nice job, stay safe, grow old.  It's not bad, just different.

Saturday sure had perfect conditions all over the hills of Washington judging from the reports posted here on tay, and undoubtedly many more which were not reported.

Well done. Awesome line. Where is the video?

author=runningclouds link=topic=7319.msg29131#msg29131 date=1180937668]
Well done. Awesome line. Where is the video?


Ha. Phil made one...and I'm sure he made fun of me somehow, but in light of it, I imagine it's entertaining. My sound doesn't work so I watched it without and it was cool watching the skiing from the view of a headcam and thusly the skier. The film is here: http://mtnphil.com/Rate.php?ID=62

BTW Silas, does it count if I already feel old :) ? Making it this long has been a challenge and I think that people would be surprised to see how much our group takes safety into consideration? There are risks though and they are unavoidable and only partially controllable. I do think that I will be toning down the steep skiing stuff in coming years though. My focus has always been on good lines on good peaks and plus, remember, I feel old. That's what made this trip so great. Easy approach and not much walking to get back out.

Nice job Jason and Phil.
Two weeks in a row that you knocked off a couple tough climbs and skis that once thwarted your previous efforts.
Cool video to document the ski down the wall.

IMHO-Everyone has a level of comfort and risk in mountain climbing and skiing, none are right and none are wrong they are just levels.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Joe

You're right of course, Joe. I'm glad that you enjoyed the story. And, about honesty, I always try to be as true as I can. I don't want anyone trying to repeat the stupid stuff I do (well, not always so stupid  ;)) without understanding that there are risks. I learned and made a lot of mistakes in the process of becoming a competent ski mountaineer-errant (with apologies to Don Quixote). Hopefully my TR's teach people and they learn from my mistakes.

Great photos as always, and excellent video footage!  Congratulations!!

Ben knew how to pick them indeed! I still think about his day, in which he skied the Roosevelt Headwall solo and then headed back up to ski the Coleman Headwall solo, as if one amazing ski wasn't enough! Nice job on the route you guys.

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june-2-2007-mount-baker-coleman-headwall
Jason_H.
2007-06-03 17:16:54