July 28, 2007, Hadley Peak and N Side Baker
7/28/07
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3045
3
Joe, Tobae and I got a very late start night on Friday night and after discovering that following the trail up Cougar Divide in the dark can be difficult we were camped and the bottom of Chowder Ridge by early Saturday ;-) Headed up across the Hadley Glacier and crossed a pass on Chowder Ridge to get on the S Side of the peak. To our great pleasure we were met by the sight of 96 (as far as we could count) mountain goats in the Smith Creek Basin. Traversed E on S side of Chowder ridge on goat trail up to a saddle between Hadley and pt 7842. Skied down and E onto the Mazama Glacier which was broken up, but not too hard to navigate. Set our course for the lowest rocks on the ridge between the Mazama and Park Glaciers arounf 8,000. The Park Glazier was quite broken up with some sketchy bridges and we roped up. Headed up for a while and it was still early, but glacier was quite broken up and weather was moving in quickly so we decided to turn around. The Park Glacier Headwall can still be skied, but navigation will require a little care. Some nice corn turns were made on the way down. Climbed Hadley on the way out (choss pile), back to the car around 6 pm, North Fork brewery had a line of 20 people so we were lucky to discover Blue Mountain Grill, a few miles S of Acme on Hwy 9, beautiful view of the Sisters and good food.
It is heartening to hear the mountain goats are doing great. :)
I wonder if those goats are part of the Barometer Mountain herd. Markharf and I came across 33 of them on the Scoles Glacier three years ago.
That shot of Baker must have been taken early in the day, because we never saw the summit after 10:00 from the Coleman side of the mountain.
That shot of Baker must have been taken early in the day, because we never saw the summit after 10:00 from the Coleman side of the mountain.
We were super stoked to see that many mountain goats. Saw 4 more later in the day to make it an even number ;-) However, wonder if receding glaciers and warmer temperatures = more mountain goats ?
Picture of our route was taken from the saddle between Hadley Peak and pt 7842 at around 0730. At around 0900 or so a lenticular started forming blowing from SW it seemed and at about 1030 clouds started sneaking up from both E and W. We were on the Park Glacier by then and felt we were getting engulfed from 3 sides. Our ski down would require some visibility to be enjoyable, safe, and ease glacier navigation so we turned around about 1130.
Picture of our route was taken from the saddle between Hadley Peak and pt 7842 at around 0730. At around 0900 or so a lenticular started forming blowing from SW it seemed and at about 1030 clouds started sneaking up from both E and W. We were on the Park Glacier by then and felt we were getting engulfed from 3 sides. Our ski down would require some visibility to be enjoyable, safe, and ease glacier navigation so we turned around about 1130.
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