FTF Day 173-174 - Mt. Baker, WA – August 13th-14th, 2011

Mt. Baker (10770ft) Climb via Boulder Glacier Route trip Report

We started late on a Saturday afternoon.  It was not really a concern though as we had given ourselves 3 days to climb the mountain.  We loaded up and got on the trail.  The trail was not well maintained, and we had several places where we had to crawl over or under trees not usually a big deal, but when you are carry 64lbs of gear it's not the easiest thing.  After about 3 miles we came up on a 2nd climbing team that was ascending a rocky scramble, there was actually a rope in position and they were using as protection to climb the 80 ft or so cliff.  Brian and opted to not use the rope and just cautiously made our way up the face.  Once on the ridge line we hiked about another mile, eventually onto a snowfield.  We stopped where the team ahead of stopped and made camp on a flat outcropping that was dry, we were at around 5300 ft.

After setting up camp we talked to the other climbing team, since one of their members was sick and the other was inexperienced one of the four was going to climb the mountain, Dave.  Dave asked us if he could join us, and we invited him to join our rope team, 3 is always better than 2 in a crevasse rescue situation so we were happy to have him along.  In addition, Dave had a lot of experience.  Afterwards we practiced crevasse rescue techniques and went to bed. 

We woke up around 2:30AM, ate a quick breakfast and setoff for the summit.  Initially we did not need to rope up, the snow was good and there were no crevasses anywhere in the area.  After a few hours of climbing the sun came up and we were presented with the most amazing sun rise.  Clouds were below us and above us and we could see Shuksan popping up through the clouds.  It was breath taking.  About this time, we decided it was best to rope up for the remainder of the climb.  Dave took the lead, I was in the middle and Brian brought up the rear.  We climbed higher and higher until we were engulfed in the cloud cap near the summit.  We started putting willow wands in so we could find our way down.  When we finally reached the flat top of the mountain we heard two other teams approaching in the fog, they had come up the more commonly used Coleman Demming route.  All 3 teams went to the top, took a few summit shots.  Then Brian payed special hommage to the mountain and we started making our way back down. 

Once we arrived back at the spot where we roped up, we decided to descend using a much more efficient manner, glissading.  For those of you don’t know glissade is the French word for slide.  It basically involves sliding on your butt down the mountain, using an ice axe to sort of control yourself.  We were able to do several glissades in a row and then we had a relatively short walk back to the camp.  We arrived back at camp by 1:00pm, exhausted but happy the climb went well.  Brian and I made some lunch and then crawled into the tent for a few hours of rest.  Dave and his party packed up and headed for the parking lot.  Once we woke up Brian and I packed up camp and made our way back to the parking lot, arriving sometime just before dark.  We had a 2 ½ hour drive back to Seattle and stopped at Dairy Queen for our well deserved treat and then headed back to Brian’s place.


FTF Day 173-174