Saturday, August 4, 2012

Mt.Baker - Squak glacier climb & ski


Becky and I haven't done a ton of skiing this summer....got in a climb/ski of Mt.Adams last month, but not much else.    With a nice forecast this weekend and no obligations, we figured we'd drag the skis out one more time and play on Mt.Baker.
We left town Friday night with Andy & Mica, and had a comfy parking lot bivy in their Westfalia Vanagon.  Up early Saturday morning and moving up the trail by 6am, we reached continuous snow after about 2 1/2 miles of hiking.
Fortunately there was a light breeze the whole way up the glacier otherwise we'd have been roasting in the sun.   It was warm enough to wear a t-shirt all the way to the top.  A leisurely pace got us to the summit around 2pm and we took a long break, surprisingly having the summit all to ourselves.
The snow was a little sticky, but not too soft and made for pretty good ski conditions for August. We managed to ski down to around 4800ft before putting the running shoes back on and hiking the remaining 1500ft down to the car. A refreshing swim in Baker Lake followed by dinner at the Skagit Brewery made for a great end to our 2012 ski season.   Now to move on to a little backpacking and surfing before the next ski season starts up in a few short months.

 


Mt.Baker climb & ski via the Squak glacier from p alderson on Vimeo.