For the past four years now, Becky and I have done a summer ski of Mt.Baker...usually as our last ski tour of the season. Given how fast the snowpack is disappearing this season, we figured it was time to get Baker instead of waiting till mid-July like most years.
We've climbed Baker plenty of times as a day trip, but as our camping gear as become lighter and lighter, its pretty easy to toss the sleeping bag and tent into the pack and turn the jaunt into a leisurely overnighter. We left Seattle in the early afternoon and were hiking up the Scott Paul trail around 4pm Saturday. Lots of day hikers out and tons of cars in the parking lot, yet when we got to our favorite camping spot just below the Squak Glacier, there was no one there. We assumed the masses must be one ridge over camping next to the Easton Glacier or just above us, but either way it was great to have peace and quiet.
After dinner, we stayed up till well after 10 watching the sunset, then set the alarm for 4am. It was a very warm night... no need to even wear a hat in my tiny 1-lb 45 degree bag. The snow on the lower Squak hadn't refroze overnight which made for easy skinning up the glacier in the morning. It was breezier than expected, but with the warm temps it kept the ski up from feeling like being in an oven. Quite a few more open crevasses than usual this time of year, I guess even the upper reaches of Baker had had a rough go of it this past winter.
As we neared a bottleneck of climbers heading down near Sherman Crater, we figured out that one of the huge groups climbing the Easton glacier route was the Washington Alpine Club climbing class on their graduation climb. We haven't done much with the WAC in ages, so we didn't expect to see many familiar faces, but we figured Pat was in the mix somewhere. Sure enough, as we waited for some parties to cross a snowbridge, we spotted Pat....who introduced us as 'Becky and Pete are WAC members too....and I married them!'.
After chatting with Pat for a bit and letting the traffic clear, we continued on up. About halfway up the Roman Wall, the last slope to the summit, we switched from skis to crampons just to speed things up. Lots of huge crevasses below the Roman Wall this year, but the route steered well clear of all but a couple.
As we reached the top, there were only two other skis and they were on their way down. We didn't spend too much time on the summit as the snow didn't need any more softening to ski.
A quick uneventful ski back to camp through increasingly sticky and heavy snow and then we grabbed our camping gear and headed down. A gully to the west of Crag View got us to within about 50 yards of the trail, and then it was time to rack the skis and don the sneakers.
Might try one more ski on the north slopes of Rainier in a couple weeks or this might be it...hopefully next years ski season will be a bit longer.
We've climbed Baker plenty of times as a day trip, but as our camping gear as become lighter and lighter, its pretty easy to toss the sleeping bag and tent into the pack and turn the jaunt into a leisurely overnighter. We left Seattle in the early afternoon and were hiking up the Scott Paul trail around 4pm Saturday. Lots of day hikers out and tons of cars in the parking lot, yet when we got to our favorite camping spot just below the Squak Glacier, there was no one there. We assumed the masses must be one ridge over camping next to the Easton Glacier or just above us, but either way it was great to have peace and quiet.
After dinner, we stayed up till well after 10 watching the sunset, then set the alarm for 4am. It was a very warm night... no need to even wear a hat in my tiny 1-lb 45 degree bag. The snow on the lower Squak hadn't refroze overnight which made for easy skinning up the glacier in the morning. It was breezier than expected, but with the warm temps it kept the ski up from feeling like being in an oven. Quite a few more open crevasses than usual this time of year, I guess even the upper reaches of Baker had had a rough go of it this past winter.
As we neared a bottleneck of climbers heading down near Sherman Crater, we figured out that one of the huge groups climbing the Easton glacier route was the Washington Alpine Club climbing class on their graduation climb. We haven't done much with the WAC in ages, so we didn't expect to see many familiar faces, but we figured Pat was in the mix somewhere. Sure enough, as we waited for some parties to cross a snowbridge, we spotted Pat....who introduced us as 'Becky and Pete are WAC members too....and I married them!'.
After chatting with Pat for a bit and letting the traffic clear, we continued on up. About halfway up the Roman Wall, the last slope to the summit, we switched from skis to crampons just to speed things up. Lots of huge crevasses below the Roman Wall this year, but the route steered well clear of all but a couple.
As we reached the top, there were only two other skis and they were on their way down. We didn't spend too much time on the summit as the snow didn't need any more softening to ski.
A quick uneventful ski back to camp through increasingly sticky and heavy snow and then we grabbed our camping gear and headed down. A gully to the west of Crag View got us to within about 50 yards of the trail, and then it was time to rack the skis and don the sneakers.
Might try one more ski on the north slopes of Rainier in a couple weeks or this might be it...hopefully next years ski season will be a bit longer.
