TR: Mt Baker Summit, NSR, A While Ago

bc · 11-29-2006, 02:50 AM

Since Baker's getting plenty of snow these days, Tahoe's not, and I can't ski anyway for a while, I figured I might as well assemble a half-ass TR of my previous Baker experience. Especially since finals are coming up and I have a paper due tomorrow.

So this was a while ago, as I said. Mt Baker. July.

Went on an Alpine Ascents Mountaineering Course. Highly recommended.

...and had an incredible time.

somewhere on the way up... the "black buttes"?; tent site

terrible shot, but forgive me--I'd never seen a marmot before:

looking from camp towards the next moraine west; crevasse-land:

crevasse rescue practice; holding a fall (paging supu?):

approaching crevasse edge to "rescue"; my turn to catch a fall:

raising up:

my turn to jump into the crevasse (views from inside):

reassembling our glacier rig:

a random group they were. our guide is on the left. one of you Bellingham doods know him?

we got back to camp late, and I had the bright idea of suggesting we summit that night. looks good, right? nevermind that we'll skip that whole night's sleep thing and that we've been out practicing self-arrests and crevasse rescue since dawn. who's with me? everyone, apparently.

I really wish you could see how powerful the wind was. We found a shelter a previous group left and huddled behind it.

First chance to take out the camera on summit day. Hint: we're almost there.

My shots from the summit all suck. The wind was so redonkulous we roped in just to stand/crawl on top. Here they are anyway.

bc · 11-29-2006, 02:51 AM

On the way down:

Somewhere around here I slipped through. Pretty impressive. I am a fan of roped glacier travel. I only fell in knee-deep, as I was in the middle of the rope. Further inspection showed a crevasse 200' plus in depth.

Doesn't really look like there's more than 5000 vert between tent and summit, does it?

After getting down from the summit and not having slept, lets learn how to build an igloo! yeah, that was real half-assed.

you can tell it was a hot day by the tent platform.
Nice bibler.

We were stoked to discover a bridge had been erected between hiking in and hiking out:

Hiking out in hard-shell boots (the first and last time I used my invernos):

The AA van... and there was plenty of drinking that night:

Overall a great experience. I'd love to go back and do something with AA. Maybe Alaska. It was an 8-day trip. Extremely well-organized. Lots of instruction. Good logistics. We spent 6ish days "learning"--ie ice climbing, jumping in crevasses, self-arresting, building anchors, prussiking, &c, and 2ish days climbing. All nights spent on the mountain, so it was 8 days van to van==lots to carry.