Unloading at the trailhead

Randy, Gary, Mark, and Tom

Mark and Jeff at the waterfall

Tom and Jeff at the waterfall

Camp at 6000 feet

Clouds and sunbreaks over the North Ridge

New Hilleberg Soulo and Baker Summit

Sunrise over the Coleman Glacier

Mark on the Coleman Glacier

Tom on the Coleman Glacier

Being a climber living just outside of Bellingham for the past 5 years, I was embarrassed to say that I still had not climbed Mt. Baker. I only need to climb Baker and Glacier Peak to complete the Washington volcanoes. When Tom a coworker of mine came to me, after hearing that I climbed, and told me that he was really interested in climbing Mt. Baker, I jumped at the chance to finally climb the sno-cone! Tom had also heard that Mark another coworker was interested in trying to climb Baker, and Mark found out that Gary a relative of his wanted to try Baker for many years. The "I want to climb" domino effect was happening and the group was forming. Tom, Mark and Gary had never had any experience with glacier travel or mountaineering, so I felt that this would be the perfect opportunity to make this climb an educational experience, and hopefully a summit! I commissioned a long time friend of mine, and experienced climber,Karl, whom I used to work with in Everett at a climbing shop. Karl brought along Randy another experienced climber to help with leading the trip and teaching skills.

June 30th - Everyone met at the Glacier ranger station around 10am to distribute gear, and register. The weather was great! Mostly sunny and probably in the 60's. From the ranger station we drove to the Heliotrope Ridge Trailhead, about 8 miles down Glacier Creek Road. At the trailhead I ran into some coworkers from my other job at American Alpine Institute, and got some beta from them as far as route conditions. The 2.5 to 3 mile hike in was nice. The later section of the hike was somewhat steep and made for a tiring experience.

Once in camp we set up the tents, pulled out the stoves, relaxed and started making food, drink and rested up.

July 1st - The second day was cloudy and overcast, but still quite warm. This day of the trip was designated for instruction and teaching Tom, Mark and Gary all the necessary skills needed to do basic glacier travel. It is tough to teach all the knowledge needed to travel on a glacier in one day, but the group was very attentive, fast at learning and proficient in all the basic skills by the end of the day. While hanging around camp everyone including myself learned exactly why it is important to have a closed cell sleeping pad in your sleeping system no matter what time of year after listening to Karl's very informative lecture on the subject. I swear the guy is a genius when it comes to all things climbing related! After enjoying lots more food and drink, we all turned in around 7pm so that we could wake up around 2:30am the next morning to start our summit climb.

July 2nd - I was the lucky one to get up at 2:30am to check the weather and make the go or no-go decision on the summit bid. When the alarm chimed at 2:30, I laid there for a minute before mustering up the energy to unzip the fly to see what the visibility was. When I finally looked, there were breaks in the clouds over the North Ridge, and I could see the stars, so this was a good sign. I got dressed crawled out of the tent and started waking the others. By 3am everyone was up eating and preping to head out. When everyone was tied in and ready to go, the visibility had gone to crap again, but I had a hunch it was still clear a few hundred feet higher up. We had climbed about 700- 800 vertical feet and it was already starting to get light enough out to see without the headlamps, and at this point we could tell the weather and visibility was going to be fine.

We arrived at the flats on the Coleman Glacier just in time for the sunrise and a great view of the summit. To our surprise there were no crevasses open along the route yet! Everyone grabbed a snack and water and we were on our way once more. We kept moving steadily to about the 8,500 foot mark for our next stop. From here Tom and Mark decided that they were going to head back to camp. We re-roped into new teams and Karl, Gary, Randy and myself continued on, and Mark and Tom headed back. We continued our long slow trudge up to the saddle where we grabbed some more water and a few photos. The route up pumice ridge was completely snow and ice covered which made for relatively easy going up the the Roman Wall. We broke the Roman Wall into three long switch-backs rather than going straight up. We were surprised as to how hot it was on the route! It felt like it was 80 degrees when you were moving. We were all sweating up a storm. I was relieved when we were finally on the summit cap! As was everyone else I am sure. The summit was cloud capped so we couldn't see much, but we really didn't mind. On the summit we all drank and ate, until we were ready to start the long descent.

On the way down it was clear and great visibility until the saddle at 9000 feet. Below that it was socked in with 20 feet of visibility. The snow had been balling up on the crampons the whole way down the Roman Wall, so we removed them at the saddle. After some time we reached the top of the slope above camp, and just cut straight down to camp rather than doing the switch back that we did on the ascent. Once back in camp it was more food, water, some rest and then we packed up and hiked out!

All-in-all the trip was great! The group dynamics were great, and the experience for everyone was unsurpassed. Thanks to everyone for the awesome trip!

-Jeff

Gary on the Coleman Glacier

Gary, Karl and Jeff on the Coleman

Jeff, Gary, Randy and Karl

Looking accross the Coleman towards the saddle, notice the three dots in the middle left. Thats a rope team.

Looking toward the summit from the saddle at 9000 feet

Starting up the lower Roman Wall

Randy mid way up the Roman Wall

Karl on the summit

Jeff on the summit

Gary on the summit