This is a trip report for an Alpine Ascent expedition to summit of Mt. Baker /Koma Kulshan via the Easton glacier.

Day 1: Beginning at the Park Butte trailhead - which was very crowded on an early Saturday morning - the trail had a pair of river crossings, the first of which was tricky and made easier by using hiking poles, before beginning to climb up the Easton moraine. Ripe huckleberry and blueberry were present on the way to Sandy Camp. Tarn at camp temperature - 62 ˚F

Day 2: From Sandy Camp the route to the summit follows the Easton glacier, which was in good condition with a visible route up to the summit. Started at 6AM and reached the summit around noon, having met a team of scientists looking for evidence of microbial activity in the Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen Sulfide and Sulfur Dioxide coming from the crater. Windy but mild on the summit, with temperatures well above freezing. Plenty of melt on the way down the glacier. Tarn at camp temperature - 63 ˚F

Day 3: From Sandy Camp returned to the Park Butte trailhead via the Railroad Grade. River levels had risen making crossing more difficult, with several others on the trail ending up with wet shoes. 

#Hikeathon

Successful summit of koma kulshan with a rope team of two via Easton glacier route, July 26, 2025

Road condition: overall good with a few big potholes in the last mile before parking lot, parking lot empty on Thursday afternoon arrival but was packed to the brim we when got back Saturday evening.

Trail condition: good, dry, and snow-free till sandy/portal camp. River crossing accessible and obvious. Wildflowers in full bloom on railroad grade but less so below. Water source available, overnight freeze disrupts flowing water past sandy and isn't available till past 4 pm but small glacier ponds are available otherwise. Water smell and taste like sulfur. 

climbing condition: glacier in excellent condition, solid refreeze past 11pm at 6400’ and above. Crevasses seem stable and no hazardous snow bridges or otherwise. Bootpacks remain visible past roman wall to the summit. temp low as 30f/0c on a relatively windless night.

Overall excellent condition all around but always be prepared, stay warm, and have the technical know-hows of glacier travel.

Hiked up the Coleman-Deming solo on Mount Baker overnight. Car to summit push, didn't sleep on the trail. Arrived at the Heliotrope trailhead 4pm Friday, napped in the car for 4 hours and started hiking 8:15pm. Crossed all 3 of the streams with daylight, all were easily passable, especially with trekking poles.

Arrived at the base of the glacier 9:40pm. Even with my GPS route mapped out I still got a little turned around going up the glacier initially, but found my way back to the trail and footprints. Lots of crevasses opening up all over the trail, but most were passable or a walk-around was easy to find. Thick fog rolled in starting at sunset and followed me all the way up to the Roman wall. The dirt/rock ridge leading up to the Roman wall is a little longer and more dried out than normal, but not so long that it would be worth taking off crampons/rope at that point. Roman wall is very stepped out, making it easy to stairmaster up to the summit crater, even with the steepness of the wall.

Arrived at the true summit just before 6am. Summit was sunny but windy. Clear views of Rainier and Adams to the south. The pea soup fog extended to 3/4 of the way up the Roman wall during the descent.

Footprints/trail were very clear and stepped out on the descent all the way to the campsites. Arrived back at the trailhead 10:40am. Napped 2 hours in the car before driving out. 

LAYERS WORN:

• sun hoody
• R1 fleece
• soft shell jacket
• puffy jacket (for breaks)
• hard shell
• light hiking pants
• hard shell pants
• ski socks
• mountaineering boots and crampons
• gloves
• windproof/waterproof mittens
• buff
• helmet
• ski goggles

Mount Baker summit via CD route on July 10/11. We started at 1pm and got to Black Butte in 4 hours. Trail was snow free all the way to Hogsback. The only real obstacle worth mentioning is first river crossing. Lots of people are crossing right were trail ends but we found it was much easier to cross up the stream, all of us ended up with dry trail runners. Lots of blooming flowers above tree line, little buggy but was not terrible. No more running water after Hogsback. Few other parties camped at Black Buttes. Began summit push at 3am. We accidently went up keeping to the right from camp following another party and encountered a large crevasse with a snow bridge over it. Another party turned around and went down to walk around it in the bottom but we opsed to take a snow bridge with extra precautions, definitely wound not do that on soft snow. Once we were on a route, conditions were great. Got to the summit 4 hours later. It was little breezy with 15 mpg winds but clear sky giving us opportunity to appreciate the beauty of North Cascades. 

Summit via Coleman Glacier Route from Heliotrope Trailhead.

A group of scouts climbed Mount Baker Summit in a long slow adventure starting at Heliotrope Trailhead, Hogsback Camp for two nights while awaiting good weather, followed by 24 hours to climb to the summit and return to the cars. 

Heliotrope Trail 

This is a nice, well-maintained trail. The trailhead had room for us and the bathroom was clean and well stocked on Friday morning. The river crossing on the way in was really fun. We had to hike upstream a little to get a good crossing spot. Wearing hiking boots with gaiters worked perfectly. The water was over the boot, but my socks stayed dry. Poles for balance crossing the river were also really helpful. Mud here and there, but no complaints. We didn't encounter snow until we arrived at Hogsback Camp where we had a little snow to cross to get up into camp areas that have mostly melted out. 

For the hike out after the summit, we started our hike out on Sunday at dusk. The mosquitoes were brutal from the snow line until we were deep into the forest. Wildflowers were blooming as we left camp. We had no gaiters on the way out, so boots were pretty wet after the water crossing. The bathrooms at the trailhead were in disarray and toilet paper was gone after the busy weekend.

Hogsback camp

It was great to have running water in camp and nice camp sites. The wind was a bit much while we were getting the tents set up, but helped ensure we did a good job of anchoring them with the abundant rocks. There are a lot of camping opportunities - lots of choices with varying degrees of privacy. There were no bugs. There were mice in camp at night, but they didn't bother us or get into tents. A mountain goat came visiting, too!

Summit Climb

We started our climb at 11:30 PM on Saturday, thinking we would arrive at the summit by sunrise. We learned that our pace on Mount St Helens in May was not a good judge of what it would take to make this steeper climb, roped up and distracted with route-finding. It was an amazing night, watching the sunset and then the shift to twilight and an amazing dance of the Milky Way, satellites, and shooting stars. We may have spent too much time gawking. The sun came up and headlamps were put away. The snow was great. With crampons, walking on the hard crust was awesome, and in areas where we broke through, we didn't sink far. Navigation wasn't too challenging with so much other traffic on the mountain. There are a lot of crevasses to avoid and we were thankful for the extensive training and preparation we had made.

The wall before the summit was a killer. There was a lot of conversation about whether to stay roped up and potentially floss everyone behind us if someone slipped. Most everyone we saw stayed roped up. There was a traffic jam near the top -- multiple rope teams were bunched up, waiting to sneak through the steep and narrow gap from the wall onto the summit plateau. Standing around on the side of the wall was brutal for tired legs. One highlight was when the sun got high enough in the sky for it to shine down on us and the wall was finally bathed in daylight. Once through the gap, the last final push was a struggle, but we eventually joined the rest of the crew and collapsed in the snow. 

We started our descent pretty late. The bottle neck at the rocks to get off the summit was still a challenge. Both due to the narrow space and the challenge of climbing down, toes in, for a while before it was less steep and we could get to plunge stepping. It was a long slog out in the soft snow and made us a bit jealous of the skiers who were having the times of their lives, hooting and hollering.

Some of us were sleep-walking as we finally arrive at camp at 5:30 PM. We contemplated staying one more night, but decided it was time to pack things up and head for home. We cleaned up some of the trash (and even blue bags?) left behind by other campers, doing our good turn to leave no trace. 

Weather

For us, climbing Mount Baker was all about the weather. Our plan was to go on Wednesday, but the forecast told us Thursday would be bad, so we waited. Thursday turned to Friday and we headed up. While in camp on Friday, we talked with people coming down the mountain who had not been successful in their summit attempts, due to rain and wind. We made the choice to wait one more day and go up Saturday night/Sunday morning instead. The wait was worth it -- I don't think we would have made it with worse weather.

Road

That road is the pits. Literally. Single lane for most of it with car- swallowing potholes. Just be careful.

Scouting

This was a great weekend for Scouting. Our troop of six male scouts and five adults summited, and we were surprised to meet a group of female scouts and leaders from another troop in camp and then to see them on the summit trail. We call this "High Adventure" in our programs and it was amazing to see scouts in action, completing this great challenge and getting up and down safely. We were impressed watching the other crew working their way up the mountain at their own synchronized, a little bit faster, pace.