Squak Glacier climb with some friends this weekend! 

Started around 830 am on Saturday and camped around 6k. It was very crowded (to be expected on a Saturday). We were able to find a nice perch away from the crowds for hanging out which gave us a bit more solitude.

Woke up around 3 and started hiking around 4am while carrying our skis on our backs. We followed a bootpack for a couple hundred feet that ended up getting cliffed out so we had to backtrack down to the bootpack below camp. Once we were on that we threw our skis and skins on and made great time to the base of the Roman Wall. 

We decided to leave our skis at the base of it as I was not confident enough in my ski abilities to ski down the icy pitch. We summited around 10 am and enjoyed the views. Even met some people from Canada on top who gave us each a slice of pie! 

Climbing down the Roman wall went pretty quickly and we were able to to start skiing once we reached the base of it. The skiing was incredible and we had timed the corn cycle perfectly. We made it to our camp at 6k in 20 minutes. Last year, I did the Easton with just crampons and it took about 3-4 hours of deep postholing and suffering to make it back to camp. This years ski was a major improvement haha! 

We were able to ski out from camp to about 4200 and then it was no longer worth it so we just hiked out. There is some snow in the first 2 miles but that will be gone very soon. 

Overnight climb of Mt Baker via the Coleman-Deming (Heliotrope Ridge approach) from June 6-7, 2025.

ROAD had rough spots, some huge potholes and sneaky dips but yes, there was a Prius at the TH. Outhouses were open and stocked on Friday but with the massive amounts of cars there when we left on Sat, who knows how long that TP lasted!

HELIOTROPE RIDGE TRAIL: Snow-free to start and in good shape with some water crossings, with patchy snow beginning around 1.2 miles in.

The larger water crossing of Kulshan Creek was a bit tricky - we went upstream a bit for the best crossing spot - but I had no chance of keeping my feet dry in mesh trail runners. My partner fared better in boots and gaiters.

We followed the trail to where it diverged with the climbers' trail up towards the Hogsback, which was where we were heading. There were some melting out snow bridges before the split, so take care with those areas.

TO BLACK BUTTES CAMP: I put on boots after the stream crossing at the split, as we were basically on snow after this except for a very short ridge section. We climbed up to the Hogsback camping area where there were tent sites melted out and good running water.

We decided to keep climbing to the Black Buttes area to set up camp, which was about 1,200' vertical above the Hogsback sites. No running water here, but it was fairly protected from the wind. We had an absolutely stunning sunset - it blazed on forever!

COLEMAN-DEMING: We left camp at around 4.30 am as sunrise brightened the sky. We high traversed over to the main bootpath from camp, which involved punching through breakable crust hell in the morning, since not many people had gone that way. Footing was much better once we got to the superhighway of tracks.

The route was in pretty good shape with one open crevasse that we crossed on a thinning snowbridge in the morning. We went around it on the way back.

We unroped to climb the steep section of the Roman Wall. The Wall had good bucket steps which made it pretty straightforward. We down-climbed face-in on the steepest section of the descent for the 20-30 feet (guesstimate). It was moderately cold and windy in the AM on the ridge but I did ok with 3-season boots.

Once up top, it was a mellow walk over to the summit bump. We sat for a bit and enjoyed the views, but it was pretty chilly in the sustained breeze, and we didn't wait overly long before making our descent.

The snow was still fairly firm on initial descent, but softened up by the time we got to the bottom of the Roman wall. The glacier below had been baking, and the post-holing horror began as we slowly and sloppily made our way back to camp...but we eventually made it.

We had actually brought snowshoes up to camp and might have benefited from stashing them at the base of the Roman Wall, but...you know, hindsight and all that.

The exit from camp went pretty quickly, and for some reason the snow on our descent was better for plunge-stepping than the snow we encountered above camp. 

Glad to have finally checked this one off my list!

• Expect lots of people on a beautiful weekend! Hogsback was a tent city when we left.
• Don't hang out in the fall zone of the Colfax Peak serac! If you look at past photos of the debris zone, it's wild how much ice and rock can blast down off that peak.
• I really need to become a better skier so I can ski these peaks instead of slogging on foot...those skiers sounded so much happier than us on the way out  😆

WANT MORE PHOTOS? Follow along on Instagram @thenomadicartist

A Mountaineers class headed out for an overnight at the top of the Railroad Grade (~6400') for crevasse training. I'm writing this brief report just to clarify where snow conditions are now. With summer coming fast, expect substantial changes in the next weeks.

We departed around noon Saturday May 24th; the road was snow-covered and impassible at 3170' , about half a mile from the official trailhead. When we returned the next day, the snow had receded a hundred feet or so. No cars had tried to make it to the official trailhead yet, but it feels like only a few days. There was no snow on the road before the start of snowpatches, so you won't cross snow when trying to get to the start of the trip.

We saw similar rapid changes on the path. It's largely snow covered until the creek crossing -- there were a few short patches of dirt on the way down before the trail turns up to river. The winter trail, following the river bed, will be inaccessible in the next few days: we saw rapidly-melting snow bridges, and one crossing that required a large careful step. There were more holes to look out for than solid snow. As melt increases, expect the river crossings on the Park Butte trail to become challenging. 

Snow conditions were mushy. Hikers (including day-hikers exploring Park Butte in the snow) spent a lot of time post-holing; snowshoers found the trail slippery at all elevations. Early morning snow is firmer, but afternoon snow saw lots of our team falling over on steep descents. 

Come prepared for damp conditions and enjoy the early season beauty! 

Beautiful summit, worth the burning legs.

Hiked 3.8 miles up to high camp the night before summit. Easy beautiful dirt trail, steep section after mile 1, but overall not too bad. Railroad grade is insanely beautiful. Got on glacier at about 3:00am the next morning, and trailed behind a guided group as it was our first time doing this route, and we didn’t know the way super well. Nothing extraordinarily difficult or technical about the hike, just a lot of distance and a lot of vert. Once we got to the crater, we dumped our bags and hit the Roman Wall + Summit with just our glacier gear, made it an easy climb up to the top from there. Trail was firm on the ascent which was great for climbing, but softened up from the sun for the descent which was great for coming down. Couldn’t have asked for better conditions.