Mount Baker — Saturday, May. 15, 2021

Trip Report for Baker summit climb, Colman-Deming Route. Trailhead to camp 5/14/21, summit day 5/15/21, camp to trailhead 5/16/21. Road closed due to snow 1 mile from trailhead. Clear sunny weather. Not forecasted to, but froze overnight both nights. Hot days. Nice hard ice to walk on in the morning on summit day in the shadow of the mountain, didn’t get slushy until around 1 PM. Clearly marked boot path from trailhead to summit. We passed four crevasses, one underneath the boot path right above high camp (Black Buttes) that a couple people punched their foot through, one partway up the glacier with a nice snow bridge even on the slushy way down, and one further up the glacier that you can walk around. The fourth my partner saw on the way out the third day on the steep 45°-ish slope between high camp (Black Buttes) and low camp (Hogsback Camp & Gargoyle Rocks). Roman Wall (60° slope/last push to the summit plateau) is steep on the way up but not too bad if you take it at a moderate pace and follow the stair steps and switchbacks on the boot path. Start early enough that you hit it before slush like we did. Roman Wall is harder on the way down but we just stepped really slowly and carefully on the steepest switchbacks at the top then plunge stepped the rest of the way straight down the slush once it was not quite as steep. There are nice butt glissade chutes from high camp to low camp, low camp to ridge, and ridge to treeline.