Mount Baker — Sunday, Jun. 19, 2022

Stoked to have achieved the summit of Baker via Easton Glacier route Sunday-Monday this past weekend, despite some challenges. Arrived at Park Butte TH about 3pm Sunday and got to Sandy Camp at 730pm. Snow still lingers approx 1/2 mile down from parking lot. I wore my mountaineering boots and gaiters from the car and was glad I did. We trudged through mushy snow on our way along the Park Butte trail until it offshoots to the winter route up the Rocky Creek drainage basin. This route will probably be in for a couple more weeks but will get more sketchy as snow continues to melt. Some tricky route finding across snow covered boulders/water trying to avoid post holing. Try to stay close to the trees at climbers right until you get to the large stream crossing which was the crux of this section. Continued up the moraine basin with Railroad grade to our left, eventually picking our way up to the ridge. We observed rockfall and minor wet loose avy conditions coming up/down these moraine slopes so be aware. Found a spot for our tent - you will likely be camping on snow here for a few more weeks. Also, if you don't want to melt snow, get water at the creek. Got a few hours sleep, started climbing at 4am. Roped up at the glacier. Crampons on a little higher as the snow got stiffer. Summit at 11am, took some pics and headed down. Snow conditions around 7k-8500 feet were awful and worse at midday as we headed down - every step we ended up plunging down knee deep - not fun at all. Overall I underestimated how much the snow would slow us down, you are walking on it literally the entire time and most of the time it was slippery and mushy. We were very happy to finally get back to the car at about 730pm. However, we really lucked out with weather - barely any wind or precip, just a low cloud layer at 6k and perfectly clear above it, not too hot or cold. Also next to no crevasse risk with the huge amount of snow. Route to summit was obvious with all the footprints. I came to the conclusion that I could have eased my suffering on this trip immensely had I just brought my ski setup, even for part of it. It will probably be good for skiing a couple more weeks however not sure what this heat wave this weekend will do to it. Enjoy!