Writing up a quick report to provide some updated recent beta for other climbers. My group of three did a C2C Baker summit via the Easton route on May 27.
We parked the night before at the Park Butte TH. Snow currently starts about .6 miles before the actual parking lot, so everyone is just parking along the road. We didn’t have an issue finding spots, but note this means no toilets so please plan to PACK OUT any of your waste / TP. Seriously. Don’t be a jerk and leave your used TP in the woods along the road.
Slept in our cars and headed out at 2 AM. Trail was smooth enough at first but confusion seemed to hit many groups - from later discussions with other climbers - at the river crossings. There is no bridge installed at the first crossing yet, and no good path across on rocks. Most people found a shallow enough spot and waded across, but it’s still about calf deep, so come prepared to remove your boots! My group had a track from a climbing group from last week, which actually took a different route up the right side of the river and basically into the moraine below Railroad Grade. While this track probably works well in good snow conditions, the top of the grade is melted out enough now that it did NOT work for us. We ended up having to scramble a distance on that crumbling, soft dirt and rock to get onto RR Grade and it was probably the most dangerous part of our day! So please if you’ve got that winter track from anyone - I know someone posted it on AllTrails - know it’s not the best option any longer. Take the normal Park Butte trail.
Once on RR Grade and then onto the glacier, the going is good. Crevasses beginning to open but nothing very immediate on the climbing route. The Roman Wall is in fine shape for that last push of suffering. True summit block is still snowy.
Trip down was smooth with good plunge-stepping, but, as always, quite a slog!
We took the normal trail out rather than attempt to follow our path in. It’s good a good bootpack overall, though the snow was sloppy in the afternoon hours on a warm day.
On the way out, we did notice that the first river crossing out (second on the way in) has snow bridges that are juuuuust about done. We sort of had to hold our breaths and take a jump and hope not to fall through into the river, which at least thankfully at this crossing was not deep underfoot. But know that those bridges will likely be gone in the coming days, meaning some more interesting navigation to get across. The second crossing on the way out (first on the way in, mentioned earlier in the report) took a minute to figure out but then some kind climbers on the other side pointed out the best crossing spot to my group. We were exhausted at that point and just crossed in our boots without bothering to remove them!
All in all a successful albeit long day. If you’re going up, enjoy!
Comments