Mount Baker — Friday, Jul. 28, 2023

Tackled Mount Baker with Kidz Won't Hike, DaniilMag, SoaringEagle, and JDog, first time as a rope team together, first time unguided climb for most. Everyone had been trained on glacier travel (or done so with guided climbs) and completed crevasse rescue training. Fun and long 24+ hours with overnight camp and 1am wake up. I've seen some recent reports that imply the climb is in great condition and easy. That may be true for someone experienced and Easton Glacier is an easier climb as climbing routes go, but don't underestimate this. The glaciers, crevasses, and seracs are plenty and massive, it can feel like full on winter at the end of July, and the weather comes in very fast. The snow was very hard all the way up and half way down and pretty much required crampons to travel and there was no way you were going to get a picket or ice axe in to create and anchor if needed. Would have needed an ice screw. Compared to when I climbed it guided in early July 2019, the Roman Wall snow field is in much worse shape - steep and icy and tricky scree field at the top, though there is a decent boot path. It's very hard to avoid knocking rocks loose on those below. 

We hiked in Thu around 1pm. The parking lot was completely full when we arrived, but as luck would have it a pickup pulled out of the spot right across from the outhouses and we were able to get 2 vehicles parked. Score! We hiked as high as possible to set up camp around 6400', with only a short hike to the beginning of the glacier travel. There are tent spots all over the rocky ridges up there. Water sources were better lower down. We luckily found one close to camp, but by day 2 it had dried up. We set up our rope and harnesses and reviewed crevasse rescue technique and confirmed the rope order that night. We had 5 people on a 70m rope, putting the most experienced people on front and back with the excess rope for rescue tucked into backpacks. 

We went to tents around 8pm and set 1am wake up. None of us really got any sleep. And for some reason, a helicopter swung by around 10:30pm several times and quite low and even shone a spotlight briefly. That didn't help sleep. We were surprised that we didn't see any of the guided climbing teams down below awake at 2am. A party of 3 nearby and us 5 were the only ones on the mountain early. We set off at 2:15am and carried ropes and crampons over to the start of the glacier. Because the snow is so hard and melts out during day, the boot track is not visible in dark in places down low. We had a recent GPX track and DaniilMag on front did a great job finding the path. The trail is pretty straight up unless it has to avoid crevasses. There are crevasses all the way from start of glacier to Roman Wall area. We probably had to step over 40-50 small to medium size crevasses up to 2' wide. And of course the trail skirts around many many larger ones, which becomes clear in the daylight on the way back down. We made good time getting to the Roman Wall and had a break here as most do. The snow field after is steep, sun cupped, and rock hard snow. The better trail is the left fork after the Wall. The scree field at the top is alternatively frozen and loose. We had advice to be very mindful of the rope here as not to knock rocks down on teams below. We luckily didn't have anyone below us coming up and on the way down we waited for one party to get to top. They may have had the right idea. They unroped for the entire Roman Wall snow and scree section. There are really no crevasses in this section. Above the scree there is further snow travel until you get near the summit which is melted out and another 50' hike up. Views were amazing and clear at 6:30am, but it was cold and windy so we just took pics and high fived and then made our way back to a spot just above the Roman Wall scree to have a break in the sun. We were lucky since clouds moved in after we summited and probably many later parties didn't have great views. Lots of guided groups coming up later. Descending was uneventful and tiring as expected. We got back to camp just before 11am, rested a bit, packed up, and hiked out. Given it was Friday afternoon, the camp and trail was much much busier! Always better to climb on a weekday if you can. The Roman Wall section is going to be dangerous with rockfall with so many groups going up and down simultaneously. I wouldn't want to experience that. 

Stats: 15.4 miles, 7480' gain over the 2 days. 

Gear: It was cold enough that I was wearing all my layers at some point even going uphill. Wool t-shirt and hoodie, down jacket, and gore-tex shell. Medium wind and water resistant pants. Also had a soft-shell that I wore for much of the hike up until it got too cold and I switched to down + hardshell. Light hats, medium gloves, and buff were worn as well. Full set of mountaineering gear. We had 3 sets of crevasse rescue gear worn in positions 2, 4, and 5 on the rope. Like I mentioned though, I don't see how you could get a picket into that snow. We did have members punch through snow a few times, but more posthole than crevasse drop. 

Weather: We tracked weather on forecast.weather.gov and mountain-forecast. com. There were clouds, and small chance of rain and thunder projected for our hike in and camp and for late morning after the summit. The clouds were accurate but we never got any precip or stormy weather. 

GPX track: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2261465