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Mt. Baker​

Description:  I've had many great experiences on Mount Baker and the attempts always seems to be more challenging than others.  

  • Boulder Glacier: In 2007 I was snowed off the Boulder route in June - snow in June?  that was a new to me.  

  • Coleman Headwall: In 2008, I hiked straight from my Mountaineers Ice 2 field trip on the lower Coleman seracs into a climb of the Coleman Headwall and quickly found myself at the edge of my newly learned ice climbing ability.  The climbing itself wasn't particularly difficult, but 3000' of late season ice did a number to my psyche, toes and calves - That climbs left me with an excruciating pain in my toes that lasted for around a week.  Now I've learned to chop steps for belays.  Though this does stand as one of my memorable climbs of all time - such an amazing setting. 

  • Coleman Deming: I returned in 2009 to attempt a ski of the Coleman Deming and around halfway up I had an unbearable IT band issue that forced me to turn back, while my partners summitted and had 7000' of perfect boot-top pow.  

  • North Ridge Attempt: in 2010 I attempted the north ridge in late season and was shut down several times by crevasses on the Coleman glacier.  The snow bridges were totally rad, some as much as 6" wide and 15-20 feet long, with big exposure on both sides.  We eventually found a path through the glacier by staying low, but then couldn't find the route to attain the ridge as we were losing time and had to turn back.  The return across the glacier proved even more eventful as Dave Lott slipped 10' into a crevasse when a foot slipped on him but no harm was done, and we had to play glacier ninja warrior by jumping a rather big crevasse to avoid crossing a very sketchy bridge after taking a more direct line back to camp. 

  • North Ridge: in 2014, Eric Docktor and I decided that since we got shut out on our 2 day attempt  we should try the North Ridge in a single push, with skis.  So we set-off on the long single day push.  It took us longer than expected, but we did make it and the skiing was fantastic for mid August. 

 

 

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