Mt. Baker via Easton Glacier - July 16/17 2022

 

I've wanted to do this mountain forever because I live in Abbotsford and see it all the time. I finally got some glacier training this spring and everything came together and I managed to get to the top this weekend.

 

We assembled a group of 5 and hit the trailhead ~11:30 am. We made it to Sandy camp and went basically to the end of the rockline at ~1950m and set up camp around 4pm. Not much to say about the trek up other than it is absolutely gorgeous once you hit the moraine ridge, and even before that quite pleasant.

 

After "sleeping" from 6pm to 11pm we woke up and got ready and stepped off at ~12:30 pm. It was quite foggy and we couldn't see anything so we just focused on one foot in front of the other in the dark for hours. There were a few groups behind us and one ahead and eventually we broke free of the clouds around 2600m and could see the objective. The rest of the day we were above the clouds in cloud inversion which was cool. There were many big crevasses all around but nothing I was afraid of falling in, the boot pack is large and obvious. Couple snow bridges.

 

We switchbacked up the Roman Wall which took a bit but wasn't too hard. The snow the whole way was perfect for crampons and every step was rock solid. We summited 5:15 as the sun was coming up and took pictures. We wanted to stay for a break but it was too cold and windy so we quickly descended.

 

The way down was slow until we were lower and it was later and we were able to start plunge stepping. There were tons of people going up the entire time. We got back to our camp at 9 broke camp and back to trailhead by 1215. Very tired as I hadn't slept since the previous morning. I got back home to Abby around 3:30 and slept for a looong time.

 

Really happy to get this one off my bucket list.