Mount Baker - 10781' - North Ridge WI3
June 2017
Climbing Mount Baker was something long on my mind, and after discovering about its north ridge, I instantly wanted to climb that route. Having a small ice step, and more glacier difficulties, it is a nice alternative to the busy standard route. Josh and I attempted to climb it in April 2015, but retreated back to the normal route, and climbed Colfax instead, n a day that Colin Haley was climbing a new ice route on the north face. Fast forward to June 2017 and my friend Jamie was in town from Colorado, and wanted to climb Baker. So I invited Josh to join us and after a long 13 hour continuous drive from Edmonton back to Seattle, I picked up Jamie at Seatac airport at some ungodly hour and went home to crash for a bit. We took a day to prepare by getting some food, and studying the route, then picked Josh up in Lynnwood. Arriving at the trailhead around 3pm, it was lightly raining, so we waited a little for it to stop. The weather forecast didn't look amazing, but any rain was supposed to stop before sunset that day.
We made quick work getting to the small flat bench along the Heliotrope Ridge, just above treeline where we set up camp. Josh had some mice issues with his trekking pole tent, while Jamie and I were happy to have our tent set up in 5 minutes because that evening some additional rain passed by. Early the next morning, we were up and moving by sunrise. We traversed directly across the large Coleman Glacier, crossing below the north face of Baker and aiming for the low point in the north ridge. The crevasses were mostly still covered up, with only a few big ones to navigate around just before cresting the ridge. We were a strong team and made good time up the lower ridge until we hit the base of the ice step. I threw a few screws on my harness, and led up on the right side of the step, where the ice was slightly less than vertical. It was hard ice, and took some serious swinging to get my quarks to sink in, but it took screws like a boss. After nearly a full rope length I reached a nice level spot and belayed Jamie and Josh up. A second half-pitch got us back onto snow and we continued walking up the ridge until we entered a whiteout, where things got interesting. We struggled to navigate through a huge serac zone, with a vertical wall of ice blocking our progress, guarded by a huge bergschrund. Josh was recalling from one of his previous trips on Baker that the summit was off to the left, so we traversed along the base of the ice wall, sometimes inside the bergschrund, and gingerly made our way around it. Eventually we made our way back onto easier terrain, and the occasional break in the total whiteout allowed us to see the next 200 feet or so. At times it was so bad I was getting dizzy!
We eventually made it to the summit though, at which point we couldn't see a thing, but heard a group of skiers nearing the summit just below us. They had walked up the normal route and coincidentally topped out merely moments after us. They evidently saw us on the north ridge earlier in the morning. After a brief chat, we all started down, and Josh led us through the whiteout over the summit plateau and we were quickly descending the upper part of the normal route down to the Baker/Colfax saddle. We dropped below the clouds shortly after leaving the saddle and once we could see clearly again, it was sooth sailing down the boot track to the tent, and then back down the trail to the car. A successful climb, despite not seeing much with two good friends.
We made quick work getting to the small flat bench along the Heliotrope Ridge, just above treeline where we set up camp. Josh had some mice issues with his trekking pole tent, while Jamie and I were happy to have our tent set up in 5 minutes because that evening some additional rain passed by. Early the next morning, we were up and moving by sunrise. We traversed directly across the large Coleman Glacier, crossing below the north face of Baker and aiming for the low point in the north ridge. The crevasses were mostly still covered up, with only a few big ones to navigate around just before cresting the ridge. We were a strong team and made good time up the lower ridge until we hit the base of the ice step. I threw a few screws on my harness, and led up on the right side of the step, where the ice was slightly less than vertical. It was hard ice, and took some serious swinging to get my quarks to sink in, but it took screws like a boss. After nearly a full rope length I reached a nice level spot and belayed Jamie and Josh up. A second half-pitch got us back onto snow and we continued walking up the ridge until we entered a whiteout, where things got interesting. We struggled to navigate through a huge serac zone, with a vertical wall of ice blocking our progress, guarded by a huge bergschrund. Josh was recalling from one of his previous trips on Baker that the summit was off to the left, so we traversed along the base of the ice wall, sometimes inside the bergschrund, and gingerly made our way around it. Eventually we made our way back onto easier terrain, and the occasional break in the total whiteout allowed us to see the next 200 feet or so. At times it was so bad I was getting dizzy!
We eventually made it to the summit though, at which point we couldn't see a thing, but heard a group of skiers nearing the summit just below us. They had walked up the normal route and coincidentally topped out merely moments after us. They evidently saw us on the north ridge earlier in the morning. After a brief chat, we all started down, and Josh led us through the whiteout over the summit plateau and we were quickly descending the upper part of the normal route down to the Baker/Colfax saddle. We dropped below the clouds shortly after leaving the saddle and once we could see clearly again, it was sooth sailing down the boot track to the tent, and then back down the trail to the car. A successful climb, despite not seeing much with two good friends.
Josh climbing the ice step