North Ridge on Mount Baker

May 16, 2014

The gorgeous weather this past week tantalized me enough that a marginal weather report for the weekend all but forced me to take Friday off to get out there.

We knew things had been warm and that recent avalanche activity in the area was not to be taken lightly. Thankfully, the forecast called for cooler temperatures as well as some cloud cover for Friday. We drove up from Seattle after work and arrived about a mile from the trailhead at an impassible, snowy bridge around 11:00pm. After getting our packs ready for a fast departure, we fell asleep in the car at about 11:30pm.

After a quick coffee and muffin, we were moving up the road at 1:30am. The road was patchy and clear for a ways, went under a fallen tree, and then got onto snow about a half mile before the TH. There wasn't enough snow in the trees off to the sides to give us confidence that we could skin yet, so we continued hiking in trail runners all the way to tree line. At about 3am, before reaching tree line, a pair of climbers were coming down the trail. They spoke of 20mph winds, avalanche debris, lightning to the North, and slushy snow. Yikes. It was early enough that we decided to keep going, knowing that we could descend quickly on skis if we had to.

Things were much more mellow than we expected them to be and the skin to and up the glacier went smoothly. We stayed low, rather than going up Heliotrope Ridge, and did a gently rising traverse to eventually gain the bowl below seracs on the Coleman-Deming route. All the while, the clouds to the West looked menacing and we could see lightning flashes way off in the distance, but things were stable and seemed to be getting better.

There was enough snow on the glacier to enable a direct skin up to the North Ridge, so I picked my way around crevasses and we quickly made it to the base of the right entrance to the ridge around 7am. We switched to boots and crampons here and followed a boot pack that looked to be no more than a week old. A huge thank you to whomever put that beast in. We post-holed through many of the steps, so we could imagine how loose it must have been for them.

Once on the ridge, we were surprised by how long it felt to get to the ice, but we were rewarded the whole way with a clear view to the North. The menacing clouds had disappeared and it was a beautiful, sunny day. We made it to the ice at about 10am, where I racked up quickly and headed up on our single 60m 8mm line. I decided to have a bit of fun on the steep, West-facing side before jumping over the crest and running up the ramp to the steeper finish. Our 60m rope was plenty long to go from the belay on snow up to a belay above the lip on two screws. Kate seconded without an issue and we quickly switched the belay for me to lead up what looked to be steep snow back to the true ridge.

There were no difficulties, so I banged in a picket before she pulled the belay and then we simul-climbed the rest of the route, following the boot pack as it traversed underneath the seracs and toward the summit. It was slow going up top, with lots of post-holing and air that felt thinner than it should have for 10,000 feet. Nevertheless, we ditched packs just below the summit and hit the top at about 2:15pm, just shy of 13 hours after our start at the car. Clouds had rolled in and only the bigger peaks stuck out. Shuksan, in particular, looked awesome.

The ski down was without incident, which was exactly our goal. Snow had softened nicely on the Roman Wall and it was pretty wet down low, but not complete concrete, so turns weren't impossible. We each had a few comical crashes, but that was it.

After skiing down a gully for a while which paralleled the trail, we transitioned to shoes and hiked down to the car before 6:30pm for around a 17-hour round trip.

Attempt on Cauthorn-Wilson

May 10, 2014

UPDATE: See the trip report from my successful climb of this route on April 4, 2015

I've wanted to try this route for over a year now and was hopeful that a smash and grab attempt right after the highway opened on Thursday would see good conditions.

Kelsey and I made the drive from Seattle, starting at 5am on Saturday and started the approach around 9am. It was overcast and relatively warm, but not so warm that I was concerned about the route melting, especially given the lack of direct sun and cloud encapsulating Cutthroat. The snow was very firm near the car, so we decided to leave the skis and boot our way in. It was easy going up to tree line, but at that elevation, the crust was gone and we began post holing. At times it was knee-to-hip deep and we traded off turns in the front until reaching the couloir. Despite the slow conditions, we arrived at the base of the couloir in about 2 hours from the car, which felt strange since the book suggested a 2.5-4 hour approach. Our first look up the couloir was a bit baffling. Two deep runnels were gouged into the snow. It looked like water had rushed down the couloir, eroding the snow and creating bobsled runs 4-5 feet deep. Guessing that this might have washed out much of the ice, but not knowing for sure, we scampered up to have a look.

The first 2-3 pitches of the route were all steep snow which became more consolidated as we got higher. At the short step below the real pitch of climbing, we stopped to assess. The ice in front of me was completely sun-baked and aerated. I couldn't find a place where an ice screw wouldn't just push straight in without needing to turn. Bummer. The ice pitch itself also looked anemic. I compared my picture later to the one in the guidebook and reaffirmed that these conditions just weren't going to go without serious, unnecessary risk.

So we bailed. And drowned our sorrows in Winthrop with a nap by the river, burgers, and beers. Not so bad.

My Sunday plan of the Early Winters Couloir was also dashed by exceptionally warm temperatures, so we lapped the Southwest Couloir on South Early Winters Spire a few times early in the morning, skinned up to the Birthday Tour col, and had some great turns back to the car by noon or so.

These classics will have to wait until next spring, I guess.

Triple Couloirs on Dragontail Peak

April 26, 2014

With a solid spring of classic Cascade alpine climbs under our belts and an impending move by Goran to San Francisco, we wanted to cap things off right. Our attempt on Triple Couloirs in late May of last year was thwarted by new snow, warm temperatures, and avalanche concerns. This time was different.

We drove out to Leavenworth after work on Friday and arrived at the gated road at about 9:30pm. We packed quickly, deciding to bring 6 pins, 5 screws, 2 pickets, a small set of nuts, and 4 cams, and were hiking up the road in our trail runners with boots on our packs at about 10:15pm. The hike was quick and without incident, save an unfortunate miss of the Colchuck Lake trail turn-off as we conversed with a couple near the trail junction. Despite close to 30 minutes of errant motion, we made it to our campsite at the edge of the lake below Dragontail in about 3 hours and 45 minutes from the gate. It was about 2am at this point, so we quickly set up camp and conked out with alarms set for just shy of 6am. We'd walked past another party camping on the lake who said they would start the route at 5am, so we figured we'd be behind them.

Looking back at Dragontail on our way out

A quick 6am coffee got us going on our clear, chilly Saturday morning and we rapidly ascended the snowy moraine to the base of the first couloir. The other party was just getting to the edge of the lake at this point, so we were in for a pristine route (a.k.a. setting the boot pack). We soloed the snice entrance and first couloir to the base of the runnels. Goran took the first pitch of steep snice with really good sticks and brought us to a belay at a rocky step about 40 feet below a larger, overhanging rock outcrop.

From there, I did a delicate step left, plugged a cam, and gingerly climbed up thin ice and rock for a series of moves before plugging another cam and moving up and right on slightly more secure climbing to the overhanging roof where I set a belay on awesome cams. Goran quickly came up to me and then cast off to the left around the rock outcrop, then up the remainder of the runnels where he banged in a few pins in the steeper section that was mostly mixed climbing with a handful of sticks in snice.

I climbed up to him at the belay and went straight by him, leading out and then simul-climbing the second couloir, placing a cam and a pin on the side in case the ample snow decided to rip. The steps alternated between secure and hip-deep wallowing all the way up the couloir. We continued simul-climbing as I hit the rock section between the second and third couloirs. I remembered Goran saying a recent TR had people climbing too high on the left, so I stuck right up against the right wall, which was mixed climbing with a touch of sugary snow on mostly slabby rock. After banging in 3 pins along the way and getting low on gear with nasty rope drag, I set up a belay and brought Goran up just shy of 1pm.

There were no great options from the belay and the next 50 feet of climbing took a surprising amount of time. Straight up against the wall was M6 or so, slightly overhanging chimney climbing. Up and left was M4/5 with questionable feet on sugar snow. Hard left wasn't much easier. Goran decided, after trying straight up, to cut up and left, which was spicy for a move, then easier for 20 feet before getting tough again on slabby rock with marginal protection. Thankfully, he finished it up without incident, hit the third couloir, and set up a belay.

I'd taken the opportunity to have a snack while belaying and, by the time the rope came tight, was feeling great. I climbed through the mixed section and went past him again, taking on knee-deep snow in the third couloir from the belay to the finish. I had untied at the belay before the couloir since the remaining climbing was very secure and unprotected snow. The technique which served the best was to turn the tools sideways and punch my hands into the snow to take the weight off my feet, then kick into the depressions from my hands as I climbed up. Otherwise, I would slip through each foot placement to hip-deep snow.

It was sunny, calm, and beautiful at the finishing notch when we arrived there at about 4pm, so we decided to eat lunch and take a quick rest in the sun before finishing the climb. It wasn't far to the top and we dropped packs before the last 100 feet since we'd be back down the same place. With some obligatory summit shots and high fives complete, we began the descent, following footprints from two parties who had done the standard route earlier in the day.

The descent was super fast and involved some fun glissading down Asgard Pass almost straight to our tent. We drank hot chocolate and ate our dinners from the tent with a view of the sunset on Dragontail. I think the day had doubled the number of pins I'd placed in my life. We didn't use a single ice screw. What a phenomenal climb!