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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Baker - Ice Cragging |
| October 2008 |
On Saturday Jim, Evan, Annelisa and myself went up to Baker to do a little bit of scouting for the ice trip coming up on the 18th. We decided to leave seattle around 6AM, and almost made it out on time. With one quick stop by alderwood for some coffee and food, we made it up to the parking lot around 9AM.
The approach was pretty mellow with a fairly gentle grade and well maintained trail. The crux was finding a few stream crossings that were pretty iced over, but not always solidly. We went up a little bit higher than we wanted as we missed the climbers trail, but we were rewarded with a great view of the ice from the bluff. We followed the ridge down a ways, and found someones campsite where we followed their obvious trail down to the glacier. We stopped near the bottom to gear up and have a bite to eat, then walked up to an unoccupied area to start climbing.
The first 'pitch' we climbed was some pretty mellow 65ish degree ice that Jim soloed and set up a toprope on for the rest of us who had never climbed ice before. We all gave that a go, and I was grinning from ear to ear afterwards(ice climbing is super fun). Next up, Jim lead a short pitch of 85ish degree ice, and the rest of us top roped that one. Lastly, we set up a toprope on some overhaning ice, that was kind of in a cave and allowed for some ice stemming.
After that, we packed up and headed down the now slippery trail after a day of people compacting the snow and ice. It slowed our progress a little, but we made it back to the car without donning the headlamps. We had a stop by the north fork beer shrine for pizza and beers. It was a great ending to a fantastic day.
Big thanks to Jim for taking a group of ice newbies out and showing us the ropes!
Let's hope this comes in
View from the Ridge
Jim Leading
I love ice climbing
Ice tools have friends too
Annelisa Stemming away
Evan Swinging the tools
