Second Ascent

After a full, fun-filled summer of Pacific Northwest mountaineering, Dave decided to cap of his season of adventure with one final climb. Last weekend, Dave & Bret Webb took off for a climb up Mount Baker, along the Coleman-Deming route.

Prior to the climb, Dave had read some trip reports; one included a mention of the need of ice screws. Without going into a lengthy discussion on climbing gear, let's just say that they are required for steep terrain.





This year's approach was significantly more difficult than the route taken last year. In fact, Dave said it was one of the most challenging hikes on which he's ever embarked. Starting at the Heliotrope Ridge trailhead, the trail climbed moderately. The guys continued on the steady climb, which was always going up, until they reached the former site of the Kulshan cabin.



From there, the climbers' trek began to climb quite steeply. Reaching the toe of the Coleman Glacier at 6,000 feet, they came across a number of people who were camped just below the glacier. At that point, Bret & Dave pulled on crampons, grabbed their ice axes, roped up and climbed another 1,000 vertical feet with full packs. At 7,000 feet, they pitched tent on an icy spot of the Coleman Glacier.

Aftering cooking a hearty dinner of vaccum-sealed lasanga, they melted snow for water and crawled into their bags by 6:30pm. With summit attempts, it is necessary to follow the adage: "Early to bed, early to rise". Waking up at 1am, they ate a quick breakfast (protein bars and dried "stuff"). Climbing by 2am, they were guided only by the light of headlamps. Early on the route, they navigated through a maze of jagged crevasses; the glacier was really broken up on the lower part of the route.



Our fearless climbers continued up to the junction of the Coleman and upper Deming glacier, scrambling up a pumice ridge for roughly 750 vertical feet. Reaching the top of the ridge, they saw that the terrain was getting steeper (between a 40-50 degree slope). To get out of the elements and wait for better light, they hunkered down behind the ridge and waited for sunrise.

After a brief break, they climbed towards the summit cone; this portion of the route was very steep (55 degrees) which required them to use their hands and feet to climb. At about 7am, they reached the summit plateau. Walking across a large flat area called the “football field”, they achieved the true summit at 7:50am.

After such exertion, they took a moment to capture pictures and rest, while re-fueling for the return trip. Descending via the Roman Wall, they managed to get back to camp around noon where they slept for 1 ½ hours. By 5pm, they had packed up camp and made their way down to the truck.

To keep up with tradition, they hopped in the truck and headed straight to Mount Vernon's El Gitano (a great Mexican restaurant) for some much-needed nourishment and rest.

If this sounds a bit familiar to some of my long-term readers, it is because I wrote a similar post last year. For a glimpse at the adventures on the Easton Glacier, click here.

Another successful summit!