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Glacier Climb - Mount Baker

A fun late summer glacier climb in the middle of the wildfire season.

Placeholder Contact Profile Jianing Wang
August 19, 2018
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Trail is well maintained to Railroad Grade. Most of the snow has been melted out to high camp. There are a few small streams running near camp, so no need to melt snow. Lots of icy  patches on the glacier itself with many snow bridges having collapsed and on the verge of collapsing. There was one 3ft 'ice wall' through a sketchy section. The Roman Wall was breaking up and required a few switchbacks.

We assembled at the trailhead at 11, walked out at 1120, got to camp at 1530. Lots of other parties on their way up as well. By 1700 pm camp was getting crowded with lots of guided parties preparing for their skills day the day after. The weather was warm and clear with no wind.

We opted for an early start and woke up at midnight, roped up, and were off by 0100. We reached the base of the Roman Wall by sunrise around 0500 and noticed everything blanketed with a thick grey haze. The combination of sulfur and smoke made for an interesting flavour. We topped out at 0640 and were just barely above the smoke. We were the first party on the summit and saw the second party just behind us as we were getting ready to leave at around 0700.

We made it back to camp at 1030, packed up and ate, left off at 1140, made it back to cars at around 1400.