Trip Report
Mount Baker/North Ridge
Successful climb of the North Ridge
Ian Lauder
- Fri, Jun 14, 2019 — Sat, Jun 15, 2019
- Mount Baker/North Ridge
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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NR route was in great shape. The snowbridge over the standard Coleman/Deming descent route had collapsed the night before and parties were turning around because of it. However it was bypassed with an end run climbers left side of the glacier.
Private climb after canceling a posted Forbidden climb, party of 2. Bad mountaineers breaking the climbing code.
After a 2nd ill-fated plan of Forbidden fell through we decided on just doing the classic North Ridge of Mount Baker which is an AI3 ice climb onto the upper North Ridge to the summit. On the way in we ran into a fellow Mountaineer and heard the snowbridge over the big crevasse on the Coleman route had collapsed and parties were turning around, but that one person had rappeled into the crevasse and walked out. I only heard that I might be able to rap into a crevasse on our exit and figured it was still game on and that would be awesome. So on we went. Ran into some skiers on their way down who warned us very emphatically that the bridge was out. We were like, ok thanks. And the skier dude was emphatically repeating "its out, the bridge is OUT". Okay, thanks. And on we went. Got to the snow field and found a large group of 6 that were bailing out because the Coleman route was out. Okay, on we went. Got camp setup, spent an hour hiking an extra 1000ft up scouting a route and running a track through the crevasses so we wouldn't get tripped up in the dark. Next morning started up at 3:30am and made good time to the base of the route by 7:30am and finding some serious no-fall zones along the way. On my way up the ice route finally saw a pair of climbers coming up from below (the only people we crossed paths with till we hit the summit). Made the summit by 10:30am. On the way down the Coleman as expected people had figured out an end run around the crevasse and the route was just fine. Back at the trailhead ran into a group who asked how the route was and that they heard the Coleman route was out because of a collapsed snow bridge so they had just done a car shuttle leaving a car on the Easton trailhead planning on having to do a carryover.... I told them the reports of the death of the Coleman route were greatly exaggerated. Bummer they have to go back and get that car.