27-Oct-02 update: I've added several pictures from Ted and Ben, as well as some videos shot by Ted. Click here to jump to the new content.
I recently participated in a glacier training expedition/summit climb of Mt. Baker (10,780') in the Northern Cascades of Washington state. The trip was put together by Alpine Ascents, Inc. Summit day was the most physically demanding day of my life and was very rewarding.
My conditioning to prepare for the trip included running 4-5 miles per day and lifting weights five days per week. I also hiked with a heavy pack (40-50 lbs) one day per week over a hilly 12-mile course at a local park. This prepared me adequately for the physical demands of the course, although it was still hard work.
There were 2 guides (Winslow and Gene) and 7 clients, Ben, Bill, Chris, Holly, Phyllis & Ted (wife and husband) and myself.
The hike in on the first day (Sunday) took 6 hours with a 60 lb pack. I don't remember how much elevation gain we did, but I think it was about 2,500 feet. I think the mileage was approximately 5 miles in. The only thing that happened the first day was to set up camp.
I was billeted in a 3-man tent with Bill and Ben. At 53, Bill was the oldest member of our troupe, and at 18, Ben was probably the youngest. I believe I was the second oldest at 41 years old.
Over the next few days the guides taught us how to walk on snow using several different techniques. We also learned how to "arrest" ourselves from falling or sliding by using our ice axes. We learned many different knots and rope techniques, how to make and use "prussiks", which you can use to pull yourself up a rope if trapped in a crevasse. We traveled out onto the Easton glacier where we practiced crevasse rescue.
Finally we were ready to put all of the knowledge and skills to work on summit day. We went to bed about 6 p.m. Wednesday evening and were awakened at midnight. We got our gear ready and started out for the summit at 1:00 a.m. Thursday morning. We were carrying minimal packs containing extra clothes, food, water and cameras. We were wearing our crampons, the steel-toothed spikes strapped onto our double-plastic climbing boots, to help us walk on the ice.
When we first started out early Thursday morning, it was a beautiful night. No moon that I could see, but thousands of stars were shining and it was not too cold or windy. We were roped up in two teams of 4. Phyllis had injured her leg, a condition known as "shin bang" from the heavy plastic boots we wear, and had decided to stay in camp rather than make the summit attempt.
We walked for several hours. The guides were out front, marking the path with "wands", poles with little red flags on them. We had headlamps on to see by. Mostly I tried to follow the footsteps of the person in front of me (Holly). Occasionally looking left or right, I could see both small and huge, yawning crevasses in the glacier.
Late in the morning, I think it was about 10:30, we reached the crater rim. In the following pictures, it is the "notch" that is visible in the middle of the mountain. We rested here, ate, drank and collected ourselves for the final push up the 1,000' "Roman Wall." Mt. Baker is an active volcano and has steam vents in its crater that spew out sulphuric-smelling gas. The gas settles over the adjacent snowfield, turning the snow a brownish tint.
My only difficulty on the climb came at this point, after about 4,000' of elevation gain and 1,000' below the summit. I did not eat or drink enough that morning before setting out, and I just ran out of gas. Fortunately the guides were patient with me and gave me some energy gel packets to eat, and I drank some water and ate some nuts/raisins etc. and in a short time felt much better and was ready to push on.
Finally we started up the Roman Wall, which looked like about a 35 degree slope leading to the summit. After 1 1/2 to 2 hours, we topped out and had about a 10-minute walk on top of the mountain to the small hillock that constitutes the "true" summit of Mt. Baker. Unfortunately, it was cloudy while we were on top and I didn't get very good pictures of the surrounding countryside. The temperature at the summit was about 20 degrees with gusting 30 mph winds.
After mugging for the various cameras for a few minutes, we retreated to just below the true summit to have some food and water before returning to camp. The return trip took about 3 hours, making the total round-trip time from camp to summit back to camp at 14 hours.
After returning to camp, everyone had something to eat and most everyone went to bed around 5 or 6 in the evening. Everyone slept in the next morning. The final learning sessions on Friday included map reading and orienteering and ice climbing. Late Friday afternoon everything was packed up and we hiked back out, and headed back to the "real" world.
Links for Mt. Baker:
Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest site
Click here for the link to Alpine Ascents. They have a great web site.
Click on a picture to see a bigger image (640x480 pixels). I have the original 1280x960 images as well if you want them to print.
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A beautiful alpine meadow scene on the hike in. |
L-R: Bill, Chris, Gene take a break on the hike in. |
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The bottom end of the Easton glacier as seen from camp. There are 12 glaciers on Mt. Baker. |
A lonely campsite in the clouds. |
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View of Mt. Baker from camp. |
Snowfields above camp. |
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Our home away from home for 6 days. |
Bill takin' a drink of somethin'. (He said it was tea...) |
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Yours truly, mugging for the camera at camp. |
Rocks darn well pretty much everywhere. |
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Another beautiful day in paradise. |
Tentmate Ben. That's his 3-man Kelty tent we used. |
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Tentmate Bill. |
Baker in the background. |
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Another group at high camp. |
Looking down the hill. |
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A true luxury, 3 toilets up on the mountain (bring your own paper). |
Practicing crevasse rescue. |
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Ben, Chris and Winslow take a break on the Easton glacier during crevasse rescue training. |
Huge blocks of ice called seracs form as the glacier flows over a ridge. |
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Looking into the summit crater at the swirling, sulphur-smelling gas. Baker is an active volcanoe that last erupted in 1880. |
Looking up at a false summit through the swirling crater gas. |
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Looking down from the crater. The gas turns the snow brown. |
Beautiful view from the crater. |
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Mugging on the summit. Bad light, lots of clothes. But, really, it's me in there. About 20 degrees with a gusting 30 mph wind. |
Little bit better light, but the camera strap got in the way. Pretty cloudy on the summit, but not snowing. |
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Bill on the summit. |
Summit shot with partial clearing. |
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Another summit shot. |
Taking a break below the summit to rest, eat, drink. |
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Back at the crater to rest and take off crampons. |
Still at the crater rim on the way down. Note the angle of the slope. |
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Yet another crater shot. |
Roped up on our way down the glacier. |
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More seracs and icefall. |
The view out of my end of the tent. |
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Wildflowers near camp. |
Final shot of the mountain. |
The following two pictures are copyright (c) 2002 Ben Cobb.
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That's me, hanging in a crevasse during rescue drills. |
Summit shot. |
The following four pictures are copyright (c) 2002 Ted Mather.
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A rainy day in camp. |
Summit shot. |
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Descending in the mist. |
Ted doing some ice climbing. |
Videos
The following thumbnails represent four .avi movies that Ted captured during the trip. Click on a thumbnail to play the .avi file. You will need Quicktime, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to play the videos. The videos are copyright (c) 2002 Ted Mather.
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Panoramic view of the mountain while practicing crevasse rescue skills. (3.1 MB) |
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Resting at the crater rim. (2 MB) |
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Walking down the glacier after summitting. Ted is leading the second team, which is why you don't see a rope between him and the person in front of him (Winslow). (1.4 MB) |
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Ben doing some ice climbing on the last day. (3.1 MB) |
I hope that you enjoyed this page.
Kent Kersten.
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