the waterfall; our approximate route is shown in red
The recent week-long cold snap had reportedly frozen many of the waterfalls and drainages below the Coleman Glacier on the flanks of Mount Baker. Elain and I saw a photograph of what appeared to be a moderate multi-pitch waterfall that was reported to be somewhere near the Hogsback. We strongly desired to undertake an alpine ice climb, to take advantage of the tail end of this unusual cold spell, but I had to leave town for work reasons on Sunday. So we had only Saturday for climbing, and we decided to go hunt for ice at Mount Baker. We got a reasonably early start, and were walking by 8:30 AM. At the first two creek crossings, we observed frozen (or partially frozen) waterfalls upstream. In one case, there was a large waterfall just 10 meters up the creekbed from the trail. However, the ice looked thin there, and so we decided to continue hiking, to look for better-frozen ice above treeline. Once on the spine of the "hogsback" and clear of treeline, we observed a frozen waterfall several hundred meters to the climber's right of the trail. The terrain and the ice features appeared to roughly match our memory of the waterfall in the photograph. We decided to go over and check it out. We had to cross a creekbed with a steep, chossy embankment. Once we scrambled past the creekbed, we traversed rock slabs (carefully avoiding the verglas that had formed on some of the slabs) towards the base of the waterfall. It appeared to be at least a couple hundred feet high, and mostly moderate climbing with a steeper 20-meter step towards the top. A pair of climbers got to the base of the waterfall just ahead of us, so I decided to wait a while and let them get started first. I wandered over and checked out a small, steep waterfall at the head of the creekbed we had crossed, and it looked good for top-roping. By the time I got back, the party of two was well on their way to finishing the first pitch. We decided to climb behind the party of two and just keep our heads down.
Not wanting to be obligated to return to the base of the waterfall, we climbed with our packs. Although we were fairly nervous about climber-induced icefall, as it turned out the party above us climbed carefully and dislodged very little ice. Elain was mostly out of the line of fire for the ice that I accidentally discharged. The first pitch started out with a short (25') steep step before the angle moderated a bit. The ice was somewhat thin and tended to dinner-plate a bit. So I had to gently swing the tool and concentrate on placing the picks in depressions in the ice. I placed three screws on the first pitch, and most of them sank about 13-15 cm before hitting rock. On the first screw I had to do a tie-off with a spectra runner, but after that I rearranged my screws so that the short screws were first on my ice clippers. Because we were using a 50m rope system, I ran out of rope just below the other party's first belay station (they were using a 60m rope system). So I traversed to the climber's left and found a depression to the left of the waterfall next to the rock. There was just enough room to stand in the depression and be out of the "line of fire" for icefall. So I decided to set up the belay there. The rock did not offer any apparent possibilities for rock pro, so I used two equalized screws (one tied off) to set up the anchor. I belayed Elain up to me and we exchanged gear for the second pitch. By then, the other party was simul-climbing higher up on the waterfall through what would become our third pitch. So the coast was clear. Our second pitch was an easy, low-angle right-tending ice ramp. I placed a screw midway through the pitch, just for paranoia's sake. When I ran out of rope, I was in a flat depression just below and to the right of a steeper 30' ice curtain. The second climber of the other party was already topping out above the curtain at this point. The rock again offered no obvious places for pro, so I just kludged together an anchor out of a snarg and a tied-off screw. Once Elain joined me at the belay, I set about climbing the ice curtain. It was my first time leading on waterfall ice since my previous lead two years ago (in which I fell), so I was a bit nervous. I climbed up about eight feet and placed a screw with a screamer and a doubled-up single runner. The ice on the curtain was thick enough for good tool sticks, and it was easy to get good front-point placements with a single kick. At the top of the curtain, the angle kicked back and again became WI1-2 cruising. When I ran out of rope, I exited the ice ribbon on the right-hand side, and sat down on some heather next to a large boulder, around which I looped the cordalette for a belay. Scanning the terrain from the belay, it appeared that an obvious walk-off would be to ascend uphill, traversing to the climber's left until rejoining the Hogsback trail. I belayed Elain up to me, and she notified me that she had dropped my titanium "leaver" screw. Elain was kind enough not to complain about having to clean the overdriven snarg, which is never a fun chore. So the "leaver" screw had been left behind. We decided to walk down toward the climber's right and try to get back to the base of the waterfall to retrieve the wayward hardware. We followed heather slopes and then descended a scree gully to the base of the waterfall. After a few minutes of searching, I found the screw. I then did some ice bouldering on the first pitch, and looked for booty gear in the drainage. Unfortunately I only found discarded blue bags and an old shell jacket frozen into the ice.
At this point we discussed climbing the steeper, shorter waterfall we had observed higher up in the creekbed to the climber's left of the drainage we had just climbed. However, Elain was not feeling well, and it was in any event already 2:00 PM. Finally, we saw several climbers already top-roping on the steeper waterfall. So we decided to head home. On the hike out, I slipped while carelessly descending a wet rock slab, and somehow rotated backwards in the air like a cartoon character. I fell directly on my back. Fortunately I was wearing a pack full of gear, and was unhurt. The rest of the hike out was uneventful, and we reached the car around 4:00 PM. As this was our first multipitch waterfall together, and my second waterfall lead, we were very happy with how the day turned out.
Gear we used: 8.5mm x 50m double ropes, ice tools, crampons, six screws (sizes 10cm - 17cm), snarg
Things we learned:
the waterfall; our approximate route is shown in red
the upper part of the waterfall
Steve climbing
Mount Baker
Elain, at the top of the waterfall