{"id":311,"date":"2012-07-02T22:19:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T04:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/?p=311"},"modified":"2014-01-19T19:52:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T02:52:09","slug":"cascades-part-1-mount-baker-north-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/cascades-part-1-mount-baker-north-ridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Cascades, Part 1: Mount Baker North Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had been looking forward to a trip to the Cascades for several months. \u00a0Plane tickets bought, plans made. \u00a0I’d been training, dreaming, putting together gear lists, etc. \u00a0However, as the time to go drew near, my friend I was going with told me that he wasn’t going to be able to go. \u00a0His work was not going to allow him to take his planned vacation. \u00a0He couldn’t afford to lose his job, so he was out of the picture. \u00a0 I was pretty bummed, as I’d been looking forward to the trip for quite a while, and really didn’t want to miss it. \u00a0Ultimately, I decided to simply hire a guide and do the trip anyway. \u00a0It was going to cost me more money than going with a friend, but ultimately, I didn’t see any way to get it done otherwise.<\/p>\n

I selected Pro Guiding Service<\/a>\u00a0as my guide service for the trip. \u00a0I chose them primarily because they are permitted for Mount Baker, and also because their cadre of guides is very experienced, with many of their guides holding full UIAGM certifications. \u00a0 Ultimately, I was paired up with a guide named Chris Simmons<\/a>, a great guy with whom I was going to spend a terrific week of climbing. \u00a0Initially, the weather looked not so good. \u00a0As the dates for my trip approached, I kept checking weather reports. \u00a0It looked pretty wet, a concern that was echoed in Chris’s last e-mail to me: \u00a0“Bring extra gloves and rain gear.”<\/p>\n

I flew into Vancouver on Saturday, and met Chris in Bellingham Sunday morning. \u00a0It was raining off and on, but we decided to roll the dice and take a shot at climbing Mount Baker’s North Ridge, my primary objective for the trip. \u00a0We drove to the trail head and hiked up to the high camp on Baker in\u00a0intermittent\u00a0rain. \u00a0 The mountain alternated between completely socked in by clouds, and occasional sun shine. \u00a0I had attempted to climb Mount Baker several years before, but had been turned back by rain and poor visibility. \u00a0I was hoping for better luck this time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Baker's North Ridge under cloudy skies, June 24, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Mount Baker "peaking" out from the clouds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We went to sleep with a light rain falling on our tent. \u00a0I didn’t have much hope for clear weather the next day, but figured anything was possible. \u00a0 We awoke at 3:00, and Chris announced that he could see stars. \u00a0With much enthusiasm, we strapped on crampons and made our way across the glacier, walking across perfect neve snow under a cold, clear sky.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Approaching the North Ridge at dawn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We opted for the left side approach to the ridge, looping under the toe of the ridge and then working our way up the ridge’s left flank. \u00a0Getting to the ridge, we had to avoid some (rather intimidating) crevasses and seracs. \u00a0Chris chose a line that got us past these threatening obstacles, and we made it up onto the ridge proper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Approaching the North Ridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After we gained the ridge, we steadily worked our way upwards, following some old tracks in the snow where possible, until finally, we approached the dramatic ice cliff that guards the mountain’s upper slopes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Approaching the ice cliff pitches on Baker's North Ridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In preparation for this climbing trip, I had read numerous trip reports of people who had climbed the North Ridge. \u00a0All of the reports seemed to indicate that passing the ice cliff on the left was easier than bearing right. \u00a0Chris led the steep ice pitch on the left flank, and pulled around the ridge crest out of sight. \u00a0I could tell that the climbing eased up a bit on the other side of the ridge crest, as he was moving pretty fast once he got established on the other side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chris, leading up the ice cliff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I followed the pitch, and then we climbed up several steep pitches until the angle decreased a bit and it turned into a steady ascent up to the summit. \u00a0We took a few pictures on top, and then began the long slog down to our camp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
On top of Mount Baker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After that, it was a long, ugly, tedious slog back down the hill. \u00a0The snow had softened, so we were\u00a0post holing\u00a0much of the way. \u00a0Eventually, we made it back to our tent, where we hastily broke camp, packed up, and hoofed it down the mountain to our car. \u00a0After a great burger at a local diner, Chris drove home to Seattle, and I drove back to Bellingham. \u00a0We took the next day off to rest and reload. \u00a0I had breakfast at the Old Town Cafe, a wonderful, funky Bellingham restaurant, and then I explored Bellingham a bit. \u00a0Our next objective was going to be a rock route, so I changed out my clothing and gear a bit to get ready for rock climbing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Breakfast (and live music) at the terrific Old Town Cafe, Bellingham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Bellingham City Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

To be continued . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had been looking forward to a trip to the Cascades for several months. \u00a0Plane tickets bought, plans made. \u00a0I’d been training, dreaming, putting together gear lists, etc. \u00a0However, as the time to go drew near, my friend I was going with told me that he wasn’t going to be able to go. \u00a0His work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[122,120,114,207,118,119,121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larsonweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}