I'm finding more and more sore spots on
my body as each day passes, as a sign of growth, no doubt. I've
climbed to the top of Mt Baker, finally, after living in the
foothills for most of my life. It wasn't quite as hard as I thought
it would be, but there were a lot of things I have learned about
climbing on glaciers.
I went with my friend Ric, who is an
experienced mountaineer, who showed me (and brought) the ropes of
glacier travel. I'd been hesitant of going onto glaciers before,
because I didn't know if I could do the self-arrest maneuver, build
snow anchors, or do a crevasse rescue, but I have a lot more
confidence in myself now that I've practiced some of these things,
and I also was worried about the expensive gear it takes to go up,
but for this trip I spent only 35 dollars. Ric was very gracious
about loaning me some things and I got a pair of crampons last summer
as a gift, so the expenses were limited.
We went up a route that is called the
“Coleman-Deming Route” because it goes up on the side of the
Coleman Glacier, then along “Pumice Ridge” which separates the
Coleman from the Deming Glacier, and then out onto the top of the
Deming Glacier in a spot called the “Roman Wall” which is the
steepest section of the route and leads to the Summit Plateau. The
actual summit is a little pile of pumice and tortured rock on the
east side of the top, out of reach of the photograph taken from the
San Juan Islands, but is not terribly interesting.
As this is an
active volcano, there are some steam vents to the south of the main
peak and in a crater that is filled with yellow snow and a smell of
sulfur. I'd like to take a closer look at that some day, but I'd
probably bring an air tank to do it.
We got up Tuesday morning, drove about
90 minutes and put our backpacks on to hike up the trail to Heliotrope Ridge. The woods are peaceful and it had been a long time since I'd hiked through the mountains around here, so I was very happy to jump across rivers and stroll quietly through stands of tall trees.
There are a bunch of waterfalls and river crossings that change shape during the day there, depending on how much snow is melting. Some of the waterfalls reminded me of Hawaii, though much colder. I was actually quite amazed at how the rocks were so similar to volcanic rock in Mexico and Hawaii that I had been near. I guess it all comes from the same earth.
After a little while we got to the treeline and to the snow. We put on crampons and ropes, passed the main
camp site and hiked up to the top of the ridge to Gargoyle camp.
Unfortunately the mice population up there is active at night and
there was at least one mouse that wanted us to stay awake, running up
and down on top of our sleeping bags and scampering in front of my
face. We moved camp in the dark over to the snow and then settled
down again for the night. I couldn't sleep very well, and found a
few cat naps before it was time to wake up at 3:00 am. We got up and
looked at the stars overhead and then cooked a leisurely breakfast,
warmed up a bit and packed up camp.
We set off at about 4:30 on firm
crunchy snow and the going was quite swift. Soon the sun's light
made it easy to navigate without headlamps and we were near the top
of the Coleman Glacier. A cool breeze sprung up and we were
comfortable still going up and still in the shade along Pumice Ridge
and onto the Roman Wall. We made the Roman wall in 45 minutes, then
crossed a thin wall of rock to ascend into the sun and onto the
summit plateau. It was the first we had felt the sun and we were on
the home stretch. We got up to the top at 9:30, then went to the
summit to have a look around and I took a nap on the dust on the top
of the world.
The wind had picked up by then so it was a bit cold,
but we had clothes for that. After a couple hours we began our
descent, at about 11:30. We had tarried on the top to wait for the
snow to mush up a little so our heels would dig in easier to the
snow, and in fact it was a brilliant plan. We made it down the Roman
Wall in about 10 minutes and blasted down Pumice Ridge and then onto
the Coleman Glacier. The sun began to take its toll on us there,
because the wind stopped and it began to heat up, so we were forced
to rest often, but we made it back to camp by about 2:30. The next
part of the descent was with full camping packs, so it was more
difficult, and to compound things, Ric's crampons began to pack snow
on the bottom and become unusable. He took them off and we made a
slow and slippery way down to the climbers trail, and then down to
the car.
We got to the car at about 7:00, and
found that a mouse had climbed its way into Ric's truck and eaten
some of the food that he'd left there. He had also left some water
in a bottle that he'd borrowed the cap from for the climb. He took a
big swig from the bottle and dumped some on his head to cool off
after the climb and upon a second look at the water bottle found a
dead mouse looking back at him from within the bottle!
I'd like to do this climb again, but
probably take a snowboard and slide down the hill after the climb,
and also try to do it all in one day.
I'm back in Sitka, and here for the last time this season. I broke my 70-300 mm Nikon lens last week and then last saturday while in Juneau, I figured I'd get another one. Instead, I bought a 150-600 mm Tamron lens, which is eye popping and great. I like it a lot. It cost me a pretty penny, though, about $1150, so that was a bit more than a replacement for what I had, but the zoom is superb, the vibration reduction is awesome, and the focus is easy and fun. Its heavy and big though. 
