Mount Baker Summit Climb with AAI

I just got back from a three day work trip up Mt Baker.  We had amazing weather and almost perfect conditions.  If anything it was possibly a little hot for me, but most days seem to be a little warm for me.  Day one consisted of gear check, driving to the trailhead and hiking into our camp.

The hike in.

A camp caretaker.

The hike in.

Excited to be at camp?

Sunset

Day two consisted of skills practice.  We started with snow school which consists of snow walking and ice axe use and moves into self arrest.

Self arrest practice.

 After lunch we worked on roped glacier travel and took a tour of the glacier.

The ice fall.

 We ended the day with a little crevasse rescue training, after lowering one of the group into a crevasse.

Using the drop C to rescue a team member.  

 Day 3 was summit day and started at 2am when my alarm went off.  I started by shooting a couple of photos of the summit.

The long walk uphill.  

A cloud cap covered the mountain most of the day and we climbed into it.  

Steam rises from the crater about 1000ft below the summit.  

Into the clouds. 

Above the crater.

Signing the summit log.  

Summit Gu!

Descending.  

We took the scenic route down and stopped at one of the best overlooks in the lower 48.  

Mt. Baker Glacier Skills Trip with American Alpine Institute

At the beginning of last week I led a glacier skills trip on Mt. Baker.  Despite the bad weather forecast it turned out to be a pretty good trip and we managed to get a lot accomplished.  I was a little worried we would not be able to find a crevasse to do crevasse rescue in due to the huge snow year.  After a short time of searching for a hole we found an almost perfect spot just outside of our camp.  Each person got to fall into a crevasse and each person also got to arrest a real crevasse fall with the weight of a real person.  If you spend a lot of time on glaciers and you have not had the chance to do this you should.  Its a lot more difficult than "rescuing" a backpack.

Here are some photos of the trip.