Colfaxin' & Relaxin' (Colfax NE Face + Thunder Glacier)

4/13/25

WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)

500

2

Posted by timgibson11 on 4/16/25 11:59am

During the offseason I came across a 2014 trip report from Drew Tabke involving a linkup of the NE & W faces of Colfax. For whatever reason this one really resonated with me, and I decided to put it at the top of my list for the spring. As usual, Lucas was up for an off-the-beaten-skintrack adventure in the North Cascades, and we had the perfect day for it on Sunday.

From the Baker-Colfax saddle we toured up the ridge towards Colfax, then made a short traverse below the East summit which put us at the top of the NE Face. This is a fun little line perched right above the throng of Baker skiers, but in all the times I've been up the Coleman-Deming I don't think I've ever seen tracks on it. Snow conditions were pretty good but by far the most impressive thing about this line is the exposure - you start out making turns above cliffs, and finish with more turns directly below a massive icefall - stopping for a breather here is definitely not recommended! There's not much that compares to the feeling of skiing out away from committing terrain and accelerating as you hit the apron. Here's Lucas catching that feeling.

At the bottom of the NE Face we toured over to the West summit of Colfax. We were hoping to ski the Thunder Headwall from the summit, but it was very rimed up and didn't look like much fun, so we skied down the ridge to the standard entry point for the Thunder Glacier and had a cruisy run down the glacier with awesome views of Lincoln Peak's forbidding north face, followed by more good turns down to Grouse Creek.

Most of the details are covered in Drew's report, I'll just add that this is a great tour that makes the most of the day by following the sun, and allows you to use relatively safe ascent routes while getting eyes on some engaging lines that you can choose to ski or not.

In the unlikely event you clicked in hopes of seeing my usual POV footage, I'm sorry to disappoint. My editing plate was already full from the two previous days paragliding in the Skagit Valley, so the GoPro stayed behind. This will have to do:

Some photos from Sunday:

NE face

Colfax summit ridge

Lucas finishing the upper NE face

Looking down the lower NE face

Colfax West summit

Thunder standard entry

Thunder headwall & glacier

4/17/25 9:21am

kamtron

Sick!

It seems like the elephant trunk is widening as the glacier recedes, especially comparing Drew and your photos.

Funnily enough, I watched Jere Burrell snowboard this line last spring on the same day your crew was riding the Coleman headwall (I still owe you photos, will deliver).

Thunder's upper headwall is much thinner than in years past. I was up there on April 5, the headwall was sick pow, but the upper section connector looked too rocky and thin for my margins. We did have a nice ski of 1/2 the headwall through the hanging ramp entrance.

4/21/25 5:20pm

steepski

Nice work, those are some fun lines! I’ve got fond memories of that day with Tabke. Every time I’m on the Coleman since then I look up at the elephant trunk, it’s been interesting see it change over the years, sometimes I think the ice recession is making it less challenging, but other times it seems much more difficult. Depends on that years snowpack I imagine.

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