December 29, 2002, Coleman Glacier (Mt. Baker)
12/29/02
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2397
0
With my regular touring partner Ben visiting some friends in Bellingham, we agreed I'd pick him up and return to Heliotrope on Sunday, where we had toured 1 week prior. Sky was informed of our plans, and he too was game for the trip. Arrived at the 2,800' level on Glacier Creek Road (approximately 1.25 miles from the trailhead thanks to those obnoxious snowmobilers having control of our forest service roads in the wintertime). Took approximately 20 minutes to skin the 1.5 miles to the "true" trailhead at 3,700'. Started on the regular climbing route. After crossing the first bridge we headed due south, skinning up through the woods along the main drainage. Accessed the nearest treed ridge and skinned to the top of Heliotrope. Windblown snow coverage along ridgeline still showed presence of true land anchors, while the steep bowls in between the ridges contained deep powder. Continued along to Marmot Ridge and got a rarely seen view down the Thunder Glacier looking down the backside of the Black Buttes.
Ben was inclined to ski the highest peak along Heliotrope, while I told Sky and Ben lets push onward onto the Coleman Glacier. They were both game, so we continued onward. Crevasses still prevalent, but the majority of the big yawners familiar to me on my journeys up Baker on this route in September/October are well filled in. I must say, it's interesting to see their transformation with time and additional snowfall. Once we reached Coleman Glacier, snow became deep in places, which made for breakin' trail laborous. We continued to watch the building clouds to the south of Heliotrope Ridge below, knowing this high pressure window was not going to last long.
We reached 9,150' just after 2:00pm, and I was outvoted on cotinuing to climb higher despite the fact we all were feeling really good. Our stopping point was at a location I call the "serac chute", which abuts the south side of the Roman Nose. This is located several hundred yards northwest of the Coleman-Deming saddle.
It was all downhill from here, and was perhaps the most epic ski run I've had in quite some time with over 6,300' of continuous skiing. The winds were quite calm on the entire route. If there was any winds that hit Baker with last week's storm, we sure didn't encounter any windcrust with continuous powder all the way back down to 3,900'. Furthermore, on the steeper west/southwest aspects that were skied between 9,150' and 4,000' there was no evidence of any sluffing, with conditions appearing to be in a very consolidated state.
After returning to the car, we were in awe of the conditions we had just been treated to. I had to drill home that had we not had to break into Ben's apartment to get his skins for the climb, we would have been skiing off of the summit with close to 8,000 vf of continuous skiing! With this, we said "we'll be back for more in January!" :)
Ben was inclined to ski the highest peak along Heliotrope, while I told Sky and Ben lets push onward onto the Coleman Glacier. They were both game, so we continued onward. Crevasses still prevalent, but the majority of the big yawners familiar to me on my journeys up Baker on this route in September/October are well filled in. I must say, it's interesting to see their transformation with time and additional snowfall. Once we reached Coleman Glacier, snow became deep in places, which made for breakin' trail laborous. We continued to watch the building clouds to the south of Heliotrope Ridge below, knowing this high pressure window was not going to last long.
We reached 9,150' just after 2:00pm, and I was outvoted on cotinuing to climb higher despite the fact we all were feeling really good. Our stopping point was at a location I call the "serac chute", which abuts the south side of the Roman Nose. This is located several hundred yards northwest of the Coleman-Deming saddle.
It was all downhill from here, and was perhaps the most epic ski run I've had in quite some time with over 6,300' of continuous skiing. The winds were quite calm on the entire route. If there was any winds that hit Baker with last week's storm, we sure didn't encounter any windcrust with continuous powder all the way back down to 3,900'. Furthermore, on the steeper west/southwest aspects that were skied between 9,150' and 4,000' there was no evidence of any sluffing, with conditions appearing to be in a very consolidated state.
After returning to the car, we were in awe of the conditions we had just been treated to. I had to drill home that had we not had to break into Ben's apartment to get his skins for the climb, we would have been skiing off of the summit with close to 8,000 vf of continuous skiing! With this, we said "we'll be back for more in January!" :)
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