Mount Baker National Recreation Area - 2003
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After numerous woodland hikes, going to Mt. Baker would be my first alpine experience. Being a glaciated peak, this required a lot of new gear. Mountaineering boots, winter gaiters, crampons, ice axe, and many slings would be required.
We arrived at SeaTac and gathered the numerous bags containing our gear. After acquiring our rental 4x4, we made the long trip north to the Mt. Baker trailhead. While assessing our gear at the trailhead, one of our team said, “that’s not your green bag, it’s mine”. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but two of our guys had the exact same bag and believed it was theirs and left the other one back at SeaTac. So, back in the car we went to retrieve it at SeaTac. Fortunately, it was still there, but we arrived back at the trailhead around 11pm. Being 1am Chicago time, we just slept in the SUV.
The next morning, we took the common southeast approach to the summit, stopping about a half mile after Sandy Camp. Perhaps it was due to global warming, but our friend Dan who has summitted Mt. Baker, Denali, and many other peaks believed there would be sufficient snowfall on the Easton Glacier in August. Instead, the snowfield was completely melted and the bare glacier, with all its crevasses was exposed. Being late afternoon, we setup our three-man tent. The third day, we roped up and traveled around the glacier. At times, we needed to leap over the crevasses and find ways around the larger ones with gaps exceeding the ability to jump across. Conditions were not suitable to hike up the glacier to the summit, and we returned to the tent.
The fourth day we retreated back to the vehicle. We climbed a large mountain with a fire tower. It was quite a climb and wish I could remember the peak. That night, we found a campsite with a lake and spent our last night there. The final day we headed into Seattle, explored the town, had a nice meal, and caught the redeye back to Chicago.