Time for the annual trip report from the North Ridge of Baker! This year I was accompanied by Rod, Rainer, and Hans.
The forecast was cloudy and chance of rain on Saturday, clearing overnight, and partly cloudy on Sunday. The chance of rain materialized, but since the trail was brushed out, we got wet but not soaked on the hike in.
The flowers on Heliotrope Ridge were a pleasant distraction, so we stopped for a few artsy pics.
We hiked up onto the Coleman Glacier and set up camp on the flats at 6600'. After lunch we took a long nap hoping the weather would clear. But it didn't so we roped up anyway to scout the approach. I prefer doing this during the afternoon, rather than wandering around the crevasses in the dark. And we did find a few. Rainer acted as our crevasse poodle for the trip, always willing to punch through to find hidden slots no matter how well beaten the trail.
In the evening, the skied started to clear, mostly due to the influential mind control Hans has over the the weather gods.
We were off by 3:45 the next morning retracing our steps, greeting the dawn at the toe of the ridge. We looked at the bypass to the right, but decided to head left onto the Roosevelt Glacier. At about 8300', we found a snowbridge across the bergschrund to cross onto the North Ridge.
On the North Ridge, we found the most perfect neve snow. The previous day's drizzle followed by overnight clearing created solid snow that took crampons securely but left barely a trace of passage. No step kicking on this trip as we headed up to the ice cliff.
We turned the ice cap on it's left side in three belayed pitches. The glacier ice on the north side was ideal, but less so on the sun baked east side. Rainer turns the arete and heads to the belay.
Above the ice cliff was more perfect neve (and a bit of wind) to the summit.
We topped out at 1 pm to a calm and unoccupied summit. I'm not sure what's going on with the hat here.
An uneventful descent had us back at the car by 6.
It's your lead. Chop, chop.