Anita and I headed for Mt Baker this past Friday and Saturday to capitialize on the the glorious sunny weather and stable conditions. Our objective was to climb the Polish Route on the north face of Colfax Peak. This route has 2 pitches of WI 2-3+ followed be a short pitch of steep snow leading up to the 4th crux pitch, which can be WI 5 or 6 depending on wether the free hanging column touches down or not. This is followed by 2-3 more pitches of steep snow and WI 2 steps. 
In December Shannon and I had taken photos of the north face from the lower coleman area and they seemed to show that the crux pitch was connected but possibly thin. On our approach the early views appeared consistent with the December photos. We knew that there might be a chance that we couldn't climb the crux pitch but we thought the route looked fun and we'd give it a try.
With fabulous sunny weather we hiked up to our 8,000' foot camp on the glacier on Friday. As we approached the base of the climb on Saturday morning we got an entirely new view point that showed that the crux column was NOT touched down... it was just an icicle dangling in mid air about 6 feet away from the wall behind it. This almost certainly ruled out that we could climb the crux but we decided to proceed up the route anyway because the pitches below the crux looked plenty fun and I had already climbed the other route nearby and wanted to see some new ground.
Here are photos and commentary from our trip...
Anita marches up the hogs back towards the benches below the edge of the Coleman Glacier
Anita pauses and gazes at the view of Baker and Colfax...
Just on the glacier now with a magnificant view of Mt Baker summit and Colfax Peak
Anita leads the way up the Coleman glacier with Lincoln Peak as a backdrop
As we continue up the glacier our objective, Colfax Peak north face, is clearly visible
Looking for a sheltered area out of the wind to make camp
Camping under the icefall is no good
Preping our camp site with our objective right in our back yard
A beautiful sunset view of Heliotrope Ridge and the Puget Sound from our cozy camp
Alpenglow on Baker summit and Colfax Peak as the sun begins to set
Heading out in the early morning
The objective is dead ahead
Nearing the base of the Polish route
The views from our belay stance just below the bergshrund and the start of the route
Starting up the 1st pitch
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Starting up the 2nd pitch
Looking down from our high point on the pocket snow field above top of pitch #2
We can see our yellow tent far below on the glacier
The crux pitch above us... very thin, probable poor protection
top is a free hanging icicle... not connected... WI 6? ... not to be climbed by us today... we turned around here
Here is some more details on the routes for those interested...
Here are the two routes on the north face. The Polish route (our objective) is indicated with yellow arrows.
The Cosley-Houston route is indicated with green arrows. The red circle indicates the polish
routes crux pitch... a steep pitch with a free hanging column ... WI 5/6 depending on conditions
and wether the column has touched down... it wasn't touched down
Lower Polish route detail > (P1) 50m WI 2/3 (P2) 50m WI 3+ (P3) 25m snow 40/50%
Polish route crux detail > Looks like about 25-30m of WI 6 in present condition...
Very thin with probable poor protection... the column coming out of the couloir
at top of the cliff is a free dangling icicle that is about 5 feet away from the
lower wall and whose tip reaches about 6 feet below the ledge behind it... if this
fattened up it would connect about 20 feet down on the lower wall and probably go at WI 5
