This story shows what you can do when you are fit and motivated…
It’s about 136 kilometers from 21st and Fraser in Vancouver, British Columbia to the trailhead at Mount Baker in Washington State. Typically when people climb the standard yak route on Mt. Baker, they hike in on a Saturday morning and set up a high camp somewhere either just below the glacier or just up onto it. Then they get up frightfully early Sunday morning and go for the summit, trying to get back to camp before noon, and deteriorating snow conditions; weak snow bridges, etc., and then it’s time to pack up, hike out and drive back home. That’s how most folks do it.
Colin and I had other plans…. Now we had each climbed Baker several times by the traditional method so we knew the lay of the land pretty well. We left our shared house in Vancouver at way early o clock and drove to the trailhead. Remember this is about a 2 hour drive give or take, and you have to cross the border into the United States. We had super light day packs, heck, I can’t remember, maybe we didn’t even have packs. I do recall that whatever we did have it was pretty minimal. We laced up our boots at the trailhead and just started motoring. I believe that the first time we actually stopped was when we hit the glacier and that was to put on crampons and to rope up. By this time it’s getting light of course and we are starting to pass people going for the summit. Mostly people in disbelief that we started from the car only a few hours ago. Baker is not a technical climb by any means. Sure you need ice axes and crampons, and a rope. There is some minor crevasse danger, and a few steeper bits where you wouldn’t want to slip, however it’s pretty benign for the most part. But it sure is a lot of fun. The snow is in great shape and we are just hammering, and so far the weather is holding.
We blast up the Roman Wall and dash for the summit which is on the far side of the mountain. We tag it and turn right around, the weather has now turned and it’s a near white out, but we can at least follow our tracks to the top of the Roman Wall, and get down to the col without incident. The weather is still bad and we actually end up getting off route a bit on the descent and have to wait a while for the clouds to lift. Finally they do, and we can get a bearing and soon are back on the well beaten path in the snow. Another stop to take off the crampons and coil the rope, and then we start chasing each other down Heliotrope Ridge and the trail back down to the car.
In two hours we are back in Vancouver, in time to go out for an early supper. That’s about 2,200m of elevation gain (and descent) and 272 km of driving all in less than fifteen hours kids.
