North Ridge Mt. Baker Ski Mountaineering
In March a friend and I set off to climb the North Ridge of Mt. Baker and ski down the Coleman Headwall back to camp. The North Ridge has been on the mind for awhile as one of the 50 Classic Climbs of North America. We packed real quick and set off with the intention of creating a base camp and climbing the North Ridge the first day and the Cosley-Houston route on Colfax the next.
The ski in was long and slow with the gloppyiest snow of my life. Our skis regularly weighted 20 lbs a piece before stopping, clearing the snow and continuing on. We had to clear our skis every 10 minutes which made for a slow trip.
In the morning, we set off for the North Ridge, skinning through some beautiful light powder (the snow had changed once we got to a higher elevation. Beautiful, very windy ridge climbing brought us to the base of the ice step where a beautiful traverse brought us to more mid-angle steps of ice to get to the upper snow slopes.
The wind was so wild we were getting blown around. On the upper slopes, the wind ripping the snow into a flury, I fell into a crevasse up to my waist. But getting out was easy enough and soon we were on the summit strapping on skis for a beautiful descent back down to camp over rough sastrugi.
The Cosley-Houston route was out — the ice didn’t connect in some very important sections — but it didn’t really matter anyways because the weather was turning and we skied out by GPS in a full whiteout.
An excellent trip with Sam! We guide ice routes and ski mountaineering adventures like the North Ridge. Reach out if you’re interested.
