It was time for a spring ski, and I was totally out of shape with only one lame ski tour for the season (due to the killer lift served conditions) and one hike before Chuck and I decided to summit Baker via the Squak Glacier in a day.
Friday May 25 : Chuck comes over on Friday night and we plan to leave Saturday monring at 2am. I wake up with a 101.5 temp and he leaves and goes to Chelan for the weekend while I shiver and ache for the rest of the Memorial Day weekend until it's time to go back to work.......
Friday May 31 : We arrive at the Schriebers Meadows trailhead at 430am after a 2am wake up call and a nice stop at the Haagens off of I-5 and Hwy 20. Note: Hot coffee and breakfast burritos at 3am. Full service! The road stops just .5 miles before the trailhead due to snow coverage, so we pack up and get going @ 5am.
I had been told to just go due north from the outhouse at the trailhead. I was not too sure what that meant, since I had been on the Scott Paul trail before in the late summer and traveled up near Crag View, but there was still alot of snow. Chuck and I just started going up until after 15 minutes we hit a FS road and followed that until it stopped, and then traveled due north up some slopes of old growth trees that eventually got us into our first views of Baker. We weren't too sure if we'd be able to follow the trail on the way out since we were not leaving tracks due to all of the pine needles and bracnhes covering the snow.
It was a perfect day, F'in bluebird, and strating to get warm already (8am). We apply sunscreen and push forward. We make it to Crag View and Chuck suggests we follow the ridgeline up to the top while I suggest skirting it like Oyvind told me. I give in and follow Chuck. We get a great snack spot but there is no safe way off of Crag view on the path we were following. We decide to backtrack a little and ski down a small slope down to the glacier. With skins on the snow sliding already, we were forced to take our skins off and lock down the boots. It was a short 40 degree slope but we both sent good sluffs on our way down, after both jumping a small moatnear the edge of the glacier and the rock.
We continue up the Squak and it's very straightforward. I start getting tired at 7500. We move on, tired even more at 8k, moving very slow now
and at 9k I decided that it's 1pm and we are not goign to make the summit and get back in town by 8pm. We decide to call it there since the snow is not getting any better and have a relaxing lunch before the 6k ride down.
We lock the heels and point them down. It's sticky, it's mushy. It was difficult. Even Chuck struggled (which I never see). I hit a sticky spot and cross my tips and fall on my head (helmet on). No crevasses around, that's good. Chuck and I leapfrog as we survival ski our way down to the trees, but Chuck finds another line and takes us too far east on the fall line. I look back at the mountain and realize we had never seen this view. We both agree that we are heading down a valley that was completely wrong. So we put our skins on and they won't stick because we mixed stick and liquid wax, along with all of the pollen on the snow. So we have to boot and carry our skis out of this 500VF valley to gain the other ridge and descend back to the TH.
Once in the trees, there is no sign of where anyone went down. We had seen not a soul all day, and can't find out uptracks. Everything has melted out, and the braches and needles covered anything else that might have shown a trace. We make a b line for "South" and watch our altimeters for the trailhead elevation. We start getting close and I get worried that we overshot it. Luckily enough, we cross onto the FS road and find our way back. Unfortunately, our skis are so trashed with the pollen and the bad wax combo, that neither of our skis will move, so we have to dkate the entire way back down to the car. We get back to the car @ 5pm and I realize that I did not put enough sunscreen on, it's gonna get bad (and it did).........No one at trailhead on our return as well, very quiet day.
Trip Length:
12 hours )
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}