I climbed Mt Baker with Seattle Outdoor Adventures, a Meetup group that is hiking, backpacking, and summit focused. I hadn't done much with them since Granite Mountain last year, followed by a failed Mt St Helens attempt (weathered out for the third time this year). I'm not really sure why I dropped the ball with this group, since they are great fun, but I was happy to climb with them again.

We arrived at the Heliotrope Ridge trailhead around 5pm, ate, slept, and started heading up the trail just before 2am. It was a beautiful day. Clear, warm-hot temperature, and low winds. The different rope teams had a mix of skills so we occasionally shouted advice to those with less experience ("Ice axe on the uphill side! Make sure you shout it if you need to stop!"). The summit push took longer than we hoped, but we made it up by noon. The descent was also delayed as we waited for some others that we met in the summit to make sure they made it down okay. A woman on the rope team in front of us half fell into the first crevasse on the way down, so we also did some cautions belays for our team members across the larger crevasses, which sucked up some time.

Mt Baker from afar (or rather, from 1/3 of the way up to the top, taken on our way down).


Sunrise from just below the beginning of the Demming glacier.

Taking a break (she's sitting on her ice axe).

Starting to get a bit steeper.

We made it!


Headed back down the mountain. Still roped up until we get past the glacier.