Pauls Mountaineering Trips: Mt Baker-Easton Glacier

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Paul on Mt Baker Summit - Click here for slide show

Recently, I participated in a 6-day mountaineering course on Mount Baker. During the course, I received instruction on glacier travel, crevasse rescue, setting effective snow anchors and belays, rock climbing, and various other fundamental mountaineering principles. The course began on Monday, 22 August 2005, we summited Mount Baker (10,778 feet) on day-4 which was 25 August, and we returned to Bellingham, WA on Saturday.

I was one member of a diverse, 6-student group, guided and schooled by two very experienced American Alpine Institue guides. Our group received approximately 10 hours of instruction daily in sessions held on the Easton Glacier and on snow fields above our base camp.

Most of these slide show's pictures were taken near Base Camp or from the summit of Mount Baker. Scenic views from the summit and Base Camp were pretty spectacular with Mount Rainier, Baker Lake, and Sisters Peaks to the south; Mount Shuksan and much of the interior North Cascades to the East; the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains to the West; and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the North. Every day at base camp we woke to the topography of Mount Baker, which included clear views of the summit, the adjacent Easton Glacier to the East, and just above us, the Black Buttes and Colfax Peak.

Pictures taken from the summit include the volcanic crater on Mt Baker, known as Sherman Crater, and several of its sulpherous fumeroles.