All throughout the last week of June, we were anxiously refreshing the mountain weather forecast on our web browsers, along with the soccer scores. The plan was to have a nice 4 day trip to Mt. Baker, to practice our snow skills, and eventually summit.

This was a trip that was scheduled with the fantastic folks at KAF Adventures, and its primary focus was for us to get some snow skills lessons in with the guide company that will eventually guide a large portion of the Asha group up Mt. Rainier. In other words, it’s not something you can just reschedule due to dubious weather. Also, with the exception of summit day, these trips tend to be rain or shine.

The forecast showed something along the lines of, “mild to medium showers, and then it clears up a bit on summit day.” Great, we thought. We’ll go, deal with some clouds and rain, get our snow skills practice in, and probably summit, with maybe some crappy visibility blocking our views.

Alas, mother nature had a different plan for us.

Day 1 - Climbing To Camp

The goal for the first day was to climb to a decent camping altitude and set up camp. No problem, that’s easy stuff. Light rain at the trailhead, but we were all stoked and happy.

The first part of the Mt. Baker trail (via Squak Glacier) is a nice, easy slope, with a tree cover. Generally very easy to navigate, and has some neat features like streams to cross. Nothing to really write home about. There was one giant fallen tree trunk blocking the way, which we had to climb around.

In only a short while (hour and a half or so), we started hitting snow, and eventually left the trail entirely. The trail loops back, and we want to go up. So, we set out in the snowfields up the mountain, looking for a good camp site.

It was starting to rain a little bit, and the wind was picking up. After a while, we arrived at a place that would serve as a fantastic camp site. At roughly 5900’ elevation, there’s a nice flat area where we could set up camp. And best of all, it has a bathroom! And by bathroom, I mean “a secluded wooded oasis area” that will provide some privacy. Sweet!!!

At this point, it started raining a lot harder. It was somewhere between freezing rain and sleet, and it was coming at us basically sideways. As we later found out, two pressure systems were colliding right where we were, and it was causing messy, unpredictable weather, which would last for the duration of the trip.

So now, the name of the game was, “get your tents up and GET INSIDE!” Not counting the guides, there were 9 climbers and four tents (one three-person tent, and three two-person tents). It was unfortunately pretty slow-going. We had never practiced staking a tent in the snow before, and these weren’t exactly ideal learning conditions. The stakes can’t just go into the ground like if you’re setting up a tent in the dirt. You have to bury them deadman style, and it took a couple of tries for us n00bs.

At this point, disaster struck. The team that was putting together the three-person tent had some trouble with the poles, and two of them broke. After some deliberation, the guides decided that the best course of action would be to abandon that tent, at least for the moment. We needed to get out of the elements pretty soon at this point. All of us were soaked. My rain jacket was starting to soak through. Same goes for my shell pants, which don’t have sealed zippers. Water was dripping down my legs, and into my boots. It was a full-soakage situation!

Of course, abandoning the three-person tent meant cramming a third person into each of the two person tents. At that point, we didn’t care - we just needed to get out of the elements. After another little while, we finally got our tents up, and started filing in. Well, not so fast! From all the delaying in the rain, with our tents on the ground getting rained on, we had a giant puddle in the middle of our tent!!

One of us went inside and started mopping it up/using a cup to throw out the water. That took an additional 15-20 minutes. At the end of that, we could FINALLY move into the tents, drenched beyond belief. Shedding our wet layers and getting into dry stuff felt like heaven! Still, it wasn’t pretty out there.

This was the last picture I was able to take with my camera, as the lens was fogged up for the rest of the trip.

Normally, we’d get involved with the food and all have dinner together, but given the conditions, the guides decided they’d just cook food and bring it into the tents for us. I would have completely understood if that were impossible, and would have been quite happy simply snacking on our protein bars and what not, but they insisted on sitting out in the terrible conditions, cooking a warm meal for us. That is the most amazing act of courage and kindness they could impart, and i am forever grateful. We got to eat warm chili. It was veggie chili, but tasted absolutely amazing!

After risking the elements for another minute or two to pee, we were in the tents for the night. The tents were a bit leaky, and corners kept popping off. The lead guide came around and bomb-proofed all of them before they headed to bed.

Probably the worst sleep I’ve ever gotten. Sleeping width-wise with two other people, in a two person tent, with no ability to extend my legs, and with wet clothes all over was not fun. My base layer was sitting next to me, wet and cold. I had noticed it half way through the night, and realized I needed to wear it the next day. I made the executive decision to pull it into the sleeping bag with me. That’s the standard practice to get damp clothes slightly less damp overnight. It was cold at first, but worth it, since it was mostly dry the next morning, and at a decent temperature. Sweet! That’s more than I can say for my pants, which were too drenched to risk pulling into the sanctuary of dryness that was my sleeping bag. Of course, the howling wind didn’t help either.

Day 2 - Snow School

Day 2 was a lot better than day 1. For about half of that day, the weather cleared up, allowing us to get some good snow schoolin’ in! The morning was the one bad part. I had to… put on the pants! The drenched, cold pants! But even that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. After getting outside, having some breakfast, and doing some jumping jacks, I felt pretty good! It wasn’t raining anymore, and everything other than my boots were fully dry!

Breakfast was delicious. It was oatmeal, but using granola and milk powder, instead of the regular “oatmeal” sliced oats. It was cravably good!

Our tents had been nicely bomb-proofed the previous evening. All our hiking poles and ice axes were in use, holding down the tents and rain flys.

Next up, snow school! Here we are, getting a lesson on footwork. You can see camp in the background. This picture, from Paul’s (lead instructor) phone, depicts the best visibility and conditions we had during our stay!

We made the most of it, though. That day, we covered all basic footwork, with and without ice axes, and some more tidbits. Sometime in the mid-afternoon, conditions started to degrade again, so it was into the tents with the lot of us! For the rest of the day, the instructors rotated into the tents, giving mini-classroom-lessons on various topics, like decision-making, weather, and “leave no trace” principles. It was a brilliant use of the time/resources we had there.

That night, dinner was done the same way as the previous night, due to conditions.

Pooping in a Bag

Does this topic really need to be covered in detail, in its own section? Yes, yes it does!

That second evening was also my first experience with one of the things I dreaded the most about these trips: Pooping in a bag! These parks where we tend to camp/climb usually have a “pack it out” policy, where “it” is “your poop.” It’s also very unhealthy to leave that stuff around on glaciated mountain terrain. It won’t really go away, and might contaminate a water source. So, you gotta carry it out with you.

The thing I found so amusing with all of this is, I thought I was the only one dreading this, and that everyone else was fine. Hah, turns out it was everyone else as well! After carefully reading the instructions very slowly, I announced I was going out there and trying this thing out. Not 10 steps in, I hear footsteps behind me. One of my tent mates is coming along, holding his own wag bag. Then, the third roommate comes out haha. In the bathroom oasis, I found a great area to lean against relatively comfortably. As comfortably as you can lean against something while shitting in a bag. :)

The others did the same, well out of eyesight, but still within earshot. Our tent was a tight-knit group, but never have we felt closer than that moment we shared, pooping in unison.

Day 3 - Descent

On the morning of the third day, which was to be summit day, had weather been more cooperative, conditions were bad again. After breakfast, we all huddled together and had a chat about how we all feel and everything. The instructors were constantly monitoring how people feel, to catch any hypothermia before it becomes bad. Everyone was cold, and today’s lesson was going to involve roping up, tying knots, etc. It was clear that people wouldn’t be able to pay attention in these conditions. After a quick deliberation, the guides agreed that it was time to pack up and go.

We broke down camp in an hour and a half, which was record time, and were on our way. About half-way down the snow part, things started clearing up just a bit, but we knew we had made the right decision to take off, with the timing.

Descent showed some pretty views of the glacier, and the occasional glimpse of the summit.

At the trailhead, we were presented with an interesting challenge. We had one day left. However, the cars are right there, and the allure of heading out then and there was pretty strong. Some people really wanted to go home. Luckily, after a team discussion, we unanimously decided to stick around. So, we drove to a nice “car camp” that had real bathrooms, and running water. Since the weather was warming up at this point, the instructors offered up their three-person tent, and slept outside, so we all had a more comfortable night.

Day 4 - Rope Training and Packing Up

And so, we reach the final day. This was a very relaxing, comfortable day. We spent most of it working on rope skills, and learning basic crevasse decision making. It was really productive and educational. There isn’t too much to say about it otherwise. Lots of fun, and no bag-pooping whatsoever. :)

After class was out, we broke down camp, packed up, and slowly left. In the rear-view mirror, we could see a clear sky, and Mt. Baker, with no clouds anywhere near it. The Asha group that went up just a couple of days after us had a lovely, successful summit. Here is the kind of view they were graced with:

Nevertheless, this was a really useful trip, and while it wasn’t exactly comfortable in any kind of way, I feel I learned a lot of things I would not have been able to learn had we had smooth-sailing all the way.

A big Thank You to Naren, Santhosh, KAF Group and Sandeep for helping me supplement my album with additional photos. All cameras were pretty fogged up during this trip, so we had to pull together to get some kind of album.

See the full album.

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