As a kid growing up in Bellingham, Washington, Mount Baker was on display every day the sun came out. In reality, this is only about once a week, because it rains so much.... Either way, as hikers and backpackers, we always considered climbing to the summit, but didn't have the gear or expertise required for the glacier crossings. This year, our friends Amy and Julie, who are avid mountaineers, reached out and asked if we wanted to make a summit attempt together!

The route we took was the Easton Glacier, which is about 2 hours from Seattle off of Highway 20. There were very few crevasses presenting danger at the end of May, but we could see the horizontal cracks of some starting to form.

After gathering all the necessary gear, including harnesses, cord for prusiks, locking and nonlocking caribiners, webbing for slings, ice axes, helmets, crampons, pulleys, and mountaineering packs, we were nearly set. Leading up to the climb, we also got in shape physically by climbing whatever we could around Seattle in the early summer, hikes like Mt. Si, Mailbox Peak, Mount Teneriffe, Tiger Mountain, and the Howe Street stairs in Seattle.

Praying for good weather, we arrived at the trailhead Memorial Day weekend. There was about 100 cars, parked far from the trailhead as snow still covered the road leading up. We saw a good number of skiers and backpackers, as there is no permit required to climb Baker.

The first day, our goal was to get to about 6200', set up camp, and sleep as much as we could before heading up to the summit in the dark. At our camp, we overheard some other huge groups saying they were waking up at 12, so we set our alarms for 11:45 in hopes of a little solitude on our climb. Aside from one other speedy hiker, we had the route to ourselves!

Climbing Mount Baker was a lifelong goal, and I'm so thankful to our friends for being willing to train us and prepare us for mountaineering. I feel we had everything we needed to be safe and comfortable, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Now every time I'm driving north on I5 out of Seattle and can see the summit way off in the distance, the volcano has an even more special meaning to me.

Total hike:
16.3 Miles, 8000' Elevation gain.

Huge thanks to Jordan Fujita for creating the music in this video! Check him out on Instagram @jordanmasaofujita

#hiking #backpacking #northcascades #mountaineering