CLIMB INFORMATION
Summit date: September 7, 2020.

Our summer climb up Mt. Baker, WA, took place between September 57. On the evening of the 5th, we arrived at the trailhead late and slept in the parking lot. After waking up, we packed our bags and began the climb to the Railroad Grade. Upon assessing snow conditions at the Railroad Grade, we decided to wait until the next morning, when the snow would be firmer, to begin climbing the Easton Glacier. With the extra daylight, we reviewed some crevasse rescue skills and set up a base camp. We went to bed around 9:30pm the night of the 6th and woke up around 3am the morning of the 7th. In hindsight, it would have been better to wake up around 2am in order to avoid rushing to avoid the sun coming out.

Because this was done in late season conditions, crevasses were very open and we had to do a fair amount of crevasse hopping. On our way up, we ended up planting an anchor to cross one very icy and wide crevasse. On the way down, because we were able to see further due to sunlight, we ended up finding a roundabout way to avoid the obstacle.

Another piece to keep in mind when climbing this route in the late season is to start early to avoid the snow from releasing rocks. On our descent, our group was rained on by rocks being released by melting snow. One large rock hit my head, but thankfully I had a helmet on and the only harm I suffered was my neck being thrown to the side, otherwise, the helmet protected me perfectly.

While I am not sure how the summit conditions normally are, it was extremely windy (5060mph) which made for a lessthanideal finish. Our tent was also blown away by strong wind gusts, but thankfully we found it on the side of a small cliff and were able to retrieve most of our belongings.

Overall, climbing Mt. Baker during the late season, summer months is definitely a fun time, but extra planning and precautions should be taken. We used a 3man rope team and two other rope teams (a 2man and another 3man). I definitely don't recommend soloing during this time of year since conditions are much more unstable and not many people are climbing, thus increasing the chances of an accident turning more serious. I think that's pretty much all I have, but if you have any questions, drop a comment down below.

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First song: Working Dead by Blaise Boudreaux
   / @blaiseboudreaux495  

Other music: Copyright free
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