[ozzy]

It had been long enough since gettin to the top of something that peakbagger withdrawls had me chompin at the bit to get out! The weather was beautiful all week at work and I was pleasantly surprised to see it would still be awesome for Friday as well! Looks like the 2020 hiking season wasnt done with us yet. I was a little indecisive on where to go so I did the usual and started combing through NWhikers Trs of old for December. Didnt take long to stumble across Aaron's(Awilsondc) Tr on Coleman pinnacle that him, Jake, and Dave had climbed 2 yrs prior! Sold! The place looked amazing and I'd never been on the side of Baker! It's been on the radar but i never thought about doing it as a snowshoe. So like always it was pretty easy to coax Bryan into joining again lol, especially with the beautiful weather window. For the both of us this would be a first proper winter ascent...and for myself this would be the first climb I've done on my birthday!! Hell yeah the stoke was high for sure! I picked up Bryan just before midnight then we drove to the baker ski area arriving a little after 3am. It was chilly but not near as bad as either of us anticipated. We were geared up and moving around 345am under a damn near full moon! The walk up to Artist point went by quick and we could see snow cats starting to groom down lower. From the point the views were just starting to get amazing...even under moonlight. We put snowshoes on here and dropped a 100ft or so to start our traverse under Table mtn. There was one medium sized slide right away we had to cross but that was it the whole day. We didn't see or hear any slides the whole day. It was pretty surreal walking under the moon across these pillowy slopes! We crossed under Table mtn and gained the saddle to its south. From the saddle we dropped 100ft or so and headed south across a big snowfield! We stayed on the fluffy slopes for about 1/2mile then headed up to a saddle on ptarmigan ridge. It was around 630am at this point so we decided to find a place to take a break and watch the early colors of the sunrise. Across the way Shuksan was dominating...wow what place to take it all in!

first light

pink skies over pt5831

Shuksan

Bryan comin up

gettin bright

We ended up taking off before the sun fully crested the ridge but ended up gettin a nice sunrise on the traverse! We dropped around 50ft or so and stayed on the lower terrain that was more snowshoe friendly. We aimed for a nice spot on the ridge just east of pt 5831. This worked out nicely and up to that point all the snow was nice to travel on lol. Before we got there we admired a badass sunrise...whiskey was had!! What a sweet birthday!

the holy hour

birthday swig

yewwwwww

Once atop the ridge just east of pt 5831 we got proper views of the Coleman pinnacle!! Dayuuum!! Baker looming right behind the pinnacle added to the appeal...what a sweet area! This was where the snow got sh##ty! It was just hard enough where the snowshoes weren't breaking through the crust. It was hell on the ankles and knees because we were just sidehilling the last half mile lol! But perseverance paid off and we finally made it around to the south saddle of the pinnacle. The scenery was more than making up for our suffering! From the saddle it's about 200ft up to the summit. There was some snow to negotiate and soon enough we were on top of the precarious beast!! Holy sh##...what a day to be on a peak! First winter ascent and birthday ascent...so killer! We made the summit around 10am. So about 6hrs from the car. We sipped whiskey and stayed up top for a little over an hour!

Bryan comin up the pt 5831 ridge

the pinnacle and Bakey

Bryan with the majority of the traverse behind

the holy land

the final traverse, looking back

false summit

true summit

ditto

Bryan and Kulshan

towards Canada

the north

to the southeast

We began the long slog back out at 1130am. We lucked out on the traverse back because the snow had softened up considerably. Much easier to snowshoe in. We had many stops on the way to sit and admire this beautiful country. We didn't see anyone else the whole day until we got back to Artist point. We made it back to the car around 345pm after a leisurely trip to the alpine. We were surprised at how sore we were after about 2800ft gain and around 10miles rountrip! We'll chalk that up to the conditions. Thanks Bryan for joining on another badass endeavor...and what a sweet day to be alive! Cheers to all!

cant get enough of Baker

slogging

wonderland

small

road home

lookin back on the day

what a beaut

[KascadeFlat]

What an awesome way to celebrate your birthday! Congrats!

[Legionnaire]

Hey! This hike LOOKED AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL! I am new to the forum. I usually get hikes off AllTrails or something similar, but it always seemed like it was barely scratching the surface. I prefer to get my info from more personal sources and reports. My friends and I are trying to get into some more winter adventures. We are looking at starting with snowshoeing because it's easier/cheaper than cross-country touring and we don't really have the proper ski experience yet. What snowshoes did you have on your adventure? I am looking at picking up a pair and trying to figure out if MSR is the obvious way to go or something cheaper like Tubbs. You think this hike would be good in January/February as well?

[ozzy]

Hey Legionnaire, yea it was an amazing hike for sure! I've heard that for snowshoes that its hard to beat the MSR lightning ascents...that's what I have and I love em. They are the first and only pair I've had though. As far as hittin it in Jan-Feb, you'd definitely want to be aware of the slides coming off of table mtn. It would be awesome to be up there early spring too...that's for sure.

[Matt Lemke]

Lightning ascents are the only snowshoes ever made worth more than 5 cents.