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Stefan Member
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 5093 | TRs | Pics
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Stefan
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Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:27 am
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I have no idea where the name Blister came up for this peak. This peak is between Crystal Creek, Pass Creek and the Baker River. It offers wonderful views somewhat similar in scope to Icy Peak...when you have completely clear skies.
Tom, iron, r3h, Martin, Mike, Dave, and Matt all started at 7:30 from the Baker River trailhead. I was skeptical about crossing Sulphide Creek, but a recent report from a fellow nwhiker.net person calmed my fears. I had even brought rope for the potentially hazardous crossing. Well the forecast I saw was for beautiful blue skies....actually it was raining on the drive in! Now that ticked me off. We hiked to Sulphide Creek and it was quite benign, even so that we could cross on numerous logs without getting wet--but you had to find them. The abandoned trail on the other side is more or less directly across from the maintained trail....look for flagging. The abandoned trail ends at where the braiding of the river starts across from a large gully coming off of the nw arm of Mt. Blum. From here we mainly stayed inland working on snow over to Crystal Creek. 2.5 hours to here. We crossed Crystal Creek and followed the obvious animal path up and up until we came across wet mossy cliffs and then just went up and left. No problems whatsoever. We never even weaved through cliff bands we just stayed left and up. Somewhere around 1:00 we reached the top and somewhat views. As time progressed the views improved....and then the sun came out. Awesome! And then we reversed....I am sure other pictures from the other dudes will be mucho bettero than mine...My battery went out!
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Matt Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 4308 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
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Matt
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
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Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:49 am
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Thank you to Stefan for organizing this trip, and to the many others who broke trail.
Blister turned out to be quite a wild viewpoint, looking across Pass Creek to the cliffs on Mineral Mountain and way up Picket Creek to Phantom Arm. Even though the clouds were reluctant to pull aside, most of the peaks made at least a brief appearance. The view straight across Crystal Creek to the rocky spine of Seahpo was especially good.
Hiking in along Baker River past Lake, Sulphide & Crystal Creeks:
Blister in the distance up the Baker River Mossy forest between Lake & Sulphide Creeks Bird swimming in Baker River Walking in a side channel of the river Mist rising off the snow under the trees Conga line crossing Crystal Creek
On the wide summit of Blister:
Waiting for clouds to clear at Blister summit (Mineral Mountain on right) Seahpo and Jagged Ridge starting to emerge
Views from the summit area, basically rotating clockwise from West to South:
Holy Cornices, Batman Seapho & Nooksack Tower Icy (barely visible) and Ruth Mineral Mountain Looking up Baker River to Perfect Pass and up Picket Creek to Phantom Arm Whatcom & Perfect Pass Crooking Thumb & Phantom Pioneer Ridge Despair Blum emerges
A few more views on the way down:
Icy & Ruth The spine of Seahpo
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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twodogdad Member
Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 846 | TRs | Pics Location: seattle |
I'd never go to a peak named "Blister"
Come to think of it, there are quite a few names that promise bad things-- Fury, Terror, Damnation, Devil's That or That, etc.--but "Blister" is just too close to home, right where the famous boot pinches.
tdd
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raising3hikers Member
Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 2344 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, Wa |
Another great choice for a peak, Stefan. That whole area is just a great place to be in, from the big old growth cedars and mossy forest down in the valley to the views up on the mountain. The clouds moved around just enough to give us views that were worth the extra effort to get there.
the mossy rainforest part of the Baker River at the Crystal Creek log crossing almost at the Blister summit the spine leading to Seahpo Peak and to the right is Nooksack Tower getting ready to leave the summit a view to the North side of Despair Seahpo Pk
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Tom_Sjolseth Born Yesterday
Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 2652 | TRs | Pics Location: Right here. |
It was great to get back into this neck of the woods again. Fun group, fun time, and no blisters - well, just one.
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iron Member
Joined: 10 Aug 2008 Posts: 6392 | TRs | Pics Location: southeast kootenays |
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iron
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Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:04 pm
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i just love green, mossy areas, and not many places compare to the baker lake area.
fern-lined baker lake trail trekking along great colors in the river i think there's enough water for this tree wet much? yep a braided bend green chaos really green! peaceful pond truckin' splintered more green more moss more truckin' and some more
don't forget big trees.
a big one another monster tree
and such lovely, colorful water.
missed a spot a fine spot for a beer on a hot day or just dangling your feet in the water hard to hike with these sights
fun to walk in the river a bit too. makes me wish i fished.
walking in the braided river instead of the brushy hillside moss on water the trees take a stand in the river
then the second of the creek crossings.
nothing like a bunch of steamy dudes crossing crystal creek
and then all uphill, and steeply.
getting ready for the steep up we go via a game trail a gap of light r3h takes the high road did the boulder take out the tree? being slowly absorbed steep
finally some snow around EL2200'(?), though gloppy at first.
more steep, now in snow
it got deep in a hurry, then firm, then easy.
now, up in the firm, flatter snow and a touch of frosty trees r3h on final approach touchdown!
it was enjoyable to watch others emerge through the passing clouds as we sat on the summit.
ghostly figure emerges clouds burning off
then, the name that peak game.
gazing seahpo, shuksan, and icy area blister's NW ridge towards phantom pass and icy despair through blum seahpo more seahpo nooksack tower peaks out clouds parting a bit more soaking it in shadows
stefan then decided to summon his powers.
stefan calls for the sun
and we proceed to head down under the warmth of the mid-april sunlight.
summit scattering final look as the clouds really part
and only 5 miles of partial bushwhacking trail between us and cars.
how long is this trail?
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Matt Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 4308 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
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Matt
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
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Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:33 pm
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John Roper provides the following info about Blister Mountain:
The “Blister Mountain” name came about from its shape, in “honor” of what as climbers we have all experienced by foot. Dick Kegel, Bruce Gibbs, and jr climbed this (FA?/first descent? 6/21/92) the day after we climbed Cloudcap and Icy (over Ruth) about 20 years ago, exiting that ridge you guys came up.
More info here, including John's photos of Blister from Icy:
http://listsofjohn.com/PeakStats/Climbers.php?Id=51097
I had wondered whether that traverse was workable across Phantom Pass from the east ridge of Icy to the north ridge of Blister. It sounds like an interesting way to exit from Seahpo (aka Cloudcap) without having to retrace the route back over Icy & Ruth.
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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kite Member
Joined: 28 Sep 2009 Posts: 1416 | TRs | Pics Location: Olympia |
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kite
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Tue Apr 17, 2012 4:05 pm
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Wow the color in the Baker river photos is amazing!
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raising3hikers Member
Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 2344 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, Wa |
Matt, your patience paid off to get the best look at Icy Peak. Nice job I guess the rest of us left just a little too soon.
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Matt Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 4308 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
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Matt
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
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Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:25 pm
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Blister GPS Track
Statistics for Blister:
Round trip 14 miles, net gain 4615, cumulative gain 5065, 11:30 hours.
(The others could probably have done it in a couple hours less; I was going slower.)
The trip really was two very distinct hikes:
1) a long low hike through rain forest along the Baker River
4.75 miles, 275 net gain, 500 cumulative gain.
2) a very steep ascent up the ridge of Blister
2.25 miles, 4340 gain
Thus the average rate of ascent was 58 feet/mile for the Baker River section, and 1929 feet/mile for the Blister ascent.
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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Matt Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 4308 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
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Matt
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
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Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:32 pm
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And finally, here is a stitched panorama of the view from Blister's summit. I took these from the northern lobe of the summit. Because it's such a wide summit, one has to walk several hundred feet to look off different sides, so it's not possible to put together a single pan that looks down into the drainages on the sides and end at the same time.
It was interesting tracing out the valleys. I had forgotten that the Baker River has its headwaters at Perfect Pass (nowhere near Mt. Baker) and that Picket Creek is one of it's tributaries. And it was sort of a surprise to find that one could see so far up the valleys to Chillwack and Jasper passes. It's also amazing that Sjolseth crossed much of this terrain in a single solo trip.
I think Mineral Mountain is going up high on my wish list for early summer.
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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Matt Lemke High on the Outdoors
Joined: 15 Jul 2010 Posts: 2052 | TRs | Pics Location: Grand Junction |
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Matt Lemke
High on the Outdoors
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Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:40 pm
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Very Very nice pano Matt
I can't wait to get up in the Picketts this summer....it is about time!
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markod72 Member
Joined: 28 Jul 2011 Posts: 33 | TRs | Pics Location: Surveillance Van #5 |
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markod72
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Tue Jun 18, 2013 6:31 pm
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iron wrote: | more steep, now in snow |
All smiles...love it.
Looks like a good day out.
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