[Quark]

Fantastic weather for this. Warn't too hot 'cept for here & there, warn't too cold, it were juuust right. My guardian angel was looking out for me; I had absolutely NO heat exhaustion, not even a tinge of a headache. I don't know why; I don't question it, I'm just thankful. This was a climbing class graduation climb/crevasse rescue excersize trip, so we took 4 days. Thursday was getting to camp and setting up, Friday was spent in a crack and prusiking out, Saturday summit, Sunday out & a great grubbin' meal at the Conway Pub in Conway (near La Conner, great food, excellent, excellent, excellent service). Got started at 3:30, 1/2 hour later than we wanted to - we didn't want to hit the Roman Wall while it was too hard to punch a purchase, yet we didn't want to start too late for a mushy descent. Last time I clumb Baker it was the Easton Rte; up, then a traverse, then up, then a traverse - lots of time to getcher ya-ya's out. Squak route is pretty much just straight up til the crater. Our late start and too-long breaks made for a late, mushy descent, rendering crampons useless, so we took 'em off before heading down. Constant post-holing from the crater to where we felt safe to rope glissade; 4 or 5 long glissades and we were back at camp. Tweaked my kness - I post-holed up to my thigh and was pulled forward by the rope, my leg bending forwards. Ouch! Later, another Post-hole/Foothold-Blow-out Combo Boogie-Woogie Blue Plate Special forced a successful and graceful self-belay. The 10,000 crevasse was expected, uphill no problem; set a couple o' pickets & jumped. Downhill, however, that sucker opened pretty darn wide. Our leader harumphed around like a rhino in heat for awhile, bearing the burden of getting us stoodents back to camp alive. He successfully facilitated the launch/landing pad for us to jump across. Hats off to Philip I made some mistakes; hell, we all did. The most valuable thing I learned was the power of a team. I thought I knew the definition of team all these years, but really just learned it the last several weeks in this class. It's amazing how much we helped each other out in various ways. Though I still prefer solo trips for backpacking, I immensely enjoy company on a glacier climb; not only for safety, but the team dynamic (at least with this trip, it was 100% great). I'm also fascinated by the strength of various rigging techniques. But all the rigging in the world isn't any good without good team dynamic (well, to a certain point, of course). Below are photos; titles are self-explanatory. I enjoyed the hell out of the crevasse rescue excersize, though I botched my prusik technique and my team had to crank me out farther than they did the other "fallen" climbers.

Puget Sound sunset

Shadow of Baker at sunrise

Shuksan alpenglow

Camp kitchen with Glacier Peak in background

Crack & boot

Crack with blue wall and sky

Out for a stroll, may as well go to the summit

Summit Robin, Jim, Me

Back to the pile 'o packs

[Quark]

Ooops, can't forget to post a pic of Grand Master 'Schrund:

Mister 'Schrund, to you

and the crater

Crater & skiers

[Get Out and Go]

Great way to kick off the first week of summer. That should keep you high for some time.

[ActionBetty]

Who did you take your class through? It looked like alot of fun.. Those are some mighty purty pictures

[Rich Baldwin]

Great photos, Quark.

[wildernessed]

Nice and congratulations, I was hoping this would be my year to do some glacier travel and more alpine rock, but I can't trust my knee beyond light and fast dayhikes yet. Maybe later in the year, maybe not, we will see. Who did you go with ?

[Quark]

Thanks GO&G & everyone else; a couple of us are planning Daniel and/or Glacier Pk soon, and I'll pick up the Mountaineers' publication of basic glacier climbs for beginners. The class was via DKemp, who posts on this site, and occasionally offers invitiations to classes like navigation, mountain weather, etc. Here's the biggest bonehead thing I did; though I wear contact lenses, I'm totally careful to always bring regular glacier glasses, clear prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses, and prescription glacier glasses. Well always except this time, when I crawled out of my tent and looked up to see the stars and...hey, waitaminute....my fricken right lense had popped out. So I was stuck with climing with only one contact because my bonehead move was to leave my prescription glacier glasses at home. Apparently it was a good idea at the time - and some thought actually went into the boneheadism of the event; because I rememver having the damn things in my hand and setting them aside It's vanity; all vanity (hey, that would make a good Bible verse; someone oughta spearhead that project). If I wasn't vain, I'd just wear specs and not have the lense problem. Seeing wasn't an issue til the 9,000 mark on the descent; the remaining lense had been overworked due to so many goddam mountains to look at, and the lense was foggy as hell, so I plucked that puppy out and threw it down into the snow like the dirty dog it was. I littered on Baker. I'm a low-down devil-monger. I think it landed on an ice worm. So there's an ice-worm up there at the 9,000' level of Mt Baker who can see clearly now, the lense is on. (hey, that's a good line for a song. Someone oughta write it).

[dicey]

Beautiful peechers

[l]

I like the team player concept. As for vanity - we're all vain. Just a matter of how well we conceal it. Shuksan alpenglow and the summit shot are nice.

[Tazz]

great work! nice shots too!

[Hiker Boy]

Congratulations on the summit, the course, and nice weather! A very enjoyable read. Any apres climb tailgate parties going on at the TH last weekend?

[Andrew]

Lovely little report, Ms. Quark. Of all the hundreds of pictures I've seen of Baker, I don't recall seeing one of the summit area/crater. So be happy that you introduced this armchair climber to the top...with your in-focus camera lens.

[Spotly]

Way to go Quark! The pictures are great. So now the worm can see when people are coming and won't get tromped on - you did a service.

[Edd]

Great pics Quark. I also spend alot of time out by myself, so when I took a course last year my number one goal was (beside learning to cross crevasses safely, zee pullys, and other snow travel skills), was to learn more how to work more with others (team dynamics so to speak). I found it to be really rewarding and fun, I am not normally the most sociable person. I had heard you, quys, qals were going to be up there for four days, but was not sure wich day you were summiting. I have probly learned twice as much this year by helping out, than when I took the class, so I am the biggest benificiary of that. Seems hard not to be selfish even when it appears you are not. Congratulations , nice. We went up the Coleman Demming route, so as not to hijack your thread I will post a short report and pics of that route in a couple of days.

[Quark]

Cool, EDD; I've done easton & squak route, and would like to see pics of Demming. Re: team dynamics - it's so important that if a person knows he or she can't function in a team environment, then stay the hell home. That doesn't mean you have to socialize - I mostly sit apart from groups, because I enjoy the peace so much. I, too, was fairly worried about being stuck on a rope with folks I may not get along with. I'm pretty picky about who I hike/backpack with, and usually end up choosing solo. I don't like anyone invading my happy bubble when I'm outdoors. Someone bringing even a small dose of their crappy attitude/negative baggage will ruin a trip for me, and I fiercely protect my outdoors bubble. That's not to say a frank discussion about life's troubles is verboten (I hate that word), there's a difference between the discussion of life's troubling things and a bitch-fest. What was great on this team was that 2 of the women are married, and took on the course without their spouses. It's nice to know people who have spouses that trust them, allow them space, and encourage their individuality. Another woman on the trip is very quiet, but her humor is so very quick and keen that you involuntarily smile when you see her approaching. Our climbing leader rode nekkid on his bike for the Fremont Solstice Parade: How cool is that! 'nuff said about him