[NinJosh]

It seemed like finally a good time to try something ambitions this weekend so Cole and I decided on Mt Blum. I woke up at 2:30am on Saturday leaving Seattle to get to the Baker River Trail by 5am. Cole had smartly car camped at the trailhead, but that wasn't in the cards for me this time. Surprisingly I wasn't to tired, we left the cars at 5:15. We crossed the bridge over Baker River and shortly headed through the brush to locate to climbers path up towards Blum Lakes. I can't say we nailed it, but we found it soon enough and started gaining elevation quite quickly. We were both feeling it already and I wasn't to sure we were actually going to make it given how much we had to still go, but we kept gaining elevation until we hit snow around 4000 feet. Once we got some views as we traversed towards Blum Lakes the energy quickly came back and was determined to push on.

Our first views towards Mt Hagen.

We took a break at the lower Blum Lake and fueled up on much needed water and food. Soon we were off again trying to find a way across the other side of the raging stream. Unfortunately there was no snow bridge below, so we hiked to the upper lake a short distance up. We both kind of silently looked at what we had to deal with and knew it was time to take off the boots and ford across. It looked frigid to say the least, and it was!

Cole crossing the upper lake outlet.

Once across we put our boots back on and started up towards the upper most lake around 6000'. We eyed a pretty good line that went NE towards the 6400' mark until we could pick our way up the class 3/4 step to gain the broad summit ridge of Mt. Blum.

Making our way up to 6400.

The broad upper north slope of Mt Blum.

Once to the open slope we were both feeling pretty tired at this point. The snow had been amazingly solid though and surprised me how good the step kicking was. We didn't even use the snowshoes we brought and kicked steps all the way up to the top. The views were amazing, and getting another beautiful North Cascades peak made all that work worth it. We took a short break at the top before exhaustingly heading back the way we came.

Cole making his way towards the summit.

Summit views of Baker Lake, a long way back down there.

Heading back down.

Can't get any better than this!

We made our way back down the snow in pretty good time and took a nice long break before we had to cross the dreaded lake outlet again. By the time I was almost across I could feel my legs cramping up from the cold water. I've been in some cold steams before but this one has got to be one of the top few coldest. We got our boots back on again and made our way back to the forest where we located a better way back in spots to the Baker River. Thanks to Cole for suggesting such a great peak, I was very happy to have got this one. Warm beers at the car proved not to be the worst after a trip like that. 10.5 miles 7800' gain 12 hours C2C

[raising3hikers]

Nice job you guys! Great destination. That stream crossing must have been cold. Way to pick up a quality pk

[whoami]

Made quick work of that one. Nice work.

[Eric Hansen]

Wowza. 7,800' gain. Maybe in my next reincarnation, not this one

[ozzy]

Epic slog!! This one is high on my list but I'm not as gnarly as yall. I'll definitely be utilizing the bivy for Blum! sweeet pics/views and nice prize! Cheers.

[Fletcher]

Awesome! I’m missing out on a great spring in WA.