Mount Baker - Squak Glacier

 After climbing it the previous summer, I really wanted to ski Baker. The weather was looking iffy but Keenan and I figured we could get beta from the snow goat race the day before. We drove up Saturday evening with no issue and quickly got to work getting gear together for the next day. There was one other party at the trailhead planning to ski the day after, and we enjoyed a nice conversation with them.

Ski touring essentials

We set off around 04:00 and tried skinning the trail. After realizing walking would be much more efficient, we switched back and finally switched to skinning when the route departed from the scott paul trail. We felt a little behind schedule but still confident. As we exited the trees, we saw Baker tower over us. It was pretty cloudy at that elevation but this spring, I had decided to get out and at least take a look so we decided to keep going until it didn’t make any more sense. 

Keenan and the slog

The slog up the glacier was draining but I was feeling good. My running from the spring was paying off and I was dashing ahead of keenan. We took breaks every hour or so and by the time we reached 7k, keenan was drained. The clouds had went below us by then so we were feeling confident we could summit. We kept slogging along. The squak was super filled in with no crevasses we actually needed to get around so we chose not to rope up. At 11:30, we reached the base of the roman wall, where the true fun began.

​​Keenan bonking 

Above the clouds

As I booted up the Roman Wall, I kept thinking the top looked only 20 meters away but once I got to that point, a new 20 meters appeared. Eventually I made it up 45 minutes later, with keenan taking almost double the time. We walked over to the true summit and enjoyed the amazing views and Keenan’s  text from his grandpa asking about the weather up there. It was pretty good. 

Summit

We started our descent at 13:30. The roman wall skied well, though it could’ve been a tiny bit softer. Halfway down the Squak, we entered a whiteout but knowing there were no cracks along our route, we just followed the tracks, going very relaxed. The Squak descent felt endless but eventually, we hit the treeline. The snow got a lot stickier but we quickly hit the trail. From there it was an endless walk back to the car where we took off our packs, thankful to live in a state with these beautiful mountains.