Just Another Baker Trip Report

Mt Baker has been at the top of my skiing-objectives list since arriving in Vancouver in September. How could it not be when it stands so prominently above Vancouver? Last weekend (April 5^th  2025 ), a group of us (Ed Riley (author), Lorin Jacot, Alain Zhiyanov, Thomas Unterrainer, Silvan Taschi, Benjamin Schefer) decided to make it happen. Saturday April 5^th offered clear skies and a stable avalanche forecast. April 4^th is also one of the group member’s birthdays; what better way to celebrate (a day late) than on top of Mt Baker?

Baker from afar. PC: Silvan Taschi

On Friday afternoon, we headed out of Vancouver and made out way to the border. With 5 of us being exchange students (3 Swiss, 1 Austrian, 1 Brit), there was minor faffage at the US border with some of us having to provide fingerprints etc, but we were on our way quickly and heading towards Bellingham for birthday pizza and beers. Over dinner, we decided on a leaving time of 1am from the trailhead. Based on a conservative estimate of 1 hour per 400m of climb + 1 hour per 4km, we calculated it would take us up to 10 hours to reach the summit from the car. Warm temperatures were forecast throughout the night, hence we elected for the early start to give us more than sufficient time to get to the top and complete the descent before the most intense warming later in the day. By the time we had settled the bill in the pizza place it was getting on for 10pm and we still needed to go to the supermarket for final supplies. So, at 10:30pm we were driving out of Bellingham. The drive to the trailhead is approx. an hour from Bellingham. Do some quick maths and you realise we did not get much sleep that night.

Arising from our hour-long car-nap, we geared up and began the walk up the FSR. Before long, we could start skinning through the forest, winding our way towards the treeline. Throughout the FSR walk I had felt slightly nauseous but had stayed quiet, as I thought it would pass, and I didn’t want to alarm the others. Shortly after beginning skinning, it was becoming clear the nausea was getting worse, not better. You can probably guess what happened next. I vomited all over the skin track. Remarkably though, I felt much better for emptying the contents of my stomach and progress felt easier and lighter from then on. What wasn’t so good was that I wasn’t feeling like eating any sort of food and this was probably going to come at a cost with at least 7 hours of uphill travel remaining.

2am skinning in the trees. PC: Silvan

PC: Thomas Unterrainer

We caught our first sight of the outline of Baker once we left the trees. The top looked so close! But Baker is massive and looks can be deceiving.  For the first section on the Coleman Glacier, we chose to remain unroped due to good coverage and no visible signs of crevasses. As we travelled higher, however, sags started to appear, as well as icefall debris. We deployed the rad lines and roped up as one big team of 6. Lorin travelled at the front with another 30m of rope ready if anything were to go awry. The time was now around 6am and we were excited to turn off out headlamps. Upon reaching the base of the Roman Wall, we were greeted to spectacular early-morning views of the North Cascades, and further afield, Rainier.

View from the Colfax-Baker col. PC: Lorin Jacot

First and foremost, the Roman Wall is a slog – especially on one hour of poor quality sleep. Though after an hour or two of focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, we crested the Wall and arrived onto the summit plateau.

The Roman Wall. PC: Thomas

Summit plateau. PC: Silvan

A short skin later and we were on the summit proper, exactly 8 hours after leaving the car. Being the first people on the summit that day was a good feeling.  Exposed to the wind at the summit, we took the mandatory summit selfie and skied with skins on ready to transition to ski the Roman Wall.

Summit selfie

Conditions coming down the Roman Wall were firm and wind-scoured, but it skied well, and we were back on the glacier quickly. Considering it was still early in the day, conditions on the glacier were excellent; soft, powdery snow – if a little on the heavy side.

Good turns on the way down. PC: Alain Zhiyanov

Stopping for lunch halfway down, we remarked on the better-than-expected conditions and how lucky we were to be on this mountain on such a gorgeous day. Once back under the treeline, we engaged in the usual PNW survival skiing back to the car. The vertical drop from the summit to the car was 2500m and we didn’t have to put skins on once. It was 11:55am when we finished, 10h 50m after we started. A fantastic day with remarkably little faffage.

Back at the trailhead.

Naptime