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10,781 feet
Coleman/Deming Route (Grade II)

The Approach

We left Seattle after a long day of work and met Chris in the trail head parking lot. It only took about 2 in half hours as there is no traffic on I-5 at midnight. Reka and I slept in the Subaru and Chris slept in his car. We woke up at about 8 and took our time to high camp. The approach to high camp is pretty easy, after a couple of hours through the forest and a couple easy stream crossings you reach a fork in the trail and the first views of Mt. Baker. Take the right fork as it steeply climbs up meadows and moraines until you reach the first high camp at about 6,000 feet.

We continued up the steep lobe of the Coleman Glacier to a rock Island at about 7,200 feet. We made our high camp here with great views of our route and even better views down the valley. Reka and I set up the Bibler and Chris used his bivy bag. The spots to set up camp are really small here so if you have a larger tent I would recommend hiking a bit further and camping near Heliotrope Ridge in the snow. All of these camps can be very crowded so please dispose of waste and trash properly.

After a couple hours of relaxing at high camp we found a shallow crevasse to set up a z-pulley system and practice crevasse rescue and a little ice climbing. After a couple of hours of playing in the crevasse we hiked back up to high camp and prepared dinner. While the food was cooking the sun was setting and it is one of the most amazing sunsets I have seen.

The Climb

We awoke at about 5 am and strapped on the crampons and roped up for the quick ascent of the glacier. The climb traverses Heliotrope Ridge and meanders around large crevasses until you reach the Roman Headwall. Once at the headwall we climbed up a couple rocky/scree sections and hiked straight up the steep slope.

The summit was quickly reached and the views were greatly enjoyed. The winds were blowing hard on the summit and the temperature dropped dramatically. We took the summit shots and prepared for the descent.

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