The annual Baker trip was well over due this year due to week-end after week-end of clouds and Cascade thunder and lightning storms. I've been up there enough times to know that blue bird is the only way to go. The Friday night mission turned out to be an epic 19 hour trip when a number of interesting factors came into play. We left the truck at 12:30pm on Friday night and skinned up the road to the Helliotrope trailhead. As soon as we entered the forest Mike's headlight decided to fail. With the pine needle snow covered forest floor we got severly lost following numerous trails from other climbers in the same situation.

After a riduculous 4 hours in the forest we finally got to the toe of the coleman glacier. As we were getting harnesses and gear on Mike snapped a pole in half. His Birthday wasnt going as well as planned but we managed to splint it with his shovel handle and a lot of duct tape. As we ascended the glacier the mountain became completely enveloped in a heavy cloud. The surface was almost blue ice like and the sun wasnt anywhere near coming out for a melt cycle. We decided to climb a little higher and try and wait it out. Three hours of waiting paid off as the cloud line dropped and the volcano showed it's North Face.

The glacier was completely filled is with this years huge snowfall. Only a few signs of icefall were the only evidence of spring.

When we reached the Colman Colfax col the ice was starting to break down and prepare the Roman wall for an epic corn decent.

The summit was hot and wind free. We relaxed and ate for an hour and geared up for our 4:30pm decent. Mike had the Birthday rights of dropping in first. 

The entire decent to the tree line was corned up making it the best conditions I'd ever had on Baker! Volcano season is on!  

Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patmulrooney/sets/72157605652732732/