TR: COLEMAN GLACIER, MT BAKER 6/2-6/3

[crstlextrm]

This was one of those trips that didnt turn out as planned. I ended up breaking my brand new Look px 12's, stopped 1k below the summit due to my very first case of altitude sickness and also dealt with pollen that made skiing shitty at best. All in all it was a great trip and I was stoked to check off Baker on my list of volcanoes that Ive skied. Breaking my bindings did piss me off though, I took a forward tumble that caused the toe piece to rip off from the base of the binding (the screws were fine, but somehow the plastic ripped apart).

6/2

We decided to take a day to hike around and get some skiing in before a summit attempt on Sunday.

Checkin out the topo maps on Heliotrope ridge


Kyle with the thunder glacier below and I think the backside of the Sisters in the distance.


20th month in a row of turns!




Slowboarder Kyle





We got done skiing by about 12:30 or so before it turned to mank. It was pretty damn hot, I was able to sleep outside at night in my 32 degree bag. Latter in the afternoon we built a little kicker that was the source of my binding fiasco.

Sunset from camp.


6/3

I wasnt planning on hiking to the summit because I woulda been the only one in the group without skis or a board. My buddy Mike was feeling like shit however and decided to hang back and let me borrow his B squads that were mounted up with p 18's. I told him I would throw myself in a crevasse if I managed to break his steel binders .

Kyle, Scott and myself took off for the summit at around 5:30 after no fucking breakfast. Scott turned around at the Avy debris field, leaving me and Kyle roped together for our attempt. I started feeling pretty weak at around 8500 ft and got really lightheaded and almost incoherent around 9500. The combo of no food, heavy ass skis and bindings and also luggin up about 40 meters of rope had taken its toll on me and I called it quits. Kyle unroped and soloed the rest of the way while I chilled out on the ridge and waited. The snow was really heavy on the way down and the pollen made things exponentially worse. The crevasses are starting to open up pretty quickly and we talked to a group that had to rescue a woman that was leading a WWU group who had fallen 30 ft down into a crevasse after coming up a little short trying to jump it .

My first time roping up


The summit that I didnt get to see. I will next time though.


Skiing down toward the avy debris



Kyle


Biggest fucking debris field Ive ever seen. If you see one like this comin toward ya, kiss your ass goodbye .


The trip was capped off with brews and lots of fried food at the Frosty, and a nice lightning show afterwards. Just a typical June weekend for me and the bros .

[Mike Pow]

Solid

[powders]

Fucking gorgeous!

[rehabit]

love that snow pack eh?

[Seeds]

I got this e-mail from a young lady at one of my old jobs the other day - was this the Crevasse fall in question?

From my friend...............

From our friend in Seattle. Glad she could write about this.

-----Original Message-----
From: Name Omitted
Subject: Crevasse fall Mt. Baker

Hey there,

Had an "exciting" time yesterday...

I fell into a crevasse on Mt. Baker yesterday about 4:30am. I was
leading our group and as I tried to jump over the crevasse, my feet
punched through the platform I was standing on and I fell about 45 feet
down upside down into the crevasse, hitting my head on the wall of the
crevasse on the way down. My chest harness brought me upright and I
thankfully was caught by my all women rope team. The next person on the
rope got dragged about 15 ft.
from the edge of the crevasse. Luckily the team that just jumped the
crevasse in front of me was a training group for Bellingham Mountain
Rescue.
They helped pull me up with a rope on each side of the crevasse, which
was helpful because the fall had deeply entrenched the climbing rope
into the snow. It took about 45 minutes to get me out. I was very calm
the entire time and even had a radio to communicate with the team up
above. Exciting, but I don't feel I need to do that again....

The attachment is the photo I took from down in the crevasse. You can
see the entrenched rope and the two rectangles to the left where my feet
punched through. I don't think the photo does justice to how far down I
was or to the overhanging snow at the lip, however. I tried to take a
photo looking down, but my camera wouldn't focus on "infinity and
beyond" I guess.....

I have no idea how to insert the picture.

The fall would have taken place the 2nd or 3rd - small world.

Seeds

[bcrider]

Wow, sickness!

That corn looks silky! Views and terrain look too!

[IridePow]

Nice outing....... and scary shit with the crevasse fall.
Glad it turned out alright.

[Steepdeepnlong]

If you're gonna fall into a crevasse, do it with a MSR team standing by.

[Dug]

Nice work. Looked like a super fun weekend.

[MrZach]

20th month in a row of turns!

^^^ That alone is pretty sweet! Excellent work, gentlemen!

[Lani]

Nice photos of the Baker's Horn.

[A Random Skier]

Sick 20 months is awsome, keep it going.

[powdherb]

IMG]http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s308/rellimp3/Mount%20baker%20volcano/DSC02321.jpg[/IMG]

Biggest fucking debris field Ive ever seen. If you see one like this comin toward ya, kiss your ass goodbye .


The trip was capped off with brews and lots of fried food at the Frosty, and a nice lightning show afterwards. Just a typical June weekend for me and the bros .

Great place to kick it, haha.

[LeeLau]

sobering crevasse rescue incident. thanks for the reminder

[philfort]

That pile of debris was crazy... biggest pile of crap I've seen from those cliffs yet. Funny to see the cowpath go in and out the middle of that thing.

[Bring On The Snow]

love that snow pack eh?

No fucking Kidding look at the cornice about the cliff

(or is that part of a glacier)

[jcocci]

My girlfriend and I were up on Heliotrope Ridge last weekend as well. Looks like some of your photos were taken from pretty close to our camp. We didn't go up to summit, just to get away for an overnighter and get some turns in. We didn't get many turns in though. I took a couple of runs in the evening on Saturday and the snow was really good, Leann was too tired to take any so she relaxed at camp. Sunday AM we hiked a little ways up the Coleman Glacier thinking we would take a few runs, but the snow wasn't that good, very soft and too slow. There is a lot of pollen in the snow and it was slowing us down big time so we only took the one run and then headed out. The base of my board is so caked with crap right now its ridiculous. We had a great trip anyways. We got engaged Saturday night, so that is pretty cool. The perfect situation to pop the questions presented itself. The sunset that night was ridiculous as well. There were A LOT of climbers up there last weekend. Ranger said there were at least 70 people who were planning on summiting Sunday. There was definitely a train of people heading up and down Sunday AM. I have pictures of our trip on my website if anyone cares to take a look. http://www.johncocci.com/Baker060207/index.html I didn't feel like uploading them to an image site this time.

[LeeLau]

Congrats! She looks like a keeper-

[cascadianwarrior]

Congrats jcocci! Nice pics, especially this one:

[LeeLau]

Picture from inside the crevasse fyi

http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing...p?topic=7348.0

[Mr Happy Pants]

This makes me happy!!!

[fonixmunkee]

I know you are dying to know, so I'll just tell you that picture #8 is my favorite...that nice, buttery line from one side of the frame to the other.

Just strictly a bad-ass TR. Thanks so much for sharing!