North Ridge of Mount Baker
From Wikid Steeps
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Photos
Description
The North Ridge of Mount Baker is somewhat unique among climbs on the Cascade volcanos as a heavily glaciated climb that ascends an ice cliff and passes near seracs, but features very little objective hazard. The difficulty of the ice cliff varies in time and space: temporally, the right spring snowpack can cover much ice; spatially, the ice cliff generally consists of approximately 200 vf of ice up to 60° or 70° on the climber's left and gradually changes to much shorter sections of near vertical to vertical ice on the climber's right. Aside from the ice cliff, most of the route features moderate snow slopes and makes for very enjoyable climbing and skiing with good conditions.
Details
| Mountain | Mount Baker | |
| Aspect | Northeast to northwest | |
| Local Relief | 7,178 ft (2,188 m) | |
| Ski descent from | Grant's Peak to Heliotrope Ridge trailhead | |
| Average Slope | Vertical | Source |
| 45° | 1,760 ft (536 m) | Route Topo |
| Approach | Glacier Creek Road, Heliotrope Ridge | |
Documented Descents
- 2000.07.16: Rene Crawshaw and Carl Skoog descended the North Ridge with one 150 ft rappel. (Skoog's account)
- 2007.07.06: Dave Brown and Sky Sjue descended the North Ridge with no rappel by sidestepping a weakness in the ice cliff toward the Roosevelt Glacier (SkiSickness)
- 2008.07.19: Solo descent by Dan Helmstadter, who downclimbed the ice cliff. (turns-all-year)
Labelled Route Photo
Route taken by Dave Brown and Sky Sjue
Route Topo
This is admittedly a route where the measurement of the average slope from the topo is not quite as representative of what the skier encounters.
