The Mt Baker Chronicles

This entry is more than a blog post. It's really the story of a journey, and it's long. The main reason I blog is to preserve our memories, to be able to look back and remember those small details and the little joys of our lives. There is so much of this journey that I want to keep in my memory. Either grab a cup of coffee or sip ice tea while you read, or just scroll down for a glimpse of the pictures.

THE DREAM

She stands towering over any other hill that might challenge her might. You can't escape her glare, her beauty, her calling. Native Americans called her Koma Kulshan, the Great White Watcher, a very befitting name. I still remember the moment that I was first caught in her spell.

After moving to Whatcom county, hiking became my favorite activity, and regardless of the trail I would hit in the North Cascades, there she was, enveloping me with her greatness. So it became a dream, to one day answer her calling and take up her challenge. My good friend, hiking partner and fellow mountain lover, Ann D. shared this dream and we thought it would be a good way to welcome our 40th birthdays. We entered the 4th decade of our lives, but circumstances; an overseas trip for me and a move across the state for Ann, among others; did not allow us to fulfill what we had been dreaming of. Last winter, my husband and our dear friends, Craig and Erika (also caught by Baker's spell), were all approaching their 40th birthdays. I tossed out the idea that we should all climb Baker to celebrate this milestone. They embraced it wholeheartedly and the dream slowly began to materialize.

THE PLANNING

We began looking into our options and began our physical training. Despite the logistics of finding a weekend that suited all four, taking in consideration the needs of the six children between us, we were successful in finding a date. July 3rd-5th it was, which meant Shawn and I would be celebrating our 18th anniversary at the foot of Baker. We hired the services of the American Alpine Institute, which we felt that with their expertise, training and guidance, would help minimize the risks involved. We started gathering gear, often being found at REI during their sales. Many friends went through their inventory and lent us different apparatus. Physical training was always on our minds, jogging, hiking, push ups, pull ups, ab ripper, heavy packs on our backs, thousands of steps at a time (I'm not kidding).

SOME SET BACKS

Part of intense physical training, is the risk of injuries. Erika severely sprained her ankle. It was still a few months away and she had time to rest it and let it heal. It was not easy to sit back with ice on her ankle while we were out training. She is a strong runner and was very fit to begin with, so she bounced right back. Late May I caught a very strong cold, and I had to watch Shawn go on hikes up steep hills while I got short-winded going down our block. I too recovered. Less than a month before our climb, Craig tells us he will need surgery for an abdominal hernia. Not to worry he says, the Dr. told him that once it is fixed, he will be able to put all the strain in the world and it will fine. There will be some pain but no further damage. What a trooper, he had the surgery and after a week resumed his training for the last remaining two weeks.

PACKING

A packing list was provided to us by AAI. It consisted of no less then eight pages, describing the necessary gear. What a challenge, not only to fit it in our packs, but to keep it at a manageable weight. Remember, we were the ones hauling it all up the mountain, no Sherpas around here. We succeeded to stuff it all in, only to be told to dump it all out the next morning when we met our guide at AAI. It was a very helpful gear check; a duffel bag full of stuff was left behind and only the most necessary equipment was taken. In retrospect, we hauled too much food, but who wants to go hungry, we need all the energy we can get.

IT BEGINS

Many butterflies fluttered in my stomach as we arrived at the trail head,

only uphill from now on, no turning back.

Great smiles on the faces of four very excited people.

Upon arrival at Hogsback camp, where we were to set up our base camp, we needed to find a suitable place for our tent. Quite a bit of snow was still left at this place that is usually bare at this time of year, not surprising considering the wet and cold June we had just experienced.

We could have picked a small patch of uneven rocky soil but why not experience the "coolness" of camping on snow? Here is our tent and the Palmer's in the background.

The scenery around us was breath taking. It was mostly cloudy and socked in, but occasionally some breaks in the sky would form, revealing wonderful surprises. The Coleman Glacier was right next to us, and at times we could hear ice calving off. Shawn was quick enough one time to actually see part of a wall come down.

Straight from an outdoor catalog page. Except this time, besides admiring it, we smelled and felt it as well.

TRAINING DAY

The second day of the trip, consisted of training. Lots to learn for novices like us. Shawn and Craig had gotten their feet wet the previous week by climbing Ruth Mt, and are also more naturally inclined to pick up things faster. In the mean time, Erika and I got tied up with knots and had to learn how to use the restroom while tied on the rope with our harness and all the clumsy gear attached to us.

The afternoon brought us some misty rain and in order to avoid ending up with wet clothing for next days' summit, we interrupted our training and had time to snooze and read inside our tent.

Preparing meals and eating them took part of our day as well.

One of the benefits of cooler weather is having to snuggle close together.

Happy 18th Anniversary to us! We celebrated with an evening of fine dining ending with a delicious desert, wild blueberry cheesecake, prepared by the Palmers. Thank you guys for that nice treat! It was now time to try to sleep, at 7pm, so we could get an alpine start at 2am. Our guide would call us at 12:30 am to get ready. By then she had figured out we needed sufficient time to get ourselves moving.

Who can sleep with all that excitement building up? Not me!

THE NOT SO GLAMOROUS SIDE OF MOUNTAINEERING

What the pictures will not show you (for obvious reasons) and what people might keep from you, are the uncomfortable things like restroom issues. What do you do when there is not a hole around and you want to keep the place pristine and smelling good for the next climber? You use a bag and take it down the trail with you at the end of the trip, and in the mean time you need to hide it from the crows, so they don't have a hay day and spread it all around your campsite. Nasty birds! What do you do when you are attached to a rope for 10 hours straight and have to go? You forget about your inhibitions, ask your climbing partners to stare into the abyss and take care of business, hoping that your friends wouldn't take a picture of you (inside joke). What do you do when you are trying to sleep, but are to cold? You reach for another jacket and put in on inside the confined spaces of your mummy bag while trying not to let any cold air in. What do you do when you are only hours from starting your climb, and you know how important it is to get some good rest? You toss and turn, and worry and dream, and most of all, you pray.

THE DAY IS HERE

We did not need to be awakened, since sleep had been elusive anyways. At 12:30 I poked my head out of the tent and saw a person walking towards our camp. He was looking for his buddy, whom he was going to meet to make the summit. Our guide, Angela, knew whom he was looking for, and tried to help him. When I first heard the guy, my heart skipped a few beats, since I thought it was someone sent by AAI due to an emergency with one of our kids. Really, who wanders around at midnight, in the dark, under misty rain at the foot of a glacier, looking for his buddy? Once that was settled, Angela pushed our start for an hour later, due to the weather. Shawn went: "Great, another hour of tossing and turning." However, the rain now fell a little stronger and it must have been soothing enough to help us sleep. Even Angela slept a little longer than planned. Over at the Palmers tent, sleep had come earlier, and Craig took over as the weather watchmen, unzipping his tent every few minutes to check conditions. Eventually, the weather cleared a bit, and we got up a little past 2am, which was our original departure time. After a bowl of hardy hot oatmeal, we donned our equipment, and started the long awaited climb. I will never forget what that felt like, setting out in the dark and silence of night, the Abbostsford city lights glowing in the distance, the brightness of the snow overcoming the darkness of the night.

We were excited beyond measure, and of course, those butterflies were still strongly fluttering in my tummy. The plan was to take a little break every hour, and drink and eat something every time, regardless of hunger. Here we took our second break as we approach the Black Buttes. My granola bar was hard and very cold, but I managed to swallow half of it down.

Our spirits were high and we were having the time of our life, you can see Erika doing her little climbing chant: "We are mountaineers, we climb with no fear".

Shortly after this picture we witnessed an amazing sunrise, the clouds moved around just at the right time and opened a little window so we could catch a glimpse of the sun, what a gift! We got to the point where we had to step over little crevasses, then we reach the "Big Scary Crevasse", which still had not opened up entirely and we were also able to step over it. The sight of a crevasse gripped us with awe, and we even slowed a bit in hopes of getting a better look. Our wise guide just hollered at us: "Keep moving, this is no place to stop". The day was getting brighter and our amazement was only increasing. It's common knowledge that the weather can change drastically in a matter of minutes in the mountains. Along with that, your hopes and excitement can change as well. As we approached a steeper climb, the winds picked up and the clouds closed in, enveloping us with a blanket of whiteness. Two rangers were coming down, and told us that they had turned around since conditions deteriorated higher up. (On a side note, this was the "buddy" that our wandering midnight visitor was looking for. He obviously had not found him, since he was not with them.) Our hoods came up and we pressed on, making it up to Pumice Ridge. The wind was relentless and the temperatures dropped rapidly. We added all of our layers (5 for me), I traded my gloves for warmer ones. I made an effort to drink and eat, but there was ice in my Nalgene bottle and I could not brake into my cliffbar without risking breaking a tooth. Shawn could not sip water from his camel back either, the water in the straw was completely frozen. A party of 3 climbers were coming down, and it looked like they had come straight from an Everest type movie. They were hunched down, their beards covered with frozen ice, their backpacks coated with snow. I was later told that I did not look much different, the little bit of hair brave enough to be out of my toque, was frozen and sprinkled with frost. This was not the worst part of our situation though. Erika's toes were really cold and the prospect of them getting warmer was very dim. We were at 9000 ft and had to make a decision, to press on in those conditions with slim chances of any improvement, most likely with worse conditions; or to turn around. Neither choice was very appealing. We decided to continue on for a little while, but our guide made it clear that the risk of frostbites was not worth it and we would monitor it closely, having to turn around with lack of improvement. It was time to put our crampons on in order to be able to tackle the terrain that laid ahead. No one was bellowing out our chant anymore, we were all quietly praying. As we continued our steep ascent, the winds died down and toes and fingers got a little warmer. By our next stop, we knew we had turned a challenging corner, but would make it all the way up. There was one more hurdle to overcome though, the Roman Wall, a steep 30 -40 degree climb, before we could claim victory. That's when I hit my own personal wall, every step was a challenge. I wanted to stop and take some breaks, but Angela would have none of it, and since I was attached to the same rope, I had no choice. Eventually, despite the thick cloud, I was able to see the end of the wall. A few more grueling steps and I had reached the summit plateau. Words can absolutely not describe the sensation of walking on flat surface after that climb. This was not the true summit yet, it laid ahead somewhere, it's a little mound at the edge of this plateau. We followed our leader in the direction of where she knew the summit should be. All of a sudden, a little gentle wind opens another window and gives us a glimpse of the summit, right in front of us. Now this is another moment I will never forget.

The smile says it all. We have conquered the mountain.

Thank you my love, for all your support, encouragment, for never giving up on me and for helping make this dream come true. I'm so blessed for sharing the last 18 years of my life with you and look forward to many, many more. I love you.

Craig and Erika, what an amazing experience and I'm so glad we were able to share it with you. It was great to laugh with you, and oh, did we have reasons to laugh, mainly at ourselves of course. Having your support and companionship made this trip complete. We did it! We stand at 10778 ft!

By looking at the pictures, it gives you the impression that we were able to break through the clouds, but it really was the opposite. The clouds broke up as we got to the summit. A minute before this moment the summit was a complete white out. None other but God could have done it, and the glory and majesty of this view is all due to Him.

Our party at the top had to come to an end and the descent began.

The layers that were put on, on the way up, had to be shed on the way down.

It took us 10 hrs round trip from our base camp. Here we stand looking back at where we had just come from. Unbelievable!

Kudos goes to our guide Angela, who not only showed us the way, but spurred me on when the going got tough. She is a very competent and experienced leader, and also fun to hang out with. She made us glow even more when she pointed out that we had "killed it". Not only did we keep going when the rangers turned back, but we beat the young guys down, who we had met at the summit and started their descent ahead of us. No too bad for a gang of 4o year olds!

Back to were we had started. Ready for the ride home, where a nice shower, soft bed with a pillow awaits us! What a luxury!

We owe our thanks to many people.

To Shawn's parents for loving and taking care of our two youngest boys while we were away. They had a wonderful time and made many great memories with you.

To the Adam's for letting us drop Christian off at their house at 6:40 am, before his Boy Scout camp departure.

For our "sponsors", our many friends who selflessly and excitedly lent us gear:

Ryan & Jessie K.

Brandon & Lolita O.

Austin & Crista M.

Justin A.

Paul M.

Craig, Erika & Kelsey P.

Above all, we are thankful to God, who is the creator of the magnificent mountains to begin with. He blessed us with friends and family, He kept us healthy. He opened that window for the sunrise, He moved away the wind and clouds for us to enjoy the summit. He gave me the strength that I begged for, when I "hit my wall", He warmed Erika's toes, He gave us strong and supportive husbands, and the list goes on.

"How Awesome are your deeds!

All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing praise to your name."

Psalm 66:3a-4