Fire and Ice

Last weekend my good friend Mary and I hiked together on Mount Baker. This was my third time up the Railroad Grade trail, but my first time as a day hike; it was her first time up there. It instantly became one of her favorite trails.

We arrived Sunday morning when most people were leaving. Our trail begins in the woods, no views in here so the pics start a bit later. At this point the trail is pretty rude, gaining 1,000 vertical feet in 2 miles. Then we brake out in this lovely parkland with a dramatic view of the ice cap, our view was especially moody because Komo Kulshan was feeling shy that day.



Normally you'd avoid unnecessary down and then back up on a trip like this, but there was a miniature ocean of lupines below and we couldn't not enjoy them.





Finally, the trail gains a ridge and you hike about 2 miles on a heavenly knife edge.



I didn't know that Mary loves cliffs, she became ecstatic at this point and needed to literally run the ridge. Going up, and it's steep.



The Sisters, a ridge to the SW of Baker. This one reminds me of an 1800s western painting.



Finally, the trail ends and you can scramble another 1K or so up a rocky rib until you run out of ground and are surrounded only by ice. Our plan was to hike and scramble to this high point, and then frolic on the glacier. At least that was my plan, I assumed it was Mary's plan too, because who can resist an opportunity to play on a glacier? Mary can. So I asked her to give me a few minutes and dropped down to the ice, every time I got near it she yelled "NO!!" and shook her head and waved her arms, like how you'd scold a bad dog. It's not polite to take somebody out of their comfort zone in a place like this, so my primary goal went unattained. Secondary goal of having a great day with a good friend went perfectly, and the third goal of introducing a friend to a new favorite place went swimmingly.

This part of the Easton Glacier is heavily crevassed. You can see a few obvious snow bridges here. Overall this is a pretty hostile glacier.



Heading back down toward the trial.



We probably took longer going down than coming up, the blueberries were ripe. I drove home looking like a smurf.