Alpine Ice: July 16th 2006

My body is still getting used to being on Pacific Time, so I'm up well before my watch alarm. I decide to take a quick walk up the ridge and end up scrambling up a small rocky knoll on above camp and sit down to watch the sunrise on Mt Baker. I realize now that I've brought along my small tripod, but not the screw that attaches it to my camera, so all my sunrise shots are shaky.

Joseph and I pack up and head up the trail to the edge of the glacier. After a rest among the flowers and melt water streams, we begin ascending the snow slopes toward the high camp at Black Buttes. Several parties are descending on this Sunday morning and when we arrive at the campsite we wait for a Canadian party to pack up then immediately grab their tent platforms. The group had tried to climb the North Ridge, which would be our objective, but had gotten turned around in the crevasses on the Coleman Glacier and had to turn back.

After lunch we roped up and strode across the glacier to practice crevasse rescue. Dropping a weighted pack into a deep crevasse, we pretended to haul out a fallen climbing partner by building snow anchors and pulley systems.

With a solid anchor now setup above the crevasse, we took turns lowering and belaying one another into the crevasse and ice climbing the walls back to the surface. It was my first time actually inside a crevasse the the deep blue ice and silence were both impressive and otherworldly.

Back at camp we found a safe snow slope and reviewed self-arrest with ice axes. Then we took a side trip to the top of the ridge and admired the view over the Thunder Glacier. I promised myself to come back with a camera later.

Unfortunately, during dinner, the clouds rolled in and I would have to hope tomorrow would have clearer weather for our climb and the view over the Thunder Glacier.