According to the weatherman the best chance for having good weather in the Pacific Northwest occurs during the first two weeks of August. Having already climbed Mt Rainier and Mt Adams my eyes turned northward and I decided Mt Baker would be my objective during August of 1986. The Easton Glacier route looked to be the easiest way up the volcano so I packed my tent, a light sleeping bag, my compact, blue Optimus Stove along with food and extra clothing in my red Kelty Pack.

I had decided to see if I could get my big pack up to the vicinity of the Sherman Crater to set up camp. The steam vents intrigued me and I didn't want to have rush by without time to look them over. So I trudged up the Railroad Grade then dodged past crevasses until I reached the crater rim where I pitched my Early Winters gore-tex Mountain Light tent. Fortunately the wind didn't blow the sulfer fumes toward me very often.

Early the next morning I put on my crampons and started for the summit using my ice axe to probe near the end of the big crevasse

that one hits soon after leaving the crater area. Everything was solid and I proceeded without incident up onto the big plateau that is the summit of Mt Baker. I mounted what looked to be a slightly higher area in the middle of the summit area and figured that I had accomplished my goal. But just to be sure, and to look down on the steam vents and my camp from above, I also walked out onto the prominence known as Grant Peak. Here I got some pictures looking down at the vents several hundred feet below me.

The snow was softer as I descended back to my crater camp but was solid past the end of the crevasse where I had probed on the way up. I soon was packed up and heading down finding places where I could do some glissades to make the slog a bit more interesting.

Unfortunately my camera didn't set the exposures very well and my pictures were somewhat disappointing. But that didn't take away from the satisfaction of getting on top of, in my opinion, the most handsome of Wahington's volcanos.

To see some of the pictures I took use this Picasa Link