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转自Hi友的Email： I'm now one of the Fabulous Baker Boys
Steve 06年8月时登顶Mt. Baker，高兴之余发了Email给Hi友们分享. 争得同意后贴在这里，希望给有兴趣登顶Baker的朋友分享一点经验.
“Summit!!!
I just have to tell somebody my incredible experience on Baker.
Slept at the trailhead Friday nite. Hmm this car camping is getting tough as I get older. Didn't get much sleep. The brightness of the stars actually woke me up. It was magnificent! Too lazy to break out the camera for it though.
Woke up at about 5:30am. the alarm didn't go off. Luckily I check the time, because about 20min later Lorne and Marina showed up at the parking lot. I didn't get a chance to make a hot breakfast i was planning, so I shot down one of those Caffeine energy drinks and a granola bar, made our morning greetings and introductions. After the washroom breaks we got on the trail about 6am.
Just over an hour later we roped up. Lorne, our lead climber kept a nice easy pace for us. I think he wanted to go a more accelerated pace but he gaged quite well our fitness level. For a person in his mid to late fifties energy seems to be at a level of a hiker in his 30's. I brought my camera gear again and as usual i unloaded before the crux of the climb. Even with the lightened load my legs were starting to feel fatigued at about 8,000 ft. I think I better increase my anaerobic training for such an elevation gain. I thought I would be auk since I just did Wedge-mount lake and Mount Cook 8780Ft., with an elevation gain of 6316Ft. The summit of Baker is about 10,778Ft. with an elevation gain of about 6,800Ft.
Route finding was pretty straight forward. The snow pack on the approach and on some parts of the glacier were 6" soft pack on nice hard ice, with the occasional soft on steep slope. we did cross a few small crevasses and one snow bridge which I did pay attention to. For the most part, even though we got up to the Baker/Colfax peak Col a little late in the day, the snow-pack was somewhat hard. Our middle climber had a bit of workout trying to kick step here way up a bit of a crux before the Col. I think we put on the crampons on at about 7,500ft.
Comparing to my Baker trip last year, the Roman wall appears to have melted out alot. The Roman wall is recorded at about 30 degrees incline, but when I was in the middle of the wall it looked like 40-45 degrees! I was pretty comfortable on the ice on the wall, but there was more soft corn snow on ice than there was ice, so my arms got quite the workout plunging my axe. At some points on the wall, for me to feel comfortable, I relied on my axe for stability more than my crampons, but only when I was able to plunge the axe at to half shaft.
Marina was getting quite fatigued on the Roman wall, so we really took our time, I suggested we rest-step the rest of the way since the ice on the wall was somewhat clean. Summit!!! The top felt like the size of a football field, if not bigger! I could barely see Vancouver, but I could make out the local mountains, the gulf islands, the reflections off the waters of Georgia Strait, Olympic Mountain Range, I hint of RAINIER!, Glacier Peak between Baker and Rainier (had to look that up for Lorne), Gold Ears and Blanshard peak. I even have a picture of the curvature of the earth.
Thanks Marina for making the Summit. The team dynamic was great. Even though Marina was quite fatigued and possibly showing signs of altitude, she had the fortitude to persevere. Though I was ready to turn around at any point in the climb, (which I have done few times) Marina felt she could do it. Once we really slowed down the pace with rest-steps, I felt that the summit was ours!
I was so elated I forgot to check the time. My guess is about 2:30pm. Holy smokes, is that ever late in the afternoon !! After a bite to eat, Lorne broke out some wine! woohoo. We spent maybe a little over a half hour on the summit before we began our descent. This time I took the lead. I decided to do a few switchbacks to lessen the steep angle on the wall. Also to save my knees from the stress of making full crampon contact on a direct descent. the descent was pretty straight forward. Again route finding was pretty simple, though I changed our route to above the crevasses by Colfax peak.
I picked up my camera gear at about 7,000ft. and I decided to break from the climbing party at about 6,500 ft to take some pictures of the sunset. I said my congratulations and goodbyes to Lorne and Marina about 7:30ish. I climbed back up another 1000ft to take a panoramic. I got to the Hogsback to take some sunset pics about 8ish.
It was getting really late but I kept chatting to climbers at base camp and on their way up. I ended up hiking the last half hour in complete darkness. Some of the tree cover made it pitch black. I thought I had my headlamp with me, but no such luck. I realized I put it back in the pathfinder to save weight, since it was getting light out already at quarter to six. thank god for the poles for helping me judge how steep it was. Mental note, don't take the short cuts on the switchbacks in the dark again.
Parking Lot. 9:30pm. Home 11:30pm“ |
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发表于 2006-10-28 19:13:44
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楼主
发表于 2006-10-29 09:53:10
