Claire, Yuko and I took advantage of a perfect spring weekend to climb a local volcano. We started on Saturday afternoon at a leisurely pace, camped on a perfect flat bench, then summited on Sunday under clear skies. My previous two climbs of Mt Baker required down-climbing the icy Roman Wall before encountering safe ski conditions. However this time, the snow softened perfectly and we were able to ski from the very summit (10,781 ft) all the way to the car (3,400 ft).
starting up:
camp:
We noticed a sizeable avalanche fracture, which was likely several days old. At the time of our climb the snow was extremely stable following a week of warm days and cool nights.
We did not rope up, due to the good snow coverage and the firm surface. This was one of the only crevasse bridges that we encountered:
Approaching the summit:
Enjoying the weather and views:
Skiing down:
