Sunday, May 22, 2011

tiny people. big mountain

Taken from "North Cascades Geology"

Mount Baker is one of the youngest members of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It is probably less than 30,000 years old and has not been eroded enough to expose its granitic roots. The most conspicuous young lavas associated with the volcano flowed down Sulphur Creek less than 10,000 years ago, erupting from a small cinder cone near Schriebers Meadow. An explosive eruption of steam blew out of Sherman crater, near the summit of Mount Baker in 1843, and steam still hisses into the sky from vents around the rim. We have every reason to expect future eruptions from Mount Baker.

On Thursday morning, we woke up at 3:19am, and began shuffling around the house. Thankfully I laid my clothes out the night before, so I was 51% sure that I was putting the right clothes on. I downed a bowl of oatmeal and we loaded into the car. We bid adieu to Chris & Linden who stayed the night and were heading out the door toward Shuksan.

We picked Chris up at 3:45am and started the drive on 542 toward Glacier Creek rd. The moon was nearly full and the sky was perfectly clear. We could see the outline of peaks pass by as we zoomed down the road toward our destination. At 5am we started the snowmobile and drove up Glacier Creek road for about 2 miles until we reached the trailhead. The sun had not risen, but dawn was upon us and the sun was filled with pale blues, yellows & oranges. We started skinning at 5:30am.

We made good time and reached the summit at noon. I opened my bag of cookies and enjoyed the views of the North Cascades, Olympics, Rainier and Canada. The video below includes some photos that Frankie took as well as path up to the summit.


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