An Alpine Experience : Mount Baker

Though I am a firm believer in Clint Eastwood school of thought “A man has got to know his limitations”, and yet sometimes I tend to get carried away and get into situations which are somewhat beyond my capabilities and quite contrary to my idea of fun….my (hypothetical) idea of fun is lying on the couch with a Wodehouse, while another member of household brings peeled, cut and washed fruit to within my arm’s reach.

How do I get into these situations? Well, the word “misleading” comes to my mind. Some misleading here was of my own making. I was lying on the couch watching a documentary movie, in which bunch of amateurs went up Mount Everest, including one seventy one year old Japanese Takao Arayama. I know fully well that I would be glad if I am able to find the bathroom, when I am seventy and yet something clicked. If saner thoughts had prevailed, my core engineering cerebrum could have convinced my-self that these amateurs are at the end of the statistical distribution and not the norm……statistically normal population hangs out at KFC and is featured in other documentary movies with apt names such as “Supersize Me” and “Food Inc.”. Unfortunately, at that moment, by the power vested in me by two “Peg Patiala” of Hercules XXX military issue Rum, I mislead myself into believing that I am still young and strong enough to learn how to climb on snow and actually attempt a small mountain. A timely “Google” search convinced me further that some of the glaciated mountains in Northern Cascades, in particular Mount Baker (10778 ft. of elevation), would be ideal for my “fit-ness” level.

Next day some sanity returned but then I walked into the second stage of misleading i.e. friends who have been there. In my case, exact words from Nick were “You have been hiking in the Rockies. Snow climbing is nothing but lazy man’s hiking. Take a step, rest, take a step, rest”. I must admit that while climbing Mount Baker, I did entertain thoughts of subjecting Nick to a fair measure of water boarding and other non-torture techniques from the Pentagon manual. Now that adventure is successfully over, I still put a jewish curse on him, “May all your teeth fall down except one. And the one remaining may develop a severe tooth ache”.

Among such vacillations, damage was done and I signed up with Alpine Ascents for a three day Mount Baker climb. Nothing else pushes a man forward on an adventure trail but the thoughts of a non-refundable deposit. I actually trained for this climb.

On 28th of july, I finally met rest of the team in Seattle. Ten climbers and three guides. Seven climbers had quite a bit of experience, one with some experience and two novices, henceforth, known as the “Slow Team”. The other novice was a graduate student from New Jersey. Six of the climbers came through a very commendable cause of Fred Hutchinson cancer research organization, which sponsors one’s climb when you raise a certain amount of money for the charity. We were told that weather forecast is great for next three days and no problems are expected. On 29th morning we met at the Schreiber’s meadow trailhead and the climb was on with ~50 pounds of backpack. The trailhead is at ~3300 ft of elevation. Part of the trail passes through dense forest, small brooks & bridges and as soon as you bust out of the tree line, front part of Mount Baker comes into view in distance. Mount Baker gets over 50 ft. of snow a year and due to its northern location, it remains under snow cover throughout the year. Snow cover started at some 5000 ft. and it took the “Slow Team” about six hours to climb to 6400 ft. level where we set our high camp. Snow was leveled and tents were pitched.

The views from high camp were expansive and timeless. Here we were, sitting on the snow with wind and cold and yet Pacific Ocean is visible in the distance. Sunlight lingers on till almost 10:00 PM and setting sun gives a reddish hue to beautify the surroundings. It is one incredibly amazing place to sit down with a book from the back section of your book-shelf…..Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. On one side we had the Easton glacier and on the other the Deming glacier. At dinner time, Macaroni and Cheese was served. It is common to loose your appetite as you go up but spiked with Tabasco, it tasted great. In the night time as you are trying to sleep, large slabs of ice in the Easton glacier come loose and fall down with great noise, giving you an impression as if a thunder is going on outside the tent.

Next day I woke up early to watch the sunrise over Deming glacier and perform “the task”, which has always posed great challenge for anyone, who has ever been on a camping trip i.e. ABLUTION Number 2. At 6400 ft. you are under "pressure". One side you have good folks of US National Park services who want you to keep it clean and on other, you have Alpine Ascents who insist on principle of “No Trace Left Behind”. You are about to expose your sensitive body parts to the mercy of Nature at high altitude only to find that privacy is not available, even at a premium. Together, these circumstances give rise to a whole new form of performance anxiety. It is a good thing that I grew up in a village in Punjab. Allow me to expose you to the invention called Wag bag. Ladies and Gentlemen, your tax dollars have not gone waste. Finest brains at NASA have developed a Wag Bag which offers human sanitation under extreme circumstances. You GO in a bag, tie the knot, knead it a little to mix with the chemical formulation inside, put it in the second zip-lock bag and voila….a true Port-a-potty. The problem however is that at 6400 ft., human refuse is a Dessert to Ravens, who will follow even a slight "aroma". One solution to this problem is to dig a small trench in the snow and bury the bag. But that gives rise to more issues…1) What if “pressure” returns and you forget where you buried it? Make sure you mark the location with a ski pole. 2)What if you can’t find the shovel?, keep one small shovel handy in the tent 3) What if there is fresh three feet snowfall while you were sleeping? Ha, Ha, Ha…..you are on your own now, unless you carry a spare Wag Bag or you can convince someone to borrow theirs....and remember No Trace Left Behind !!!

Now, I know many of you are going to say a very loud EEEEUUUUUU even in the privacy of your own homes, when I tell you that best location to store a used Wag Bag is the under the tent base. Once properly knead-in and secured in the zip-lock, a strategically placed Wag Bag actually solves the problem of not having a comfortable camping Pillow !!!!!

Second day was also the snow school day. Until this snow school, the word “Cramp-on” meant nothing more than a periodic feminine disorder to me. And ice-axe was something which a man must strive to keep out of eye sight during “Cramp-on” time. On snow climbs however, they are miraculous life savers. Learn how to go up in snow, how to come down in snow and most importantly, how to self-arrest with ice-axe when you (or others on your roped team) fall down and start sliding down the slippery slope. We were told to erase all images of Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger as he couldn’t have been more wrong and far from reality....hmmm, who knew. We were on the mountain when we heard the sad news of the team which fell into a crevasse on nearby Mount Rainier resulting in one death. It pays to pay attention to the Guide's words.

Guides decided that team looks fit enough so instead of climbing on third day, how about starting the climb at 2:00 PM in the afternoon….idea sounded good at that time. That way you can rest on third day and get down to trailhead with easy pace. The “Slow Team” of three (and our guide Matthew) was given a head-start of forty five minutes and we were on our way. The higher we got, more exhausting it became. Half way through the climb, we came across the crater of Mount Baker volcano. Mount Baker is an active volcano and smell of sulfur is pervasive (remeber those experiments with H2S in the Chem Lab)…..needless to say, an all men crew couldn’t resist cracking some “Gas Jokes”. Near the final plateau, the incline became quite severe and my lungs opened clandestine negotiations with my knees about the possibility of staging a coup d’etat. We wanted to rest but our guide kept on shouting,”Not a good place to rest. You want to rest, Rest on the top of the hill”. And miraculously, we all made to the top. After snapping a few pictures, the cold started setting in. It was already over 7:00 PM and we began the equally difficult and slow task of descending. A few hours, Sun set and darkness made us bring out our head lamps. Slow descent became slower. At one point we realized that we had taken a wrong path as there was a crevasse in front of us. We had to turn and climb up again to find the right tracks. I think those were the longest twenty minutes of my life. It was almost midnight when “Slow Team” got back to the camp, to a thundering applause from two other teams, who were waiting for us. Appetite-less, exhausted and cold, we somehow shoved the food down and hit the sleeping bag. Next morning, we all woke up late, had a granola breakfast and began uprooting and re-packing our back packs. At about 1:00 PM, we were all back at the trailhead, wiped ourselves down, and as a first point of action, we drove to the nearest town of Concrete and hit a bar called Annie’s for Pizza and Beer.

A wise man once said that an Adventure is an adventure only in retrospect. When actually in progress, an adventure could be unpleasant and generally very trying experience. Perhaps it is time I should think about sticking to just Golf and Crosswords.....trying but pleasant (especially after the arrival of Beer cart/girl).

Enjoy the Pictorial Perusal of Mount Baker Climb.