Summit Mt. Baker

We had ridiculously good weather last weekend. The clouds were blowing by on Saturday, but when we got up on Sunday the cloud layer had settled right below our camp at 6300. We started up by moonlight and headlamp, and saw the clouds turn pink and the mountain’s shadow cast behind us. We were suddenly in bright sun when we reached the sulfur vents, then back in the shade for the Roman Wall, and then I saw the first half of our group sprawled out in the sun on the summit.

Last weekend was canceled because of the big storm on Friday. The forecast for this weekend looks OK so far:

CURRENT FORECAST HAS A SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN WHICH IS ON TARGET. IT`S JUST WITH POPS 20 PERCENT OR LESS IT WILL MOST LIKELY BE DRY. GFS/ECMWF BOTH HAVE WEST FLOW ALOFT OVER THE AREA THIS WEEKEND. LOOKS DRY BUT THE ONSHORE FLOW PATTERN CONTINUES.

I thought I would miss this year’s class climb because of my foot thing. I still don’t fee up to leading a group of students but I’m going to possibly sneak in on the extra instructor rope team.

ONCE AGAIN LITTLE AGREEMENT IN THE EXTENDED MODELS OVER THE WEEKEND INTO THE FIRST PART OF NEXT WEEK.
...and then some jargon that basically means “it could rain or maybe snow or it could just be cloudy and maybe even sunny for a little bit.”

Thought this would be a great start to getting on top of Mount Rainer.

Bad weather again. I went to Mazama instead.

So Plan B for Saturday was rock climbing at Vantage—great day even though it rained for 5 minutes, twice. Plan B for Sunday was Mt Dickerman, but we turned around about 2/3 of the way up at a really thin snow bridge over a waterfall. On our way out we went to Lake 22 (yes, it was raining for almost the whole day, until we got back to the car).

We’re going to Baker again next week, maybe the weather will be better?

...STRONG SYSTEM FOR JUNE ARRIVES SATURDAY..

AN UNSEASONABLY STRONG FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL MOVE IN SATURDAY WITHSTRONG WINDS AND MUCH COOLER WEATHER SUNDAY INTO MONDAY AT HIGHERELEVATIONS. ABOVE THE 5000 FT LEVEL WINDS WILL BEGIN TO PICK UPLATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON WITH SUSTAINED WINDS UP TO 45 MPH BY EARLYSUNDAY MORNING. HIGHER GUSTS WILL BE POSSIBLE ESPECIALLY INEXPOSED TERRAIN.

UP TO 1 INCH OF PRECIPITATION MAY FALL IN THE MOUNTAINS BETWEENLATE SATURDAY AND MIDDAY SUNDAY. FREEZING LEVELS WILL LOWERCONSIDERABLY THE LATTER HALF OF SUNDAY WITH SNOW LEVELS FALLING TO JUSTABOVE PASS LEVEL BY MONDAY MORNING.

HIKERS, CLIMBERS AND OTHER OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS SHOULD EXERCISECAUTION IN THE MOUNTAINS THIS WEEKEND.

Weather not so good:
FRONT ON SATURDAY STILL LOOKING JUICY. RAIN DEVELOPS ON THE COAST IN THE MORNING AND SPREADS INLAND IN THE AFTERNOON. QUARTER-INCH QPF LINE IS OVER PUGET SOUND AT 00Z…WITH HIGHER AMOUNTS IN THE MOUNTAINS SATURDAY NIGHT. COULD ALSO SEE SOME WIND WITH THIS SYSTEM…PERHAPS A LOW-END GALE ON THE COAST DURING THE DAY ANDSMALL CRAFT ADVISORY WINDS INLAND SATURDAY EVENING. BURKE

I almost forgot I had this goal. But the final basic climbing class field trip to Baker is this weekend. I hope the weather holds up, right now it looks like rain showers for our hike up and snow showers for summit day…

no summit. a vigorous attempt. but no summit. we were thwarted by white out and wind. apparently, there will be a next time. when i forget the pain.