Written September 98
I hadn't climbed in a month or 2 when my friend Steve Veitch called in early July.
STEVE: Hey Josh, I was wondering if you wanted to climb Baker with me.
ME:
STEVE: So what do you think?
ME: Me? Yes. (loudly)
STEVE: Ok, I'll call you back later. (hangs up)
Needless to say I was dumbfounded. I hadn't ever thought of Steve as the outdoor type. I always was talking about climbing to him and he got interested also. His dad is a doctor and climbs, he was also a smokejumper for the forest service to pay for college. When he heard Steve talking about climbing he immediately arranged a climb with the American Alpine Institute. Steves dad, Bob, had climbed Baker many times before and only hired the guide to appease our mothers. Bob also knew Dunham Gooding the boss at AAI (at least Steve said so).
The weeks before the climb were pretty chaotic. Accumulating all of the gear was nerve racking, you know "what if...." and all of that stuff. I also had nothing at all to start with. My mom was really freaking she had finally come to terms with me climbing and that she would "have to tell the family when (I) died". This was because of an uncle I never knew. He led an expedition to Baker in the 50's or 60's. Almost the whole team was killed in an avalanche. Also, a week before I went on the climb, I went to Yakima to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. In Yakima I got really sick and had to come home early. Luckily someone was going back so I didn't have to suffer the rest of the week. I was really worried about being sick for the climb, but I was ok.
Finally, the day of the climb came. I got up early and went down to AAI. I was issued my equipment and loaded my pack. When I put that thing on I was thinking, damn! I'm gonna have to pack this thing to the top of Baker! This wasn't that I was in bad shape. I had never backpacked in my life and my mom had loaded me with about 2 pounds of unnecessary items, no exaggeration. It was mostly food, specifically, cookies. After the pictures (mom again) and good-byes; Steve, his dad, his cousin Cody, our guide Julian Tonsmire, and I, finally hit the road.
It was about 8 in the morning when we left. I watched Baker out the window still amazed that I was actually going to make the climb. I don't know what it's like before your first climb for other people. But with no backpacking experience and a moderate amount of outdoor rock experience (which I wouldn't need) I was genuinely scared. Would I be able to carry the load? Would I slow everybody down? Would I make a fool of myself? And most importantly, would I make the summit? We were in a good mood as we rode up. We listened to Bob talk about intestinal diseases (he's a gastrointerologist) and his smoke jumping days. Julian, our guide, told us about his climbing experiences on Mt. McKinley (Denali) earlier in the year.
On the drive in I caught a good glimpse of Baker. We were really close. I knew it was big, but up close it was huge. I kept thinking what am I doing? We reached the trailhead around 10 A.M. The road to get there was a killer. The Rangers were correct when they told us that the potholes were literally "3 feet deep". It took us about a half hour to gather our gear and get ready, and finally we set out. I knew little of packs, and thus, mine was on wrong. This caused me great agony the first 15 minutes of the hike. We stopped to let day hikers by, and I got it fixed. It was leaning back and to my left. Meanwhile, I was starting to die under my 50 pound pack, and when we rested about half way up I shed it and gratefully drank half a liter of water. The rest ended too soon, and we continued on our way. We crossed the same stream lots of times and it grew swifter the higher we got. Julian had to take my pack across the last time. But when you think of it it's not that bad. I weighed about 105 (yep, I'm small) and my pack was about 50 pounds. So, it was more difficult for me carrying half of my body weight than it would be for somebody carrying a third of their weight.
We reached our first camp around 12:30 P.M. We took an hour to set up camp and eat lunch. We then descended to part of the Coleman Glacier to learn how to walk in our crampons, French stepping etc. We also climbed some moderate inclines with our ice axes and crampons. We got back to camp between 4 or 5 and started dinner. Dinner was freeze-dried and, well. . . . . .it really sucked. I didn't finish mine and tried to force it down with no success. Steve, Cody, and Bob ate theirs with amazing speed so I was on my own down to the stream to wash my dishes. I was walking down to the stream when there was a pretty good sized porcupine sitting on this big rock that the path went right next to. I figured if I made some noise it would go away, so I clanged my pans around and kept moving. The animal ran only to be replaced by a bigger one. This one was huge. It looked like it was about to defend its territory so I turned and walked quickly back up the trail, not ran. Upon returning to camp I told them my story. Everybody thought that this was BS. So I told them to go and look for themselves, and what do you know, there was nothing there when we all returned.
We went back to camp and just sat around in our long underwear for a few hours. I was pretty bored. It was just that we were too tired to do anything. I really wish I had brought a walkman or book and I will next time. It was kind of wierd because my family never does anything outdoors. We go to some city and stay in a hotel. I had never been this far away from large numbers of people, or more importantly technology (toilets), before. I started to feel really isolated and paranoid for awhile, then I realized that that was what it was about and calmed down. We went to sleep around 8. It was hard to do because I had been up until 11 or later all summer. I don't care how tired I was, I just couldn't sleep.
We woke up at 7 the next morning and left around 8. Those Quaker Oatmeal flavor packs are perhaps the best thing you could bring with you camping. My Maple and Brown Sugar was so damn good after those freeze dried things. I was antsy and very glad when we got moving. We followed the ridge up dodging the glacier and snow until about 10 A.M. The terrain we had just hiked was steep and rocky. I kept thinking "Jeze, this is steep and rocky." then it would get steeper and rockier. We all had drunk a bunch of water in this process. At the beginning of the glacier we were about to climb, there was a mountain stream. We asked Bob about the risk of getting Giardia from drinking this. He said that there was a pretty good chance, but it takes 14 days for Giardia to develop.
We drank the water.(nobody got sick)
We went onto the snow and practiced kicking out steps in the sun cups. Then we learned how to use our Ice Axes for self-arrest. Self-arrest was fun but I wouldn't ever like to have to use it. We then went up the glacier. It was kind of wierd because we were zig-zagging our way all roped up and here were people charging straight up the slope all by themselves passing us. For the first time we couldn't stop because the area was a wet glacier, meaning that snow was covering the crevasses. Near the top, we had our first crossing of a crevasse. I am not afraid to admit that I am afraid of heights. The crossing of these small deep crevasses was nerve-racking. Little did I know what was to come. The rest at the top was short as we only needed to go about 15 minutes until our second camp. We arrived at our camp around noon and set up our tent and ate lunch. After lunch we unloaded our packs and walked about 5 minutes up the glacier and went over crevasse rescue. The main thing I regret about the climb was I was tired during crevasse rescue. Even though we sat there and watched it was hard to pay attention. I volunteered to do it and, in the end I did, with the help of Julian (because that was his pack down in the crevasse). I really regret that I don't remember much about that. I will need it on future climbs.
We returned to camp sooner than expected. Julian saw that Steve and Cody, like myself, were drained. I guess he didn't really see any reason to keep us out there for any extensive training. We started dinner and the process of melting lots of water. I had some freeze-dried Alfredo something and it was good until Steve mentioned the pesto. I'm deathly allergic to nuts. Pesto is known for having nuts in it. I read the ingredients a couple of times but, pesto, I just couldn't eat it after that. I wasn't too hungry anyway. I was forcing massive amounts of water down because I thought I was dehydrated. I know this is kinda gross, but its funny. You see I thought I was dehydrated because my urine was yellow. I finally realized that I had been going with my glacier glasses on. My glacier glasses were tinted *yellow* hence my urine appeared *yellow* when it was clear. I really kicked myself in the butt for that one because I was getting sick from drinking so much. If you go on a hike or a climb remember to bring along pre-sugared Kool-Aid packs or pre-sugared Gatorade packs. I have never drunk that much fluid in my life and I couldn't have done it without the tastefulness of sugar.
Before we went to sleep I called my parents on Bob's cell phone. I was thinking that they would be miserable worrying about me.
Here's the jist of the conversation.
Mom&Dad(MD): Hello (laughter in background)
Me: Uh. . . . hey. This is Josh.
MD: Oh, hi. (more laughter in background)
Me: Um, what's going on? (confused)
MD: Oh, we're just having a party. (hysterical laughter in background)
Me: Oh, that's nice (strangely)
MD: So, where are you? (sounds of wine bottles being opened)
Me: On Mt. Baker what do you think?
Conversation continues.
I turned the phone off and just kinda stood there. Everybody asked me what my parents had said. I told them not much because they were throwing a party (still dumbfounded). Everybody lauged and made jokes about me. We then sat around trying to get rid of food we didn't need. Yes, those 2 pounds of cookies definateley had to go. It was really kind of competitive. We all had cookies and food we had to get rid of. Julian, who knew what to bring had only the basics and we spoiled him with our cookies. We also tried to pass it off on Bob. I packed my pack and got ready for the next day and went to bed.
We started our period of attempting to sleep around 6 PM. I had to keep going to the bathroom, due to the massive amount of fluids I had consumed. When I finally settled down some truths about our tent became obvious to me.
1. It was on a slope.
2. My head was downhill and all of the blood was going to it.
3. I was in the downhill corner of the tent and everybody and everything was slowly coming toward me and crushing me.
I adjusted myself into a more comfortable position and tried to sleep. I had a 3/4 size sleeping pad and my feet were hanging off the end getting very cold, as if I didn't need anymore problems. I solved this one by putting my feet on top of everything that slid down to that end of the tent.
We officially got up at 2 AM. I think everybody but Bob and Julian were awake because we couldn't sleep and there were people going past the tent already. I emerged from my sleeping bag. WHAM!! That blast of cold air hit me. I was immediately wide awake and struggling to get my clothes on. I stepped outside the tent. On this clear moonless night it seemed that I could see every star and planet. I took the sky in being an astronomy buff. It was amazing. Once we all had eaten and gotten ready we left, it was around 3 AM. I decided the best thing to do was just put my head down and go because I knew I wouldn't get anywhere if I was looking where I was going. Now, I am not quite sure about the exact times of the events leading to the summit. But, it seemed that after an hour of going we had a stop to rest. I didn't have time to look at my watch. Our break and those to come lasted about 5 minutes. I only had time to sit and drink while I took in the view. To the west you could see the lights of Bellingham, my home city, and Whatcom County. To the northwest you could see the lights of Vancouver, B.C. and Victoria. Lastly, to the east you could see the glow of the rising sun. It was awesome.
Around 5 in the morning we had our first crevasse crossing. It was at least 3 feet wide possibly larger. Now, this is small as crevasses go, but we had to jump this one. The opposite side was about 1 foot higher than the ground we were standing on. When Julian, the first in line Jumped he kicked foot holds in the side of the crevasse for us to use to climb out. Now I had to do the most suicidal thing I had ever done in my life. I mentioned earlier that I was afraid of heights and as I stood on the edge of that crevasse looking down, I got scared. I looked up thinking that maybe mountaineering wasn't that cool after all, then I jumped. It was textbook. I dug my ice axe into the top on the other side and gained my footholds then I climbed out. I had just been hanging by my ice axe from the side of a crevasse that I could not see the bottom of. I was now stoked. We made it across the crevasse ok and moved on. A minute later we came across another crevasse. We were to use the same crossing method. I was no longer stoked. Of course we all made the jump. As I climbed out of a crevasse the second time. I noticed the group ahead of us pausing at the crest of the slope we were climbing, watching us. We had talked to them earlier and they knew that everybody, except for Bob and Julian, were first timers. When we had cleared the crevasse they moved on. I can only assume that they were looking out for us, knowing that it was one of our first crevasse jumps. I was thankful. One thing I noticed on Baker was the number of people, there were quite a few. Another thing I noticed was that everybody was helpful and nice. What a nice change from being around people who don't care, or at least don't seem to.
We climbed on. After awhile we started hiking up some loose gravel, dirt and rocks. The wind was pretty strong and the dirt was blowing in my eyes, it really bothered me. The gravel patch took us to the foot of the Roman Wall. While we rested the smell of sulfur was strong in the wind. We had been smelling it the whole trip and it was making me nauseated. When I thought that the smell couldn't get any worse, it did. An arriving group stopped and a member announced that he had to go to the bathroom. He had to go big, and he did it downwind. There was no other place he could go, but it really grossed me out. I looked up the Roman Wall. It was (is) steep. We started up. The steps that Julian had dug out were far apart. I had trouble stretching my small (muscular, hehe) frame to reach them. We were really moving slowly. We would take a step take about two breaths and take another step. I was feeling great. I didn't think that 10,000 feet was a altitiude problem. People live above 10,000 feet in the Himalaya and other parts of the world. The only thing was my pulse. It was fast. I wasn't really working that hard with our pace. So I attribute that to the altitude. Steve, on the other end of the spectrum, was having trouble. I wasn't having any trouble breathing at all, I really couldn't tell a difference. Steve was slowing us down. We eventually made it to the top of the Roman Wall.
We walked the final 100+ yards to the true summit. Steve collapsed a few times on the way. I must admit that with our goal in sight, such a short distance away, I was growing impatient. We reached the base of the summit which was basically a pile of dirt. I sat my pack down, unroped, and had a snack, then I climbed the last 20-30 feet to the summit. I had forgotten my ice axe with my pack, but I really didn't want to go get it. I was thinking "I'm on the summit of Mt. Baker" but it didn't really sink in until a few weeks later. I immediately took 360 degrees of pictures, a request from my mom. I handed the camera to Bob to take the glory shot, and the camera was frozen. Luckily, Bob got pictures and I got one. I have proof to show ignorant people who ask about my hike to Mt. Baker. I correct them and tell them it was a climb. They inevitably reply "To the top? This really gets me. Anyway, I walked around to make sure I had really been on the summit. Then we left. We had spent about 30 minutes at the summit, arriving around 7:40 AM and leaving around 8:10. The view was kind of disappointing. It was the last week in July, yeah, the one that was really hot. A heat haze concealed almost everything. I could barely make out the San Juan Islands to the west (not visible from summit) and Glacier Peak in the south.
Descending the Roman Wall was awesome. The wall was so steep that I couldn't see the ground in front of me. It was like I was in mid-air looking down on everything. The sun was rising over the summit to our rear and it lit up the Twin Sisters in fantastic colors and clarity. Then, after descending the rock strip, we came to the crevasses. I stood on the edge making sure I had enough rope loose behind me so that I wouldn't get pulled back and down into the crevasse when I jumped. This time I didn't look down. I jumped as hard as I could and cleared the thing, landing 2-3 feet from the edge on the other side. Walking back down the same way we had come up was wierd in daylight. On both sides of the path were crevasses. I had no idea that these were there on the way up. If one of us had made a mistake I would have been caught totally by surprise.
We got back to our second camp in about half the time it took us to climb up. We packed our gear and tent up, and after having a small lunch continued down. This day was hot. We later found on the cars thermometer that it was 98 (in the shade). The snow on the last section of glacier we had to descend was slushy and hard to walk on. We fell many times. Especially Cody, whose pack sucked, it wasn't Cody's fault the pack was terrible. We crossed over little patches of snow continuously. On one I was so tired that it was hard to stand. I sat down and slid the rest of the way on my butt, to the delight of the onlooking dayhikers. It is really different going down than going up. I dare say that it is harder going down. The last section of trail leading to the parking lot went fast. Mainly because I was getting blisters on my big toes. I had a fixation on getting to the car. "When you get to the car, you can take these boots off." I was thinking. I beat everybody down the trail by 10 minutes. It would have been longer if they hadn't made me stop and wait at every stream crossing. It was at one of these stream crossings that I realized how bad I reaked. I had been in the same long underwear for 3 days and hadn't washed. As I talked to an old couple on a day-hike I noticed that the majority of the black flies were swarming all over me.
I was the first to the car. I set down my pack and took off my boots. When everybody else arrived I went to the bathrooms to change into some new clothes. Then I went and sat down. We stopped in Glacier for a drink. I didn't get up and didn't get a drink. Instead I enjoyed the ranch Corn-Nuts that Bob got me. The road with the "3 foot deep" potholes struck as we drove down the Mount Baker Highway. We lost the muffler. We arrived at AAI around 5 and unloaded our rented gear, then went to Steve's house where I called my parents. My first words to them were "I want a cheeseburger, and fries."