My 4th summit of Mt Baker - 3nd via the Easton glacier.

I had signed up as a volunteer instructor / helper for this year's BMC class summit outing. My rope team was assigned to us by Juliet & I think they had me as the rope team leader though Cassi was also on it - she had not done the summit last year.

I had spent the night at the cabin and left early to make the trailhead meeting time. There were plenty of people parked at Shriebers Meadow so I had to get ready quickly. We organized at the TH and headed up on a hot sunny day. Everyone seemed excited about the trip & we made good time to high camp roughly where we had stopped the last time.

We did some z-pulley / crevasse rescue training in our rope teams before gathering for dinner. Early bedtime for the usual 2AM? alpine start. I didn't get any sleep as usual.

We were all ready to go & were the 2nd rope team after Juliet's. Scott - one of the BMC 24 students led our rope team. Juliet led us on the standard route though the snow was noticeably softer than last year. We all struggled a bit postholing even on the beginning of the glacier. At some point someone noticed a string of lights in the sky which was a Starlink satellite launch. We didn't need crampons for quite a while as the snow was soft enough for kick stepping. Once the grade steepened we eventually stopped for crampons & continued on.

Slow but steady progress until sunrise as we got to the crater and took a quick break though it seemed like my team was rareing to get moving - no doubt due to the cold. The Roman wall was harder for me than last time for some reason - couldve been b/c I had thermal layers on which was too much for such a warm day. Finally crested onto the flatter summit and I appreciated being off the rope and able to rest. Quick pix at the summit then hung out for a while with the other teams who were just arriving.

Long descent as usual & the sun was melting the snow further making the downwards stepping sloshy and difficult. It took a lot of energy & we were all ready to lie down at camp despite the relentless sun.

Ate some breakfast and melted some snow as I had probably sweated out my body weight. Long break at camp as we waited for the rest of the teams to arrive and get their gear packed. The hike out took some time and I ended up with Juliet and Jack a ways behind the rest. We gathered at the parking lot for a wrapup convo as it was the last 'official' BMC '24 outing.

Fun facts

• The ULA Circuit is just too UL for an alpine trip
• Probably the last Baker summit for a while, for real!