Cindy and AAI guide Jay Hack set out for their camp on the north flank of Mt. Baker early in the morning of May 19th. Their hike into camp was slowed a bit by thick fog and warm snow conditions, but they were able to set up their high camp at a feature called the "football field" near 6900' feet. Jay and Cindy set the alarm for 1am and got to bed early in preparation for the next days climb of Mt. Baker's North Ridge.

They left their camp at a little after two in the morning and were able to thread their way through a few open crevasses on the massive Coleman Glacier en route to the base of the North Ridge. Snow conditions were once again soft as the climbers started up the ridge at 5:30am. The climbing on the lower ridge was 40 to 50-degree snow on this climb, but it's usually ice later in the season. Jay and Cindy were able to make good progress up the slopes, partially due to the well laid tracks they were following. AAI guide Peter Kuhnlein was leading Curtis Gong (Phoenix) and Mike Conley (Seattle) up the same route as part of their Alpine Ice climbing course.

The two groups met up with each other just below the technical crux of the route, which consisted of 3 pitches of steep ice climbing. The last pitch on this section was a sustained at 75 degrees and involved a few overhanging moves on ice to gain the easier glacial slopes above. The teams reached the summit at 12:45pm in whiteout conditions and wasted very little time starting their descent back to camp, where they arrived at 3:15pm, after 14 hours of continuous movement.

Cindy said it was "a fantastic route," and thanks to her modern camera gear, she was able to show off a few photos of the climb to the folks here in the office after her return.