Sunday, May 10 11:19 AM PT

As we woke at 3:30am for our summit day, excited with our mostly sunny forecast, a wet cloud settled into camp and over the Squak glacier. Crowds of skiers passed us up into the white-out, but we decided to have another cup of coffee in our tents. The weather will do what it wants on Mt Baker it seems. 

And lucky for us, an hour later it decided to grant us a little clearing, and by an hour into our tour uphill, not a cloud in the sky. This added a lucky euphoria to the already stunning views of the North Cascades all the way to Mt Rainier. 

It was a solid refreeze overnight, and as we cramponned up a solidly frozen Roman Wall, the question of skiing this steep frozen mogul field weighed on everyone. But we had a wild card up our sleeves. 

After our triumphant photo session on Mt Baker’s summit, we clicked into skis and skied directly into the Barbeque Run, straight off the summit into the smoking crater of the volcano. It has a little more east exposure and a little volcanic activity, and was perfect soft carving! 

A short skin took us to the top of the Squak Glacier, and as we carved perfect shiny corn snow for the next 4000 vertical feet, the only reason to stop was to give the legs a little break. It doesn’t get much better than 20 minutes of perfect carving snow to camp. 

We packed up camp and were treated with a fun session of snow to forest floor to snow patch skiing which had everyone giggling like kids. Doesn’t get much better on Mt Baker!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch & Team