July 2022 Newsletter

Updated: Oct 31, 2022

The 2022 SAC BMC was a success! Thank you to all the participants and all the SAC members who helped make it happen!

Next Meeting:

Date/Time: Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at 5:00 p.m at Bowman’s Bay Picnic Area.

Topic: SAC Potluck - Bring some foods to share

**Discover Pass required for parking**

We typically meet at the long picnic tables down by the beach near the campground. Here's a link for directions to the closest parking lot. https://goo.gl/maps/6y9SfYtmnQV9rqVK6.

June Meeting: Rees Hughes and Howard Shapiro talked about their new book called, Crossing Paths - A Pacific Crest Trailside Reader. They shared fun and entertaining stories about their experiences on the PCT over the past 40 years. Royalties from the sales of this book benefit the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA).

Trip Reports:

Mt. Baker Trip - Amy Lu

A group of 5 of us, including 3 recent graduates of the BMC class of 2022, successfully summited Mt Baker via the Easton Glacier on Monday 6/27! We arrived at the trailhead on Sunday morning to find it was a popular weekend for climbing, with cars lining the road all the way to 1 mile from the trailhead. The parking lot was still under snow but with the warm temps over the weekend there was quite a bit more bare ground when we got back. You should be able to park in the lot soon enough!

We followed the summer trail to Railroad Grade as best as possible, with much of it still under snow, and it seemed like most teams were doing the same. There were quite a few thin snow bridges to watch out for but thankfully we had no major incidents. Rocky Creek was a mid-calf to knee-deep (for us shorties) ford, but it was straightforward if you're not afraid of getting wet. Continuous snow started before leaving the trees on the climb up to the meadow before Railroad Grade, but it was relatively easy walking and we arrived at Sandy Camp around noon with lots of sunscreen reapplication throughout the journey!

Due to the hot weather forecasted for Monday, we decided to leave camp at midnight for our summit attempt. It didn't get below freezing, but the clear sky helped the snow firm up quite nicely, and it was easy walking with crampons the whole way. The route is in fantastic shape with most of the glacier pretty filled in, and navigation was straightforward. A few large chunks of ice/snow had fallen from the two cliffs that you pass beneath on either side of Sherman Crater, probably during the warm temperatures the day before, and we heard water/ice dripping as we traversed between the second set of cliffs above us and a good sized crevasse not far below, so we moved quickly past these hazards and soon arrived at a nicely established track up the climber's rightmost side of the Roman Wall. We made great time and were the first team to arrive at the summit around 5:15am just as the sun was rising.

It was clear and sunny but quite windy and cold at the summit, so we snapped a few photos and didn't linger long. We passed several groups on the way down including a mix of climbers and skiers, and one paraglider wearing skis passed us on the way down. We were back to camp by 9:30am, chilled out for a few hours, and then headed back to the cars. Rocky Creek was raging a bit more than on the way up as we arrived during the hottest part of the day, but we forded safely and were back to the cars by 3:30pm.