Greetings!

My partner and I are planning to ski up Mt. Baker tomorrow but we're still trying to figure out a start time.

We've got good avi-assessment experience and a bit of glacier experience, but we've never been a mountain as big as Baker.

I've seen some people have started as early as 3am from the trailhead and I've also seen 6am and later. Another thing we're trying to figure out is if we're going to sleep in Vancouver or try to stay someplace in Glacier to sleep to get an earlier start. I'd describe our pace as medium-slow.

Thoughts? Any feedback welcome! Thanks very much!

-jt

Which route are you skiing? Coleman-Demming? Easton? You want to time your start so that when you begin your descent the snow is softening up. My guess is a 4-5 AM start from the trailhead would put on on top sometime around 9-10:00 AM so you wouldn't have to wait around for good skiing conditons. You don't want to go too late either, the bridges weaken considerably as the day heats up and the snow softens.

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I should've specified we're planning Coleman-Demming.