After a damp and foggy hike in and a night's sleep, we headed up a slope near camp to practice snow skills. We practiced the various techniques for walking, how to glissade, and how to self arrest. It was a lot of fun and we got our first look at the lower end of the glacier, as well as the first blue sky in days.
The following day we headed down to the Coleman-Eastman Glacier and practiced crevasse rescue skills. The cold dark chasms in the ice that some might describe as an icy hell scared me immensely, so I stayed as far away from them as possible. We learned how to set a Z-drag system, but wit
hout pulleys to save weight. Makes a lot of sense.
Afterwards, we hiked around on the glacier and learned how to walk on ice and walk with crampons. I've always had issues with crampons, but I seemed to get more comfortable with them.
After a trek with crampons on, we found some seracs to ice climb on. This was my first time actually ice climbing, but I really enjoyed it. For the next section we will probably head back to Mount Baker to climb around on the ice and possibly do the North-Ridge route which offers 500 feet of ice climbing.
After a long day, with sights of the great Mount Baker coming in and out of the fog, we hiked off the glacier and up "heartbreak hill", a very steep snow slope. Upon our arrival in camp, we got word from another guide that the weather for that evening, was possible rain, but the following evening was supposed to be perfect. We opted to spend Friday resting. We slept in until around 9 or 10, then made breakfast/lunch and headed back to sleep around 2 in preparation for our summit push that night.
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