A Five Glacier Tour

Early May 2026 has provided a few weeks of mostly warm and stable weather. Following a terrible winter, at least we were getting a nice corn cycle on the volcanoes before all the snow was gone! After Chris and I took advantage by skiing the Fuhrer Finger on Rainier the weekend before, we decided to head north to Mt. Baker.

We managed to drive until about 0.1 mile before the trailhead. While there was snow on the road, the Scott Paul Trail was mostly dry for the first two miles. As the spring melt out continues, the easiest approach typically switches from the Easton to the Squak.

The trail became mostly snow around 4300 ft, but we continued hiking until reaching the open at 4500 ft, where most people were transitioning to skis. For the third straight weekend, we chatted with Kam, who advised us to carry our trail runners up to 5100 ft so we could descend the more direct ski route back to the trail.

There was a beautiful skin track to follow, the temperature was superb with a light breeze, and the morning light across the North Cascades was beautiful to photograph. Hardcore skiers might write off the south side of Baker as boring and lame, but sometimes it is nice just to turn the brain off and enjoy a long walk in the mountains. After more complex terrain on the Magic S Loop and Fuhrer Finger recently, I was having a great time.

There was a bit of wildfire haze coming over Cascade Pass from the east side, highlighting beautiful Cascade layers. I had skied the Squak five years ago, but forgotten how good the views are. Along the way, we ran into many friends – Lilliana and Colin on their first ski mountaineering adventure, Peter, a former stranger who I shared a great day of corn skiing at WA Pass with many years ago, and even an entire crew of fellow Issaquah Alps trail runners!

The snow was nicely refrozen from tree line to the summit. Above 8500 ft, the snow got bumpier, with rime interspersed. Chris and I switched to crampon booting. We briefly stopped at the summit crater rim to inspect the “crater run”, one of our possible ski descents off the summit.

Although the freezing level was forecasted to be 11,000 ft, it was still cold and windy when we reached the summit around 11 AM.

If we had time to kill, Kam had suggested that we check out the infamous Park Glacier Headwall. Even the crater run definitely needed another hour or two to soften, so we curiously peered over the edge of the Park. The line is massively intimidating – you shuffle up to the edge of what feels like should be a cornice, but isn’t, and then the world drops away onto a planar 45 degree face. I have stared at the Park Glacier Headwall many times from the Baker Backcountry. From above, it felt just as steep as I imagined.

Right beneath the summit, the snow seemed to be softening a little. Conditions seemed favorable! So we traversed down the ridge a little to drop in directly above the main face, where the fall line was straighter.

We both agreed that we did not have to ski it, but I could tell we both wanted to. Chris traversed out onto the slope first, unfortunately reporting firmer than expected conditions. The slope was ever so slightly more northerly than the initial slope we had inspected near the summit, so it was just barely too cold to corn up. Nonetheless, Chris felt like the snow was still soft enough to edge well, so he felt comfortable skiing. The first jump turn on a steep line is always the scariest, but Chris made it quickly with ease.

Given the sustained steepness of the headwall and exposure below, I was surprised to feel rather calm as I jump turned down the face. I’m too old to actually enjoy feeling scared in the mountains anymore. After some uncharacteristic steep skiing the last few weeks, I felt locked in and my tails released easily on my jump turns. Chris and I ski consequential terrain pretty infrequently, but we both felt quite comfortable on this day.

The headwall is about 45 degrees for 600 ft or so before a bergschrund and lower angled terrain. While the schrund is sometimes skiable at peak snowpack, it was very much open for us. So I traversed skier’s right off the face, but Chris got too low and had to traverse left over the schrund before traversing back right to regroup with me. As the slope turned ever so slightly more east on the left most extent of the headwall, Chris reported good corn. It was just a matter of a few degrees!

We regrouped on a flat section of the Park Glacier 1000 ft below the summit and started skinning across the upper Boulder Glacier back towards the summit crater. This earned us a short run down into the summit crater, which was just starting to corn up.

After crossing the crater, we had the choice to either ski down the regular Squak Glacier or check out the SE facing Talum Glacier run, an often overlooked option. The upper Squak still felt a bit firm and bumpy, so we traversed under Sherman Peak and did a quick bootpack to the shoulder of the Talum Glacier. As we crossed over the ridge, the wind instantly died down. On this protected SE aspect, it was perfect corn right off the top from 10,000 ft!

We enjoyed over 2,000 ft of perfect corn down the right hand variation of the Talum Glacier, with minimal crevasses to navigate. There was a steeper pitch between 8500 ft and 7500 ft that was absolutely ripper!

As the glacier mellowed out, we were tempted to keep fall line skiing, but instead traversed right across the Squak back to our ascent route. We enjoyed a little more nice skiing before the snow got sticky around 6500 ft.

We picked up our shoes and continued down the “bushwhack ski exit”, which had snow until about 300 ft above the trail. From there, a quick bushwalk (not quite a real bushwhack) led us back to the trail, and an easy walk to our car through beautiful old growth trees.

What started as a simple walk up the Squak Glacier turned out to be an incredible day of steep skiing and exploring on Mt. Baker! We touched five different glaciers – the Squak, Easton, Park, Boulder, and Talum. It was an awesome way to explore new aspects of a familiar mountain and get some great skiing along the way. While it was definitely a disappointing winter, this has been a solid spring of skiing, and we’re not done quite yet!

Notes:

• The Easton approach is easier with good low elevation snow coverage – you can skin along the creek into the open Easton canyon, and the Sno-Park program even grooms this approach for snowmobiles in the winter! However, as it melts out, it supposedly becomes a post holing nightmare. At this point, usually the Squak is a nicer approach because the trail melts out earlier.
• The Squak, Talum, and Easton glaciers were well filled in with minimal crevasses showing.
• The crater run is a great variation to the Roman Wall. It works better with timing because if you wait for the west facing Roman Wall to soften, then the Squak Glacier will most likely be overbaked. The crater run is mostly south facing, so it should soften earlier than the Roman Wall.
• If had been a bit less windy, I think the Park Glacier Headwall would have corned up. It was still manageable for us in firm conditions because the surface was smooth and predictable.