Mount Baring – 6,125 ft – May 30th, 2010

A great picture of Mt. Baring from Index Mountain (I did not take this picture).

Our second attempt on Mt Baring would prove successful with only one complaint; visibility at the top was approximately 20-30 feet.

We left Seattle at 7:30am with coffee and breakfast burritos to hold us over for the drive. We arrived at the parking lot at 8:45am and got ready for the climb. We chose the approach from the North side of the ridge, for this attempt, as research suggested it was the more obvious and popular route.

We began our hike at 9am looking for a climber’s path next to a small creek that was supposed to be within 100 yds of the parking lot. After 25 minutes of hiking and back tracking, we found the trail and began our ascent of the NW ridge. Turns out, there are two trails from the Barclay Lake trailhead, the less traveled trail to the right heads straight to the climbers path; we started by heading to the left on the move traveled path.

The ridge is gained by a 1,800 ft slog straight up the mountain. Switchbacks were not existent and with soft and slippery ground from a week of rain, we found ourselves pulling on roots and trees to edge our way up. At 10:15am, we gained the ridge at approx. 4,000 ft and enjoyed a 15 minute snack/water break.

At 10:30am we started off along the ridge with appreciation of flat terrain. The trail moved to the South face of the ridge to avoid a cliff band on the left and to provide access to a steep forested gully.

As we arrived at the gully, we found ourselves on the heels of a party of four with a dog. We joined and lapped them in the ascent, which appeared to be approx 5-600 ft. The last third of the gully contained packed snow, so we used our ice axes and followed what appeared to be fresh steps kicked by another party. As we crested the gully, the V-gap finally came into view. This view confirmed that the tracks we had followed in the snow in the gully were placed by a party of seven now ascending to the V-gap.

We followed the well kicked steps up the gully to the small saddle in the V-gap. Conversations with party of seven confirmed that some of them were less experienced and required increased protection on the climb. As their group leader set fixed line for the steep 50 ft ascent out of the saddle and onto the final 600 ft push to the summit block, we took the opportunity to pass the group and lead the remainder of the climb. Benny kicked steps through knee to thigh deep snow to about halfway up from the saddle before I took over for the final climb.

At 1:15pm, we achieved the summit which only required a minor scramble as the snow extended up a small gully on the West of the summit block to within 10 ft of our goal. We ate lunch on the summit and relaxed for about 15 minutes before beginning our descent. The summit was saturated with clouds, making visibility about 20-30 feet.

As we descended, we got stuck behind the party of seven again as they roped up for the steep climb down to the saddle of the v-gap from the summit block. We waited patiently for 30 minutes before taking our turn and then ran down the snow gully in under 5 minutes.

We passed the group of seven at the entrance to the steep forested gully at approximately 2:30pm and began the knee-jarring descent to the ridge, then to the car. We arrived, spent, back at the parking lot at 4pm and lifted a Red Stripe to solid day of climbing. While we did not have a view of the surrounding peaks (Gunn, Merchant, Index, Monte Cristo, etc.) we achieved our objective in approximately 4 hours. A solid day and great climb.

I’m not sure I’ll do it again soon, but at least I now know the way.

Stats from the hike...

- Location – Mt Baring
- Date – May 30th, 2010
- Summit – 6,125 ft
- Distance – Unknown
- Elevation – 2,290 ft / 6,125 ft
- Time – 9:00am / 4:00pm
- Weather – Overcast, Misty, mid-50s
- Trail Conditions – Steep, Slippery, Snow
- Climbers – Dan, Benny, Matt


Ascending the gully to the V-gap with Dan and Benny in the foreground.

Another party enjoying lunch on the summit in poor visibility.


Waiting on the party of seven to descend the steep ramp down to the saddle in the V-gap.