A little late for the TR but I left the day after this trip for 4 days in Osoyoos with more hiking and a little bit of relaxing.

Steven Song had moved back to the Lower Mainland at the start of September and has been meeting up with CTers and knocking off peaks left, right and centre. We drove out to Sumas then along the Mount Baker Highway to Glacier then up the gravel road to the Skyline Divide Trailhead where there were plenty of other vehicles as Skyline is a popular hike. Hadley Peak is located a little north of Baker.

We set a good pace up the pleasant trail through the forest and soon bust out of the trees onto the ridge where the views open up with Baker dominating them. Some fresh snow around too. The Skyline Divide has a number of knolls but the main trail side-hills past most of them which is fine by us.

On the Divide and a view of where we want to end up. Point A is the end of Skyline and Point B is Chowder Ridge which we have to follow to Hadley.

Travel is routine and fast with some pauses for picture taking. We get to the base of the high point of Skyline where Hadley is now visible as a prominent (if not diminished) peak in front of Baker.


Hadley Peak and Glacier with Baker rising 1000m or so above.

The ridge in the foreground is the Cougar Divide which can be a quicker route and accessed from Wells Creek Road - but that is closed at the moment (found that out this past summer).


Skyline Divide high point area and a view back along it with McGuire, Cheam Range, Tomyhoi and the Border Peaks at rear.


South Twin and North Twin. Still got to head that way.

We took a rest on the last bump of the Divide then dropped downwards to a small tarn and saw our last people for a while. There's still a trail to follow but the route becomes rougher and there's some minor scrambling to get up onto Chowder Ridge.


Steven gets above a scrambling part.

Beyond that it's a long traverse on the ridge and just below it with a faint track sometimes visible but as long as we follow EAK's advice (keep right) everything is good and the views are great.


Steven, Hadley and Baker.


Idea of the walking on Chowder Ridge.


View back along most of Skyline Divide with the small tarn below. There's an American Church on the horizon.


Shuksan and part of the Hadley Glacier.

As we get closer the grassiness gives way to more talus and some scree with plenty of side-hilling. We stay solidly on the right and drop down a little to bypass a finger of rotten looking rock on the talus before reaching the final approach upwards.


We're aiming for around centre of shot just below the shadowed finger then going up to the top.

Once past the finger we start to ascend with Steven trending more to climber's right whilst I went straight up. It was often easier to bend right over and use hands and feet for stability on the loose talus. Further up there were rocky outcrops to scramble and a small gully or two and then the last section is easier to ascend and I'm on the summit.

The views are substantial and Baker looks close enough to touch. I dump my pack and pull out the camera and get busy with it.


Steven approaches the summit.


Steven on the summit. Bastille Ridge between us and Baker.


Mount Shuksan with Coleman Pinnacle the dark horn low down in front.


Looking back along Chowder Ridge (left) with the Skyline Divide above centre (Cougar Divide is centre) and beyond towards Canada.


2291m summit shot.


Mount Baker and many glaciers.

After just over half an hour up there we pack up and start the long trek back. Most of the snow has melted along the ridge as we contour along then down the tricky section and back up to Skyline. At one point along Chowder we were a little too high and had to do some minor class 3 downclimbing with a couple a face-in sections.

We pause again on the Skyline high point then drop down for the easy walk back.


McGuire, Cheam Range, Tomyhoi, Border Peaks, Larrabee and Rexford from somewhere along the way.


The scenery up here can be breathtaking.

As we took the trail back there were a few people here and there hanging around and more showing up where it comes out of the forest. It dawned on us that these folks are here to watch the blood moon and lunar eclipse. Plenty more people hiking up the trail as we descended back to the vehicle with plenty of daylight to spare.

Round trip was a little under 8 hours with around 25km or so in distance. With under an hour to the alpine and views near constant we could see why this area is so popular. Later for us the border line up wasn't very popular (45 minutes or so) but with a good day out in the hills we were content and soon got back to my parents place where I had a Sunday dinner waiting for me and Steven headed home to get some rest as him and Vlad were heading for Habrich the next day and there were plans afoot for him and others to visit Mamquam Mountain the day after.

For me, I was going to Osoyoos the next day for four days of hiking with some beach and beer time.

http://stevensong.com/usa/washington/hadley-peak/ Steven's report (and check some of the other stuff too).

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Nice area, I was there yesterday. I don't know which I like more about Mt Baker hikes - the easy access to the alpine, or the price of gas!

Nice shots of Baker.

Excellent outing guys. Too bad I was under the weather that weekend. Just returned from dong an overnighter up there and it is such an awesome spot. I stayed atop chowder ridge for about 90% of the time (a bit of downclimbing here and there) as side-hilling is JING for me.

Simon , awesome report, great photos and descriptions as usual. Glad you posted this as I would like to complete Chowder Ridge, finish off where I started with Janice and Jane a few months ago.

Beautiful area.

K

Great view of Baker from that ridge.