Aurora Watching in the Baker Backcountry

Last Friday night Earth experienced the strongest solar storm since 2003 and as a result people in places as far south as Arizona were able to see wisps of northern lights. Alex, Sander, and I were already planning to be in the backcountry on Friday night so we got lucky and were able to witness the show from one of the most scenic viewpoints.

We had been hoping to continue on our successful spring tour run and climb Mt. Baker via the Park Glacier. Unfortunately, the weekend was forecasted to be Washington’s first big warm up of the season. The volcanos also received one to three feet of snow the weekend prior which meant that wet loose avalanches were going to be a huge concern. NWAC put out a special advisory that urged using extreme caution if recreating in the mountains over the weekend. We knew a summit would be dependent entirely on the snow conditions but with the aurora forecast and what looked like a beautiful clear weekend ahead of us we decided to head into the backcountry with an exploratory mindset.

We set out from the Heather Meadows parking area at 8:30am and already the sun was cooking the snow. Surrounding us was evidence of wet loose slides that had apparently shed from the slopes the day or two prior. By the time we reached Artist Point it was obvious we would not be summiting Baker over the weekend. We shifted goals and decided to still head for our planned basecamp, the Portals, which is a worthy destination in and of itself.

The entire slope below Table Mountain had slid recently and new debris covered old ski tracks, but given that the mountain had shed already we felt good traversing across to the intersection of the Chain Lakes and Ptarmigan Ridge trails. Still, we were cautious and tried to move as efficiently as possible through the terrain.

At 11AM we reached the trail junction. I was not feeling great. I was out of practice carrying a 40lb. winter backpacking pack, my stomach hurt, and I was hot. So so hot. We took an extended break and debated our options but it was already clear that even the Portals were out of reach for the day. How quickly our plans had crumbled. Our options were: 1. Go back to Artist Point. 2. Try to find a camp spot right where we were. 3. Continue on to an enticing looking ridge across the way. After some vacillating we agreed to continue on. The ridge would position us in a great place for the potential aurora and we still had many hours of daylight ahead of us, this also gave us something to do for a little while longer since it was so early in the day.

An hour later we found ourselves atop a ridge with beautiful views of Shuksan, Baker, and the northern horizon. We threw down our packs and started digging out platforms for our tents.

We still had eight hours before sunset. We had planned for a summit mission so we didn’t bring our kindles, cards, or anything for entertainment so we resorted to making up our own game. We positioned skis and an avalanche probe in the snow and took turns trying to hit them with snowballs. Three points for the closest ski, seven points for the further ski, an automatic win if you hit the probe. This entertained us for about fifteen minutes and then we just kind of hung around camp, talked, napped, and waited as the sun slowly arced across the sky.

Sunset came and went quickly and by 9PM we retreated to our tents. Alex set an alarm for 11PM and Sander told us to wake him up if the lights were out.

All too soon Alex’s alarm jolted me awake. I had just fallen into a deep sleep and wanted nothing more than to retreat further into my sleeping bag for the rest of the night, but just as soon as I was about to do so Alex nudged me, “Sonja, it’s everywhere!” That was enough for me. I unzipped my sleeping bag, put on my glasses, and bolted out of the tent. It was everywhere. We had so carefully chosen a campsite based on its view of the northern horizon, but it didn’t even matter—the aurora was in every direction! It danced above Shuksan to the east, it was to the south swirling above Baker, it was to the west, and it was above us. I could not believe my eyes. “SANDER!!!!” we screamed, “wake up! It’s everywhere!”

I felt like a little kid running around giddy at the scene. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d see a show like that in Washington. To be able to see the northern lights shine so brightly above two of my favorite mountains filled me with gratitude. All three of us pulled our sleeping pads and sleeping bags out of our tents and set up to lay on the snow and watch the lights. Not only was it a warm weekend, it was also completely calm so we could comfortably sit out in the open.

I looked up until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer and then I let them close. Every time I stirred during the night I’d open my eyes again and get a glimpse of the lights and smile before falling back asleep.

Sander and I had planned to go on a brief sunrise tour in the morning, just to see if we could make it to the next ridge across from us. That meant after a night of little sleep, our alarms went off at 4AM. Even in the twilight, with the eastern horizon starting to glow, the aurora was still shimmering above us. It was a surreal experience heading off on a tour under the faint glow of the northern lights.

Our sunrise tour quickly turned more challenging than we anticipated. The snow had refrozen solidly overnight and we almost immediately had to ski 150’ down a sheet of ice. After the nerve-racking descent, we continued on but our objective didn’t grow much closer. We realized that if we kept going we would be in a valley for sunrise and would completely miss Baker turning pink in the morning light, so we turned around.

Alex was happy to see us return safe and sound and just in time for sunrise.

We knew it would be another hot day so we packed up after sunrise and begin the journey back.

Two hours later we were back at the car. We didn’t get one enjoyable ski turn the entire trip, we didn’t summit Baker, we didn’t even make it to the Portals, but we did get to see a once in a generation aurora show and that made the trip feel like a smashing success. I rode the high of that aurora show for the rest of the weekend and even into a stressful work week.