On Sat 6/30 a group of 11 (Ed, Rainer, Bartek, Anita, Teresa, Sandeep, Tony, Lee, Jola , Phuong-Cac and me) in 4 carpools met at the Glacier Ranger station at 9am. The plan was a 2 day climb up the Coleman route. We signed into the climbing register, spoke with the rangers and read the recent trip reports which indicated good conditions.
The approach trail was snow free until we got the base of the glacier at 5800'. We filtered water and roped up. Rainer and Bartek moved us quickly past a couple of slower rope teams and we made camp at 7000' below the Black Buttes by 3pm. The 7000' camp was a small city with more than a dozen tents and more arrived as we made melted snow, made dinner and got some rest.
The plan was leave at 2am, however at 1am the wind was howling and I decided to wait a hour or two. By 2am the winds had died down. I woke up the team to gear up and we left camp at 3am. As we moved higher the winds picked up and people added layers. We moved past a couple of other teams. We took quick 5min breaks every hour or so and made the summit by 7:30am. The winds at the summit were in the 45-50mph range so we only spent a couple of minutes. Coming down we saw a number of skiers coming up. Ed and I thought we should have brought our ski gear. A quick descent had us back at camp by 10:30am. We broken camp and were back at Milano's in Glacier for late lunch. A good group and fun climb.
Baker Coleman pics here.