The Scramble up Mount Baring begins with an easy road walk from the Barclay Lake trailhead. Go around the toilet facilities and follow an overgrown road for about 1/3 of a mile. At the first creek crossing look to your right for a cairn that marks the beginning of the climber’s trail. This “trail” is not so much a trail but more of a general guideline. At some points there are multiple ways to go and you’ll just have to pick what’s best for you. If you cross the creek twice you are going the right way.

Climbers Trail

Lunch in The Basin

Mount Baring Basin

At the time of this writing there is pink tape providing a good marking for the scramble up Mount Baring. However, other times I have come up there is none, so don’t count on having a marked trail. Once in the woods, the trail climbs quickly and steeply up the north side of the mountain. It is hard to describe the difficulty of this portion. All that can be said is this is where most people fail.

At the end of the first hill, you will crest the west ridge, which you will roughly follow for the next 1 mile. At some point you will need to go below some cliff bands and then follow a faint climbers path up the hill on the other side. This leads to the basin below the summit of Mt Baring. The summit on the left is the north summit and your destination. The south peak is rarely climbed because it is shorter and more difficult.From the basin follow the boulder field up to the saddle, go left and follow easy scrambling to the summit. You will cross a couple more boulder fields, but navigation after the gully is easy.

Summit View

Waterboy On Summit

Glacier Peak and Sloan