The view of Baker's north face from Hadley's summit is spectacular. The ridge walks along Skyline Divide and Chowder Ridge might be one of the best I've ever done. Hadley Peak sits closely N of Mt. Baker and is the highest and the eastern most point of Chowder Ridge. This scramble is sometimes done as a day trip, but at 14+ miles and 5000' of gain it would be a full day. Much more enjoyable to make it a weekend trip in my estimation.
The forecast was pretty good for Saturday, and pretty rainy for Sunday. Made sense to make Saturday the summit day and have a short easy hike out on Sunday before it got drizzly.
We camped just below Skyline Divide near a small stream about 3.5 miles from the trailhead. We followed a good climbers path along Skyline and continued near the crest on Chowder Ridge to the summit. No problems with the scramble. Loose rock, scree and some unavoidable sidehilling, but otherwise no concerns.
Great views from the summit made it pretty hard to tear ourselves away. As a result, we didn't actually make it back to camp until dark. We slept in Sunday morning but were still able to beat the rain back to the car.
Lunch at Milano's in Glacier (a new favorite) and a pretty slow drive home in the rain.
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