Nov28-29/08, Mt.Baker Ski Area
11/15/08
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2458
2
I spent the last two days around the Mt.Baker Ski Area, using the Mountaineers' cabin for my accommodations. To be perfectly honest, I would have probably canceled the trip if I didn't made reservations. With light snow falling, things looked better than what the forecast suggested as I approached the upper ski area yesterday morning. Unfortunately we went to bed with, and woke up with, rain.
My buddy, Dr.Tom, has invited me to join him at the cabin, so I figured at least we would have a good visit if the skiing wasn't great. Rather than following the usual trail up to Artist Point and beyond, we decided to climb Pan Face and explore the empty ski area. Photo 1. shows Tom cliffing out. With a little bushwhacking and a sense of adventure we did make it to the top of the Pan Dome. (Photo 2) as the daylight was fading. The visibility had been fine up to then. As we dropped in to the ski area to the north, we set off a number of these big rollers (Photo 3). The snow was getting heavy as the snowfall had graduated into light rain showers. It just didn't look to be worth the effort to ski today, so we caught up on each others' lives and made plans for the snow that we will eventually get.
My buddy, Dr.Tom, has invited me to join him at the cabin, so I figured at least we would have a good visit if the skiing wasn't great. Rather than following the usual trail up to Artist Point and beyond, we decided to climb Pan Face and explore the empty ski area. Photo 1. shows Tom cliffing out. With a little bushwhacking and a sense of adventure we did make it to the top of the Pan Dome. (Photo 2) as the daylight was fading. The visibility had been fine up to then. As we dropped in to the ski area to the north, we set off a number of these big rollers (Photo 3). The snow was getting heavy as the snowfall had graduated into light rain showers. It just didn't look to be worth the effort to ski today, so we caught up on each others' lives and made plans for the snow that we will eventually get.
author=Telemon link=topic=11341.msg47069#msg47069 date=1228011433]It just didn't look to be worth the effort to ski today
It probably wasn't, but we did anyway. Skinned up the Artist Point road in rain that varied between a heavy drizzle and a light piss, then veered back into the ski area when we saw how thin the coverage was. Skied back to the lodge on barely covered in-bounds runs without major ski damage, and didn't see Baker, Shuksan or Table Mt. all day. Snow was a 1-2 ft. of semi-consolidated glop. Very few ski tourists, but a surprising number of non-split boarders and snowshoers filling the parking lot and milling around in the lodge.
After leaving the cabin around 11:30, we drove up the upper parking lot. There was 30 or more vehicles there and perhaps several dozen more around the lodge. There must have been a lot of wet people traveling down the road this afternoon.The forecast was for improving conditions after late morning, but it actual got worse. We could see Shuksan from the Mountaineers cabin after breakfast and it appeared that the drizzle was going to stop.However, the downpour around noon convinced us that we might as well leave the mountain.
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