December 24, 2004, Mt. Baker ski area

After four weeks without skiing, and some non-skiing family coming to visit, I had one day to get some turns in december, so I headed out to mt. baker. Conditions were pretty crappy - spotty fog turning into a big cloud sitting on the upper region of the area. <br><br>The slopes were reminiscent of my days back east (i.e. icy), although in the places that the groomers chewed the surface up it was halfway decent. I got a few gouges in my skis from surfacing/loose rocks but nothing too bad. Snow cover was pretty sketchy, with large patches of dirt coming through in places.<br><br>However, the upside was that it was empty. Maybe one out of every five or six chairs was occupied. Overall, it turned out to be a pretty nice day of relaxing skiing.<br>

I went on 12/27 and the 20" of snow had improved things vs this report. Most of C-8, Canyon, Pan Face and N Face had enough of this now packed-powder stuck to it, such that the bad ice below was only rarely encountered here. Other runs tho were still icy notably lower on C-7, the cat track. Some runs altogether closed such as Gabls and Canucks.<br>The BC looked intriguing but went with friends who aren't BC skiers so didn't venture. In the immediate area (Arm, Table, Herman) only a few natural slides seen. But across the valley on Sefrit, Goat, etc. there were a pretty healthy number of slides originating from south facing steeps.