Home > Trip Reports > November 18, 2016, Mt. Baker, Heliotrope Pow-ish

November 18, 2016, Mt. Baker, Heliotrope Pow-ish

11/18/16
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
5489
8
Posted by thatcherk1 on 11/19/16 12:30am
Spend the day with Jim doing a couple laps up on Heliotrope. There were stashes of really nice pow, but most of it was wind-affected. Not too bad though. All the snow was fun, and none of it was difficult, but only some of it was glorious. There was 1-2ft of fresh snow. Wind was blowing hard, and the mountain was starting to sock in around 1pm, causing us to abandon our plans to ski until sunset. Still worth the trek though. Snow on the hogback was about a foot of fluff, with no base underneath. That allowed my skis to take a rock souvenir home that Pro Ski is currently trying to dislodge from the core...Oh well. Should have dismounted sooner.

I recorded a 360 video as well as a GoPro video. Here are the links. Videos aren't super interesting, but should provide at least a little stoke when you're sitting in your cubicle waiting for your next ski day.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/V27DZJ-Zt5k

https://www.facebook.com/thatcherkelley/posts/10100466571344767
We were up there yesterday too. I'm the splitboarder that briefly spoke to the guy in a blue jacket with the helmet and sunglasses. Windy as balls out of the south above ~1900m. The kind of wind that makes it hard to think straight. We managed to find some not completely wind-f@#ked snow below 1900m. I was quite pleased.

https://vimeo.com/192271857

Road drivable to the trailhead with an inch of packed snow in the parking lot, snowing lightly as we left. Skinnable from ~1600m.

edit: video now clickable. thanks martin!

Best skiing was straight up from Hogsback. Discostew and I started lookers right and with each run moved lookers left and every run was an improvement (i.e less wind affected, more powdery). The skiing was great but the wind was difficult; it stopped completely around 2 PM as clouds moved in. The trail had areas of verglas and few falldowns since our first trip on Oct 22. Great day to be out.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/runningclouds/albums/72157672131356284

Nice videos guys!
The clickable link for discostew's video is
2016-11-18 Heliotrope

I was there too - part of the group that thatcherk1 skis by towards the end of his video (we were a combined group of five, plus a dog).

Snow was much better than I thought it would be considering the wind was so strong it almost knocked me over a couple times on the way up. 

We ended up cowering below the rock at the top with a bunch of hardcore Canadians while we transitioned.  Apparently going goggle-free is a thing north of the border.  ;) 

That dog was precious. I was sad I didn't bring my Sammy up there. Did the clouds sock in completely, or did they stay high? I really wanted to ski the skiers right side, direct up from hogsback. But we were lazy and followed a couple trail-breakers to lightning rock for a couple laps.

author=thatcherk1 link=topic=37073.msg150569#msg150569 date=1479628393]
That dog was precious. I was sad I didn't bring my Sammy up there. Did the clouds sock in completely, or did they stay high? I really wanted to ski the skiers right side, direct up from hogsback. But we were lazy and followed a couple trail-breakers to lightning rock for a couple laps.


We just did one lap - the ceiling was dropping and the winds were blowing so hard when we were transitioning we decided it wasn't worth the effort for a 2nd.  Although it sounds like the winds did die shortly after we descended, so maybe we blew it.  Vis was perfect for our descent. 

Looking at the timestamps of my photos, we were at the top of our last run at 2:15 when the wind was, subjectively speaking, the strongest. At 2:30 the wind has completely died down and the clouds started to move in, there was likely a short window of opportunity for another run but we were happy with the day and tired from fighting the wind. By the time we hit the treeline the visibility was down again.

My estimate for Heliotrope was 40 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph. I wished I had one of those portable weather stations.

I think it might have been pretty local, the Wind Speed Average telemetry from Baker ski area shows wind speeds between 6 and 15 mph.

author=thatcherk1 link=topic=37073.msg150555#msg150555 date=1479573052]
Spend the day with Jim doing a couple laps up on Heliotrope. There were stashes of really nice pow, but most of it was wind-affected. Not too bad though. All the snow was fun, and none of it was difficult, but only some of it was glorious. There was 1-2ft of fresh snow. Wind was blowing hard, and the mountain was starting to sock in around 1pm, causing us to abandon our plans to ski until sunset. Still worth the trek though. Snow on the hogback was about a foot of fluff, with no base underneath. That allowed my skis to take a rock souvenir home that Pro Ski is currently trying to dislodge from the core...Oh well. Should have dismounted sooner.
I recorded a 360 video as well as a GoPro video. Here are the links. Videos aren't
super interesting, but should provide at least a little stoke when you're sitting in your cubicle waiting for your next ski day.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/V27DZJ-Zt5k

https://www.facebook.com/thatcherkelley/posts/10100466571344767


Nice! Looks like a good time! I learned how to ski last season and am hoping to try my new at setup. Lemme know if you are ever interested in a noob tagging along.
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Alex

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