Jan 12, 2017, Artist etc.
1/12/17
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2619
4
Spent the day poking around Artist, Swift, Huntoon looking for a good place to take a couple people this weekend. Much of the Baker BC has been wind hammered, photo from Artist. Some aspects of Herman, still looked good, ex. the area in the recent thread. Swift Creek was settled meh. Wondering if Lake Anne area might be protected, kind of hiding behind the Arm? PM me if you have thoughts, and feel free to cross my tracks. They are not that pretty.
I was out Wednesday night under the moon and found conditions thoroughly confusing and generally bad.
Winds had clearly been out of the NE (side note the NWAC weather vane on Pan Dome does not seem at all credible). The ridgetops had been hammered and the upper half of blueberry chutes were affected. But the lower half of Bagely Basin had been protected and offered good snow. South facing slopes on Herman were developing a sun crust.
The unusual part was that the south side of Table Mtn as well as Ptarmigan Ridge was absolutely hammered into thick sanstrugi. Again with winds out of the NE. It seems like the ridgetop winds picked up velocity and dropped hard into the Skagit Drainage. Be interested if any weather buffs can explain that.
I would think the Lake Anne area got throttled as well. Low elevation north facing sheltered slopes in the Nooksack drainage (wherever that is) might be your best bet.
Winds had clearly been out of the NE (side note the NWAC weather vane on Pan Dome does not seem at all credible). The ridgetops had been hammered and the upper half of blueberry chutes were affected. But the lower half of Bagely Basin had been protected and offered good snow. South facing slopes on Herman were developing a sun crust.
The unusual part was that the south side of Table Mtn as well as Ptarmigan Ridge was absolutely hammered into thick sanstrugi. Again with winds out of the NE. It seems like the ridgetop winds picked up velocity and dropped hard into the Skagit Drainage. Be interested if any weather buffs can explain that.
I would think the Lake Anne area got throttled as well. Low elevation north facing sheltered slopes in the Nooksack drainage (wherever that is) might be your best bet.
I was out at Lake Ann Saturday 1/7, and was kind of disappointed. Snow in the trees was good but anything open was highly variable (as in changing within in feet) from thinner/soft wind transport to full on crust (from the sun I assume). A wide spread thin breakable crust was most common. Overall a fun day out, but thought the slope following the summer trail drainage would have been more protected.
W and N facing treed terrain was great Thursday below 5000' there until getting low enough to hit a surface melt/freeze crust that was borderline merciless. Above was BTS.
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