June 17, 2018, Table Mountain
6/17/18
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2093
0
Spent Father's Day skiing with my son in the Mount Baker area!
I was hoping the road would be open to Austin Pass, but they stopped us at the ski resort lot, which added a half-mile of easy skinning each way. We traversed around Bagley Lake under Table Mountain, then up to the saddle between Mazama Dome and Table Mountain. The intent was originally to ski down to Iceberg Lake, but the high temperatures (70+ degrees!) and constant sun were giving me heat exhaustion, so we chilled out and returned the way we came.
The snow was outstanding. Suncups and runnels galore, but soft enough you could generally ignore them. Skinning was a different story, where the soft snow often gave way on steeper traverses... Twice I just shrugged and booted straight up, because my skis just couldn't hold an edge.
Ran into another pair of skiers, lunching the same place we did. Also saw two fun loving adventurers jumping off Table Mountain and parachuting into the valley.
Witnessed one avalanche, and a few signs of other recent ones. None large, just wet slides that degraded into a bunch of ice chunks rolling to the lake. High temperatures are expected to stay through the week, so it might melt out quick up there.
Rather than mess with photos, I've got several on G+. You can see them all here.
I was hoping the road would be open to Austin Pass, but they stopped us at the ski resort lot, which added a half-mile of easy skinning each way. We traversed around Bagley Lake under Table Mountain, then up to the saddle between Mazama Dome and Table Mountain. The intent was originally to ski down to Iceberg Lake, but the high temperatures (70+ degrees!) and constant sun were giving me heat exhaustion, so we chilled out and returned the way we came.
The snow was outstanding. Suncups and runnels galore, but soft enough you could generally ignore them. Skinning was a different story, where the soft snow often gave way on steeper traverses... Twice I just shrugged and booted straight up, because my skis just couldn't hold an edge.
Ran into another pair of skiers, lunching the same place we did. Also saw two fun loving adventurers jumping off Table Mountain and parachuting into the valley.
Witnessed one avalanche, and a few signs of other recent ones. None large, just wet slides that degraded into a bunch of ice chunks rolling to the lake. High temperatures are expected to stay through the week, so it might melt out quick up there.
Rather than mess with photos, I've got several on G+. You can see them all here.
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