December 1, 2007, Baker
12/1/07
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2616
1
Spent Friday evening in the camper at the White Salmon lot and drove to the upper lot early Saturday morning. There were only 8 vehicles in the lot when I arrived. It was snowing and blowing with a couple inches of new. It was apparent the storm was a bit early so I put on the chains for the exit trip. Toured towards Table Mt. to test the modifications to the backcountry boots with the new orthotics. I had happy feet at days end. ;D The snow was cold and the winds were increasing. Decided to ski a trough down towards Bagley Lakes. The moderate terrain had good coverage but as I dropped into a steeper pitch in the mid 30's sloughing began and those pillows of powder were rocks. Visibilityy was limited and it was difficult to identify obstacles. Decided to make a short day and get back early. I returned to the upper lot and it was completely full. I passed numerous backcountry tourers arriving at 11:30am as I was leaving. In the 2 plus hours I was gone about 3" of new was sitting on the van. As I was leaving they were still parking new arrivals at the end of the one way loop road. It was a busy day at the resort. Took about 4 hours for the return drive to Redmond.
I think I saw you leaving as I was arriving. We skinned up to Artist Point in a pretty good blizzard and skied off the back, west, in the trees, finding above-the-boot fluffy Pow. Decent coverage except in a gully we got stuck in where we hit rocks climbing out. Pretty stable in the trees, lovely. On the way back we were stunned to see so many people skiing east off Table Mtn despite big wind loading. We dropped off the end of ridge from Artist Point that drops into the valley just a couple hundred yards from the parking lot and there was some localized cracking but only the newer upper level snow. It will be dangerous on Sunday . . .
Reply to this TR
Please login first: