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December 14, 2007, Baker

12/14/07
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3872
5
Posted by Zap on 12/14/07 12:37pm
Spent the night at the upper parking lot and awoke to only 4" new overnight.  Drove to the lower base and bought a senior ticket and cruised the runs for a couple hours.  The trails have good coverage and you can ski the fringes for powder but I would not charge off the main runs just yet.  There were a few folks descending The Chute, Pan Face, Stickey Wicket and Gabl's.  Those runs have some coverage but it's not for the timid or someone with new gear.  Someone attempted to descend the cliffs skiers right of The Chute.  A major rescue operation was underway.

I noticed the temperatures rising around 11am and decided to go touring.  The road from the lower base to the upper base was now wet and the snow from a few hours earlier had melted.  There was still snow on the road at the upper base and a few flurries.  I switched gear and started skinning towards Blueberry.  Above 4300' the snow was wind affected in any of the open areas and ridges  I also noticed this at the top of the Hemisphere chair at about 5100'.  Also any convex slopes were releasing from skier action.  The higher I toured the worse the visibilty and the higher the winds.  I skied some lower angle slopes and skied around brush for visibility.  I returned to the van and it was still snowing lightly. As I drove to the lower White Salmon base area, there seemed to be a light drizzle and warmer temperatures.  Saturday the wind loading may be an issue and the drizzle may create a thin crust layer. 
Thanks for the update..
There are 2 kinds of skis.... new skis and skis.

author=Zap link=topic=8492.msg34011#msg34011 date=1197693447]Someone attempted to descend the cliffs skiers right of The Chute.  A major rescue operation was underway.


the "run" the rescue was taking place on was "harry scary". the person being rescued did not survive the fall. the injuries were from trauma (not avy related). condolences to the family and thanks to mt baker pro patrol who looked liked they were trying as hard as they possibly could to save the skier/rider.

sorry to hear about the accident

"the 'run' the rescue was taking place on was 'harry scary.'"

Is that off the nose in the cliff that juts out just to skier's right of The Chute?  Way out the nose, then a curling descent to skier's right?  I've seen tracks there most times I've boarded at Baker.  If everything goes right it looks vaguely doable, but the exposure is ugly.

edit: nope -- not it.  See http://www.skinet.com/skinet/content/pdfs/skg0107mtbaker.pdf for a map.  I've ridden some of what's on that map when it is completely filled in, but the "run" I'm talking about is just to skier's let off the map.

The run skiiers left of the photo, and skiiers left of dolfay's, is called 'gunsight'. Which in my opinion can be either enjoyable after an 800 inch year, or suicide on a low snow year or early in the season, 98/99 it was a nice steep chute. Between Gunsight and Dolfays is pretty much all cliffs, and between chair 1 and Gunsight all cliffs for 100 yards or so, then there are some relatively melow entrances. All the lines in question could be sideslipped by most skiiers/boarders with a few nicks from rocks. From experience gunsight and harry scary are the only ones that you really need to know how to ride the gnar fast and avoid collisions. And the cliffs in between the said runs where the incidint probably occured (or was iniciated) are burly and the person probably didn't know where they were or what they were getting into.

I have seen several persons stuck on top of those cliffs in paticular, and those cliffs skiiers left of chair 1.  There has been deaths there in the past. 

As a well traveled rope ducker at Baker, if you don't know exactly what is beyond the rope, and there are no other tracks don't duck it.




It may have been an accidental fall: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/256/story/263938.html

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december-14-2007-baker
Zap
2007-12-14 20:37:27