April 19, Table Circumnavigation

Scott and I decided the weather looked good for a trip up to baker for some backcountry touring and april powder. We loaded up the truck for the night and started off, waiting for the traffic to die down in Everett from the 4" of snow, we pulled in to Bellingham for a stop off at the old stomping grounds. An Oly and some dumplings were consumed downtown then back on the road to pull into the parking lot at 12:15. We arrived to 6-12€ of snow in the parking lot and it snowing lightly. The clouds were bright with the moonlight making for a nice evening without the head lamp. Snowplows fired up at 5 am, and we crawled out at about 6:45. We were waiting for a buddy to show up sometime between 8:30 and 9, so we decided to follow a pair out and up Herman. Given the forecast and new snow we thought it would be a great opportunity to ski the couloir near the parking lot (don€™t know its name). It was great above the narrowing, but crap in the chute itself. All the soft stuff sloughed off leaving a breakable crust with soft corn underneath. Not exactly hero skiing within view of the parking lot€¦ We then met up with Matt at the bottom of the run and started our tour up Herman again (apparently just before the slide)
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing...p?topic=9836.0 and down a line to the south. We skinned up over Herman saddle and into the chain lakes, touring around Table and back into the Bagley Lakes. The last decent was a great late day run down to the lakes from Table with slightly consolidated powder in the shade. A great day in surprising weather and snow conditions for April. The backcountry got hammered off table, but we found great untracked turns all day. Never saw Baker though, too bad. I guess we'll have to go back.