Mt. Baker 3/25-3/26/17

nepa wrote

It's a whole-nother level of remoteness over in that neck of the woods...

Thank God!



So glad to escape the concrete jungle....at least I had 32ounces to aid the exodus!



Now that's a little better!  My solo exploits to date have gone well, praying the same holds true with my brother....

2-4 over here turned out to be 6 to 8... I can only imagine what it's going to be like over there.  Good Luck!! Stay safe!

5" overnight, 11" the past 24, for a cool 30" since Wednesday.  Only 3.5 hours of sleep (plus a few fitful winks on the plane) and time to get at it.....

Did someone say snow banks?

There's those famous snow banks!!!

Wow!  I though Tahoe had a lot of snow and Squaw had some sick lines, but this place....wow.  

Storming all day, and 36 inches since Wednesday skied like 36 inches, everywhere.  Visibility was terrible all day, so not much stopping for pictures.  This out of bounds cliff line brought the camera out tho....

Glacier, 18 miles down mountain and the closest town (if you can really call it that)/Lodging to Baker, is a sleepy looking town, but the bar is hopping.  Chair 9 (hill has Cairs 2-8) is a fun little place.

A few words about Baker......while it may only be 1,500 vertical t is NOT small. More so than any Western resort I've been to, not only can you ski anything you see...but you can actually get to it.  It skis bigger than it's statistics.  On top of that there is easily accessible side country, notwithstanding the ability to get cliffed out easily.

Fun place, surface only scratched.

how is the snow?

Soft knee deep powder (closer to blower than Cascade concrete) in the morning gave way to heavy cut up with some warming in the afternoon.  Never got above freezing as it was snowing all day, with nice refreshing late afternoon.  Cat tracks and groomers, where needed, were soft and velvety early, turning to high water content packed late.  While the Canyon and Gunner Zones were closed due to risk of avalanche into the canyon (terrain trap), other than that everything was in play in bounds wall to wall.  Ventured one run under the rope into the sidecountry where it was steep and deep. Got myself into a dicey cliff zone on that one, a curving chute lookers right of the huge rock face in my picture.  45+ degrees, ski width wide, for 200 vertical feet.  My side slipping skills got a workout there. Incredible conditions.  Fortunately the avy forecast is moderate today at and below tree line so we should have some incredible conditions and fun in the backcountry today.  Considerable above tree line so it will be very conservative on the open slopes.

Man 3 for 3 this season on trips!!!
 

JTG4eva! wrote

A few words about Baker......while it may only be 1,500 vertical t is NOT small. More so than any Western resort I've been to, not only can you ski anything you see...but you can actually get to it.  It skis bigger than it's statistics.

I often say the same thing about Stevens... it skis much bigger than its stats imply.  You also have relatively easy access to everything you can see.

A few pictures before our flight.






We were in the ping pong ball much of the day, braving a PNW storm (snowy, windy, cold) in the snowiest place in North America.  This place is special.

Wow everything is white..

Might be the snowiest place on earth...

98-99 Season, 1140 inches....I do believe that is the world snowfall record.  Only up to 735+ this year, but this March is a 200 inch month (that's a lot, even for Baker)!  Our guide yesterday, Jere Burrell (Mt. Baker Mountain Guides) had a client recently who asked the guide he normally uses in Chamonix "Where's it snowing?".....and from Chamonix he flew to Mt. Baker, USA!

Baker IS a special place.  Jere grew up in Colorado and hasn't looked back since he got to Baker.  Great skiers who love snow....consistent, deep snow that falls often, gets stable (much more so than the Rockies) and sticks to every steep aspect....simply come to Baker and stay.  Also, they have much less Cascade Concrete than the stereotype.

So, to start our day we met Jere at Wake n' Bakery (love the name) in Glacier.  Coffee, food, put the gear in one car, and start the roughly 30 minute drive up to Baker.  Terminology, conditiins, procedures, abilities, objectives....we cover everything on the drive up.

Our target for the day is Artist's Point and the Table Mountain area.  Hour plus skin in to where we would make roughly 750 vertical foot laps.


My brother Jeff.  He finally made a trip with me and boy did he pick the right time.  This was his first backcountry experience, never skinned before, doesn't (yet) have powder legs....so we'd take it relaxed and easy.  Number of laps and vertical skied were secondary to the experience in general.  Boy, what an experience.  Braving the wilds of the Baker backcountry in the middle of a raging PNW storm cycle!  Into the white room, or the ping pong ball, as Jere called it....

not much to say but wow..
that backcountry stuff is above my pay grade

This. Is. Awesome.

Before I continue (and get wordy) a tip o' the trip for the weekend warrior.  Hit the Delta Sky (or whatever airline you fly) Club when the redeye lands.  A shower, numerous lattes and a bit of food before heading to the office....may be the best $29 I ever spent!

So.....going into the weekend it looked like Sunday would be the nicer day.  After the low visability and flat light of Saturday we were hoping for at least a brief window of clearer weather and maybe some spectacular views of Mt. Baker's 10,000 foot summit, and Mt. Shuksan, which Mt.Baker the ski resort is actually on (the Shuksan Arm).  While the visibility when we started wasn't terrible.....

.....it wasn't meant to be.  36 inches Wed to Saturday, snow all day Saturday, and snow expected in at 11:00 on Sunday.  It didn't wait until 11:00.  As soon as we got ready to start the trek it started snowing, the cloud deck dropped, and the winds started howling.  

Parked at the Heather Meadows base of Baker we'd skirt the edge of the resort to the backcountry gate.  We had plenty of company for the first half hour or so, felt like a skimo race!  Out the gate and to the base of the first real uphill and the crowd thinned as those on the trail discussed conditions and objectives.  The winds were changing directions, the snow was blowing sideways, thoughts on loading were going out the window,  and we saw more people head back than continue on.  These were serious weather conditions, on the back end of big accumulations, so that was a prudent choice for anyone not confident in the terrain, the snowpack, and their route finding skills.  Jere...

....pushed on.  This visibility....
....was great compared to what the skin to the top of Table would throw at us.

As we gained Ptarmigan ridge, from 4500 to about 5100 we were above treeline, with total whiteout conditions, where in places it was hard to tell if the slope ahead went up or down, well.....for me at least, but Jere marched on.  In 7 hours beyond that first real climb we only saw three other souls, and not one of them skiing in our private Table playground.

Even for Jere, who has been guiding for more than a dozen years and knows Table as well as anybody, the visibility proved challenging.  A zig happened when it should have been a zag, but frequent checks of gps position while in the white out corrected our course quickly.  We finally reached our first transition point.  The challenging conditions and relaxed pace meant the skin in took a little more than two hours, but it was time well spent.





That wall of snow behind Jere in the first picture was a knife edge spine of wind blown snow, several of which we would have to cross, each with a drop of 4 to 6 feet, before we hit our first skiable face.

The clean canvas of untracked white lay before us.



As for conditions, Jere's confidence was proven out.  Crossing that first series of wind blown spines created some minor wind slab, but just a few inches and not traveling far.  Higher on the ridge things were a little wind affected and punchy, but we started below that and had nothing but soft, deep powder.  My first true face shots as the knee deep powder easily washed over my face on a couple of turns.  Once below the ridge line working the W-NW aspect of Ptarmigan it was calm and peaceful.  Just spectacular.  



We finished that run on a bench just above a steep pitch leading to a terrain trap.



With a stable snowpack they looked like the kind of 40+ degree steep powder turns you dream of, but having someone who knows the terrain is invaluable as terrain traps are common out there.  Fortunately the NWAC forecast was moderate near and below tree line which is where we kept most of our skiing (it was considerable above tree line), leaving our signature on slopes pushing 38 degrees.  Again, local knowledge of the terrain and snowpack is invaluable.  A stop here for a rest....



......let us play "guess the slope angle", which measured 37 degrees here.



Jere gave us a bunch of pro tips, like how you should really rest....



...if we all had the iron legs of a ski/mountain climbing guide!  I was able to improve my skinning techniques as Jere is big on countouring as opposed to steep skin tracks, allowing for more use of an "A-V-A" as opposed to the more technical kick turn.  He also was able to show me how to dig the tail (of the left ski on a left turn) to get the heels close together on the kick turns, which was a great help.

The relaxed pace and my brother's lack of conditioning limited us to two more laps, but it was all about the experience.  It's amazing what wind and 700+ inches can conspire to do.  These are the tops of probably 20+ foot trees.



The wind ridges, spines and other formations created in snow are beautiful and fascinating.






So, when we got tired of seeing this....



We finished our laps, made the skin back to the ridge, and took the home run on the wind affected 20+ feet of snow burning the Baker highway out to Artists Point, a road that may not open until late June!

Out of the gear and into the car, we get Jere back to Glacier. There Jeff and I get out of wet ski clothes, repack the ski bags for the flight home, and start the two and a half hour drive back to SEA-TAC for the redeye.  Boarded the 10:35 flight with 10 minutes to spare.

After all of that I still think this is one of the more fascinating photos.



Strange things happen up there with more than just snow!

Housing on my GoPro broke when changing the battery, but I got some video and Jerry also served as a photog and videographer, so hopefully I'll have something up soon.