I guess if two areas counts as a safari!
I’ll lead with my best pic from the day before I get all wordy.
As some may have seen in the ‘Where are you skiing’ thread……on Tuesday morning a favorable Cascades snow forecast (notwithstanding the usual snow level questions) and cheap mileage ticket to SEA came together. Baker and Alpental have had upwards of three feet in the past week, Baker got 9 inches into Friday, and a Puget Sound Convergence Zone is setting up to pound Snoqualmie Pass with upwards of two feet Monday into Tuesday. So, I booked the trip for two days this weekend at Baker and then two days in the Snoqualmie Pass area.
Day 1 at Baker is in the books.
Baker is a special place, someplace every skier should experience. The vibe, the copious snow, the relatively “remote” locale (it IS less than three hours from the airport, but feels a world away)……if you don’t mind sparse lodging and amenities a half hour down the Mt. Baker Highway in Glacier (yes, the closest lodging, stores, etc.) and you want to ski your legs off (from groomers to hairball) you’ll have a memorable time, to say the least.
The first day of my West Coast trips is always rough. As convenient as skiing from Seattle is, as a Hudson Valley resident it’s still 11 hours of travel from home to Glacier. Getting to bed at 3am (6am NY time, I’ve now been up for almost 24 hours) and up before 8am, I figured on taking today easy, get my ski legs under me. The sun was shining, the parking lots were full, but lift lines were not an issue.
So, I start out the day with a couple of runs in the ‘danger zones’ on the Pan Face and Canyons Zone, making my way from the Heather Meadows base over to the White Salmon base, and Chair 8. The leftovers were nice, but not the softest leftovers anyone has ever skied. However, by NY standards the conditions were great.
Now is a good time for a few words on Baker Chair 8. As some may know, Baker is blessed with huge and significant backcountry just outside the “resort”. Call it sidecounty if you want, because you can get to it from the resort, but sidecountry seems an idiot term. Those who don’t treat such terrain as backcountry often pay the price. But I digress. Back to Chair 8. As you take it up you spend the entire lift ride looking up at the out of bounds backcountry of the Hemispheres, and towering beyond, the Shuksan Arm. It’s majestic, huge, impressive terrain. Dreamy stuff, depending upon your ski proclivities.
So, off the chair I go and, well, I mean. Yeah, out come the skins (out West you always bring the pack, because you never know, and this is Baker) and up I go. With a big backcountry day coming up Monday I felt it was only responsible for me to, ahhhh….prime the touring muscles and field test the Shifts. Yeah, that’s it.
It turned out to be a great afternoon of familiarizing myself with the backcountry beyond Chair 8. I’ve skied the Baker backcountry before (Heather Meadows, past Table Mountain, to the Ptarmigan Ridge), but never the zone heading out to Shuksan. Suffice to say it’s way more complicated that it looks from the lift, as once you top Hemispheres it’s down to a valley and up again before you get to an option for any Shuksan goodies, that requires one to cover a lot of ground. I did keep it easy and mellow, for time in the backcountry. Down the back of Hemisphetes…
….to the valley and next skin track….
….that leads you to the bench…
…..where you get to decide if you want to push on for the ridge that leads toward Shuksan, or choose from plenty of other options.
I didn’t press the adventure and chose other options, and the Bagley Lakes area (close to the Heather Meadows base) was just over the next ridge. Not a bad way to end the day….the Blueberry Chutes, I believe.
Temps are supposed to be in the mid and upper 30s, so I’ll probably keep it in bounds tomorrow. We’ll see.
I’ll lead with my best pic from the day before I get all wordy.
As some may have seen in the ‘Where are you skiing’ thread……on Tuesday morning a favorable Cascades snow forecast (notwithstanding the usual snow level questions) and cheap mileage ticket to SEA came together. Baker and Alpental have had upwards of three feet in the past week, Baker got 9 inches into Friday, and a Puget Sound Convergence Zone is setting up to pound Snoqualmie Pass with upwards of two feet Monday into Tuesday. So, I booked the trip for two days this weekend at Baker and then two days in the Snoqualmie Pass area.
Day 1 at Baker is in the books.
Baker is a special place, someplace every skier should experience. The vibe, the copious snow, the relatively “remote” locale (it IS less than three hours from the airport, but feels a world away)……if you don’t mind sparse lodging and amenities a half hour down the Mt. Baker Highway in Glacier (yes, the closest lodging, stores, etc.) and you want to ski your legs off (from groomers to hairball) you’ll have a memorable time, to say the least.
The first day of my West Coast trips is always rough. As convenient as skiing from Seattle is, as a Hudson Valley resident it’s still 11 hours of travel from home to Glacier. Getting to bed at 3am (6am NY time, I’ve now been up for almost 24 hours) and up before 8am, I figured on taking today easy, get my ski legs under me. The sun was shining, the parking lots were full, but lift lines were not an issue.
So, I start out the day with a couple of runs in the ‘danger zones’ on the Pan Face and Canyons Zone, making my way from the Heather Meadows base over to the White Salmon base, and Chair 8. The leftovers were nice, but not the softest leftovers anyone has ever skied. However, by NY standards the conditions were great.
Now is a good time for a few words on Baker Chair 8. As some may know, Baker is blessed with huge and significant backcountry just outside the “resort”. Call it sidecounty if you want, because you can get to it from the resort, but sidecountry seems an idiot term. Those who don’t treat such terrain as backcountry often pay the price. But I digress. Back to Chair 8. As you take it up you spend the entire lift ride looking up at the out of bounds backcountry of the Hemispheres, and towering beyond, the Shuksan Arm. It’s majestic, huge, impressive terrain. Dreamy stuff, depending upon your ski proclivities.
So, off the chair I go and, well, I mean. Yeah, out come the skins (out West you always bring the pack, because you never know, and this is Baker) and up I go. With a big backcountry day coming up Monday I felt it was only responsible for me to, ahhhh….prime the touring muscles and field test the Shifts. Yeah, that’s it.
It turned out to be a great afternoon of familiarizing myself with the backcountry beyond Chair 8. I’ve skied the Baker backcountry before (Heather Meadows, past Table Mountain, to the Ptarmigan Ridge), but never the zone heading out to Shuksan. Suffice to say it’s way more complicated that it looks from the lift, as once you top Hemispheres it’s down to a valley and up again before you get to an option for any Shuksan goodies, that requires one to cover a lot of ground. I did keep it easy and mellow, for time in the backcountry. Down the back of Hemisphetes…
….to the valley and next skin track….
….that leads you to the bench…
…..where you get to decide if you want to push on for the ridge that leads toward Shuksan, or choose from plenty of other options.
I didn’t press the adventure and chose other options, and the Bagley Lakes area (close to the Heather Meadows base) was just over the next ridge. Not a bad way to end the day….the Blueberry Chutes, I believe.
Temps are supposed to be in the mid and upper 30s, so I’ll probably keep it in bounds tomorrow. We’ll see.
