Mt Baker powder day
So a bunch of us took the day off yesterday, not knowing what kind of conditions the previous day’s rain and rapidly freezing temperatures would bring. Mason got off the boat at 5:30 and picked up Geoff, Todd, and myself and we headed up to Mt. Baker for some veteran’s day turns. It was snowing when we got to the parking lot and our hopes were up. We rode up to the top where the wind was blowing hard and the snow driving. Our first couple runs were tough. The melt-freeze that happened overnight was evident when under the inch of new snow we were riding on the backs of frozen humps of ice. It was snowing hard, so our hopes were up for an afternoon delight (not with the guys, with the snow). We found the groomed runs were the way to go and eventually headed in for lunch to thaw out and get some beer in us.
Watching through the window at the sideways-blowing snow, we dreamed of a time when the space between the crunchy whalebacks were filled in and the snow was delicious. When we finally got out there, braving a couple windy rides up to the top, we were greeted by lots of fresh powder on the lee slopes. We giddily took a few more runs, our tracks getting covered up within a few runs and then packed it in and made our way down the mountain.
Here’s Todd gettin’ some during our last run.
During the drive down the mountain we found 4 cars over the side of the road and a crumple accident. The snowflakes were about the size of quarters and we knew that whoever was going up on Saturday morning was going to have a sick powder day.
Looking at the Baker snow report, they received 18″ in the previous 24 hours as of 6pm last night.
And it’s not even Thanksgiving.
You can find more pics here.