Nov 26th, Mt. Baker resort

Several of us went to Baker last weekend to kick off the ski season.
We ended up being 8 people; 3 spent Thanksgiving at the Mountaineers
lodge; the rest of the group drove up Friday morning.
After a 3 hour drive from Seattle we arrived at the Mt. Baker
Mountaineers lodge in a beautiful winter landscape. There was so much
snow, that the cars that were parked already were completely snowed
in but after a little while we found the perfect parking spot. After
checking into the lodge, we geared up for a short snowshoeing trip in
the area. It was snowing heavily and one definitely wanted to stay on
existing trails to avoid sinking in to our knees or even hips into
the brand-new powder snow (even wearing snowshoes).
All the food was provided by the lodge and hats up to them - it was
excellent. There were another 30+ people at the lodge and our group
quickly made friends with several other attendees. During the
evenings we gathered in the basement for some "secret" card games
where Jonathan continued to rack up minus points instead of
progressing upwards but we all sure had lots of fun.
The rest of the weekend we ski'd until our thighs were screaming. The
snow was perfect and due to continued heavy snowfalls, we had between
1 and 2 feet of new powder snow every day. We continued heading out
Sunday for more skiing but quickly realized that the snowfall was so
overwhelming that the ski area started partially closing down and it
was time to get off the mountain. After digging out our cars again
(part of our daily entertainment) and putting on chains, we slowly
made our way home. Heavy snowfall followed us until South of Everett,
so it took us over 8 hours to arrive safely in Seattle.