I'm tempted to use the "E" word... Suffice to say that today was one of the better days I've ever ridden at Baker.
We left Seattle at 6:00 am and hit White Salmon just as the lifts were opening. Telemetry indicated that we should expect at least 13 inches of fresh snow and we certainly weren't disappointed. The snow was light and the low temps were keeping things fresh even as the slopes got tracked out.
We spent the first half of the morning riding treed runs off of chair 6. In the late morning we moved to Chair 1 and found fresh lines in the Pan Dome area for the rest of the day. Snow quality was high all day long and my legs gave out before the snow did.
Like Monday the crowds were extremely light. Maybe this is an unusual year, but I've spent two days at Baker this week and I was never in a lift line that was more than a minute long. I'll be back up there on Friday (and every Christmas week in the future).
On the avy front... The Canyon has been closed for most (all?) of the last week. The heavy dumpage of late has created very unstable conditions. The lee sides of ridges are seriously wind loaded. There are obvious fractures and some natural slide activity has taken place on the ridge to the east of the Canyon. Based on what can be seen from Chair 6 there is likely to be much more activity before things stabilize. I'm not sure I'd want to venture into the backcountry in the Baker area right now (especially with the upcoming storms).
Topic Author
