Realistically, which is the longer drive?

Seattle to Baker - 146 miles

Seattle to Paradise - 115 miles

But what with traffic through the endless exurbs south of Seattle, I'm beginning to wonder whether it's faster to get to Baker.

Thoughts?

I've had the same calculation running in my head before. I think if you can get through Tacoma and Spanaway at dawn, Rainier wins, but then you will have to wait for the gate anyway. Which means Baker wins. You could probably also work in a "speeding ticket probability factor"- it seems like I-5 S on Sat/Sun mornings is full of speed traps.

When I head to Paradise (usually on Friday evenings for me) I take I-5 all the way to the HWY-512 interchange south of Tacoma, Immediately after merging onto HWY-512, I exit right onto Steel St southbound and then Spanaway Loop road, only joining HWY-7 until past past all the congestion in Spanaway. This route is sligthly longer (3-4 miles) but avoids almost all of the traffic lights on HWY-161 and HWY-7. But there is still "that gate" to deal with.

But overall, a full weekend at Baker staying at the Mountaineers lodge in Heather Meadows Friday and Saturday nights seems like a better ratio between driving and skiing and avoids the annoyance of waiting for the gate on the best snow days.

The other consideration, which I forgot to add to my question, is which area has the easiest access to quality turns? I'm speaking strictly about summer and fall turns, here. But, from Paradise, it's a pretty long and crappy hike all the way to Pebble Creek before you even reach the good skiing. Perhaps, even with the slightly longer drive, a day trip to Baker from seattle can be achieved in less time.

I write this morning, a morning which was to have been spent skiing at Paradise but was thwarted by locked doors and ski boots left behind them, because as the minutes and hours clicked by, waiting for my supposed-to-be skiing partner to call me back with the news that he had managed to reclaim his boots, I began wondering whether the lost hours might be made up by making the longer drive to Baker....

Alas, the boots are still behind locked doors, and I sit at home only able to ponder life's more pressing questions.

That question depends greatly on whether decent skiing can be achieved near the car around Artist Point. If there's enough snow, that's a great timesaver. Once it melts out, Heliotrope can be a three hour hike to snow.

In all do respect, I do beleive that the good lord Hedgie is misleading you on this matter.  It is ALWAYS better for Seattle people to drive to Paradise than Baker.  [size=10pt]ALWAYS![/size]

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