April 9, 2006, Baker B/C

Rain down low and poor visibility up high thwarted our "Plan A" and "Plan B", respectively, in the Mt. Baker vicinity early this morning (we were optimistic for a big tour day despite the forecast); so Justin and I settled on a much less ambitious "Plan C": something above the rain, but below the clouds.
After meeting a friendly solo-traveling Bellingham local ("Doug") who ended up joining our small group, we departed for Austin Pass at ~8 am in light snowfall.  We skied a few exerting laps off the back side of Austin Pass into the Swift Creek drainage, along with an exploratory tour/stroll further down the valley and back up.  Skiing was generally dust on breakable rain crust above ~4,500-ft and mostly "dust on mush" below that elevation (skied down to ~3,800-ft in the Swift Cr. drainage).  Couldn't get the snow to move much on our ski cuts on the Swift Cr. drainage side of Austin Pass, but Justin was able to get a very small (~6" deep and less than ~5-ft wide) wet slab to go on small lee-ward roll on the descent back to the car.   On the drive out we found a natural wet slide had partially blocked one of the highway lanes between the upper and lower base areas. 
Heavy spring snow, but a fun time anyway!  8)