February 4-5, 2003, Mt. Baker -Table Mountain

Two friends and I made for an overnighter camped out beside Table Mtn outside of the Mt. Baker Ski area. After a chilly and slightly breezy night out on a ridge in our tent we awoke to a fantastic view of early morning glory glowing from Mt. Baker's E. slopes in the distance. Shuksan was also stunning in the morning light as the winds scoured snow from it's ridge tops. As most areas in the Cascades are now providing --the E to N slopes here at 4-6,000'+ had a good 5"-15" accumulation of quality powder with the occassional isolated windpack showing itself up high. S. slopes showed signs of warming and wet release slides. As we headed out on the long traverse out to Ptarmigan Ridge the snow shoer(snowboarder) in our party suffered a fall and minor strain to his left knee and we had to return home. Even with our trip cut short it was well worth the chilly night out under the stars.