July 8, 2006, Mt Baker Ski Area

Due to an extremely late start (5pm), I just decided to poke around the upper slopes of Pan Dome. The road to Arist Point is still gated at the ski area but WSDOT has begun clearing it. Currently, the road is snow free to the Heather Meadows Visitor Center and beyond that, WSDOT crews have bulldozed most of the snow away (there's a 2 foot deep track left for their dozers to make the trip up). The warmer weather over the last couple weeks have definately started to melt off the snowpack, as well as make more suncups.

It was quite a sight to see one of Chair One's lift poles with the 98/99 max snow depth marking compared to the bare ground at its base. Impressive. Anyways, I bagged as much trash from the slopes as I could carry and headed back down to less than stellar turns. In fact, when I met up with the road, I had to down climb to get back on the road and when I did, a base plate cover came off of my snowboard binding. Of course, I didn't realize it until I was back at my car so I got to hike back up a second time to retrieve it. On my way back the second time, there was a LOUD shot/crack followed by an avalanche rumble. I never saw the source but I assume that it came from Shuksan.