Nov 11, 2006, Baker (closed)
11/11/06
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3478
5
The obligatory Baker report -- access issues on 542 are no longer a problem, though there remains a section of the road that's reduced to one lane while crews reinforced the roadbank, which has been somewhat undercut by the flooding.
Baker has a lot of snow. A lot. Breaking trail, when we had to do it, was waist-chest deep. Poling downhill was required unless it was real steep. We went to the top of Pan Point, along with many, many bootpackers (man, that looked hard...) and came down Pan Face. Once on the steeps, it was great. Baker's set up to have a real nice base building -- we didn't hit a rock all day.
The top 12-15 inches would slide a little, though there was no bed surface to really get it going. I expect it's all crushed down under the additional foot or two of snow that they're getting right now...
Baker has a lot of snow. A lot. Breaking trail, when we had to do it, was waist-chest deep. Poling downhill was required unless it was real steep. We went to the top of Pan Point, along with many, many bootpackers (man, that looked hard...) and came down Pan Face. Once on the steeps, it was great. Baker's set up to have a real nice base building -- we didn't hit a rock all day.
The top 12-15 inches would slide a little, though there was no bed surface to really get it going. I expect it's all crushed down under the additional foot or two of snow that they're getting right now...
I was there on Sunday, and noticed the same sort of instability, which resulted in a panicked moment when a slough I kicked off briefly buried my poor dog Keller. Fortunately he is a great swimmer, and popped out before I really hit the panic button.
Tough skiing, tough dog conditions, huge crowds. There needs to be some way to educate the snowboarding and alpine skiing public about the benefits of AT, split boards, snowshoes, and approach skis ... most of these guys seem willing to learn better ways to get up the hill, which benefits everyone. At the very least it would be nice if boot packers could step aside and let faster parties pass on days like this, so 50 person lineups like we saw on Sunday dont happen. Most seemed willling to do that, but it apparently wasn't obvious to them that this is proper BC etiquette.
Tough skiing, tough dog conditions, huge crowds. There needs to be some way to educate the snowboarding and alpine skiing public about the benefits of AT, split boards, snowshoes, and approach skis ... most of these guys seem willing to learn better ways to get up the hill, which benefits everyone. At the very least it would be nice if boot packers could step aside and let faster parties pass on days like this, so 50 person lineups like we saw on Sunday dont happen. Most seemed willling to do that, but it apparently wasn't obvious to them that this is proper BC etiquette.
True, true -- though, to be fair, those huge lineups were hacking their way up to the top of Chair 1, which is hardly a BC destination. We decided to head in that direction because we weren't willing to break trail all the way out to Table... :) Still, I agree.
Which dog did you have? There were several folks out with dogs -- small ones too. We found ourselves skiing with one poor pooch that had lost its owner and was trying to wallow its way down the slope. Tough conditions for a dog indeed... they were hard enough for me!
Which dog did you have? There were several folks out with dogs -- small ones too. We found ourselves skiing with one poor pooch that had lost its owner and was trying to wallow its way down the slope. Tough conditions for a dog indeed... they were hard enough for me!
That may have been mine. We had two dogs with us, a black lab named Phoebe and a scrappy deaf guy named Keller (pointer/lab mix) wearing a sweater wrapped in copious quantities of duct tape (which worked great until it had to come off...). I was nearby, although at one point Phoebe wandered around the wrong side of some trees. They dont do too well with large crowds -- Keller especially hates it when people/things move away from him, which is why he freaked out when we held him back from the crowd about to descend Pan Face. I guess I wasnt expecting such a circus with the closed road reports... Oh well, no injuries to report and they are sleeping soundly today.
Good to meetcha then! When we were all standing around by the patrol shack, I'm the guy who picked up Duct Tape Dog (Keller? Appropriate name for a deaf pooch) in a failed attempt to get him back up to you... Glad they made it down okay. And yup, I'll bet that was Phoebe hitting the line between the trees with my friends.
Good to meet you too. Thanks for keeping an eye on her. I think she started down the wrong track but then couldn't climb back up to ours because the snow was so deep.
I dont think I'll be bringing them out on any big snow days after the little incident with Keller. And even then I really want to try and get some older frequency transceivers on them, although they may be impossible to find now. One would think that the next generation beacons that "talk" to eachother could be designed to differentiate from a dog beacon and a human, but ARVA seems to be the only manufacturer pursuing such a product. I know of at least one person (skiing alone with dog) that saved his pooch because she was wearing one.
I dont think I'll be bringing them out on any big snow days after the little incident with Keller. And even then I really want to try and get some older frequency transceivers on them, although they may be impossible to find now. One would think that the next generation beacons that "talk" to eachother could be designed to differentiate from a dog beacon and a human, but ARVA seems to be the only manufacturer pursuing such a product. I know of at least one person (skiing alone with dog) that saved his pooch because she was wearing one.
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