November 11, 2001, Mt. Baker Backcountry

Transceiver practice was cancelled this morning due to apparent lack of interest, so I slept blissfully late, hung around the house uselessly through what remained of the morning and into the afternoon, finally hitting the backcountry after 2:00 PM. The snow pack, recently several feet deep and powdery, has dwindled to under a foot at the ski area parking lot (and waterlogged to the point that you can see right through it to the yellow center line on the highway). It was quite a scene up there: troupes of small children were rampaging everywhere, towing strange sliding devices around, with bunches of harassed-looking adults struggling to keep up; there were dozens of clots of snowboarders sitting around smoking cigarettes between launching themselves off various improbable-looking places; I even ran into two rather overweight and clumsy-looking gentlemen who were smoking actual cigars while hiking along the trail in their street clothes. Fortunately, a mile or two of uphill walking brought me to deeper snow, surprisingly virginal (and deserted) slopes and almost perfect spring conditions; a couple of inches of corn and the remnants of last week's snowfall on a bombproof base. Good visibility, too. I really wished I'd come earlier, but as it was I dropped into a variety of short, steep shots, skied reasonably well, and was on my way home again by 4:00. A nice little break from ordinary life.

Having said all that, it's also true that if it doesn't snow some more pretty soon I'll begin to get very irritated.

Enjoy.

Mark