Snowman on the cattrack near the parking lot at Mt. Baker ski area
Other snow players above Bagley Lakes basin. There were an amazing number of skiers, snowshoers, hikers, snowboarders, and sledders out.
Yammering on about something. I'm having a fun day, in spite of the look on my face!
One of the Bagley Lakes. This shot was taken on our way back. Our trip began from the parking lot behind the maintenance sheds at Mt. Baker ski area. To my surprise there was pretty good snow coverage with only a few staubs and rocks showing through the snow. We skied up to Artist Point then around the south side of Table Mountain toward Ptarmigan Ridge. Randy thought the snow would be okay down a line from Artist Point but it was pretty heavy so we decided to tour instead of make runs.
Since we hadn't counted on very good snow coverage we got up late, anticipating a short day of skiing. However, we did see a party way out toward the Portals. At the junction where the route continues around Table Mountain toward Herman Saddle, we skied back since the coverage on the Herman Saddle side still showed a lot of boulders. The weather was surprisingly nice — not 80% snow as predicted. And the wind was fairly calm, the temperature around freezing. Fairly pleasant really. There was some avalanche rubble that had been covered by the week's worth snow but skiing over that wasn't difficult.
There no crowds on that side of Table Mountain; however, when we crossed back over to Artist Point it was practically a mob scene with skiers, boarders, snowshoers, etc. We ripped off our skins and had a nice ski in some really decent snow. The challenge was dodging the parties making an even later start than we had. And the jumps the snowboarders had built. The jumps looked like fun but not part of my skill set.
The cattrack back was completely packed down and icy from all the hikers. We skied down untracked snow on between switchbacks on the cattrack and made some fun turns. Then we were forced to ski the icy luge but fortunatley it's pretty flat so ice is a good thing. Our totat time out was about 4 hours, with lots of options considered but dismissed based on crowds and snow coverage. Elevation gain for the day was probably less than 2000'.