Snowshoeing at Mt Baker

The cliff

The nice trail

The bruises

Since I moved to PT, I've been able to see Mt. Baker in the distance. This past week I journeyed there with friends Todd and Heather. Todd hit the slopes for some snowboarding while Heather and I picked the cheaper option: snowshoeing. I hadn't been before, to either Baker or snowshoeing, and Heather had just bought new shoes to break in.

On the first morning we set off to find the trail Heather had researched only to be told that we wouldn't be able to access that trail. A suggestion was made to go to the upper parking lot which when we arrived, we discovered that this was not plowed and they were doing avalanche control. Mind you that Mt. Baker has the world record for snowfall in a single season at 95ft. It's also part of an active volcano chain and covered by glaciers. It lived up to the earlier and ended up snowing the entire time we were there. After Plan A and B were shot down, we went back to the main ski lodge where I suggested flagging down the dude riding the 4X4 around the parking lot. He indeed knew of a place to snow shoe and pointed in the general direction. We set off, down a large hill, perhaps I should compare it more to a cliff since it was at least a 45degree angle.

The snow shoes that I borrowed were not equipped for downhill skiing thus, I ended up ricocheting, flying, sliding, falling downhill at a fairly fast pace, amongst large trees, saplings, bushes, etc. I was saved once by my backpack getting snagged. The rest of the time I was either able to stop myself or got caught in the snow. After one last instance of nearly hitting a tree, I had to disappoint the determined Heather and tell her "we need to go back, I'm not going to make it back up the hill if we go much further."

I crawled back up the hill, see picture above of Heather just a few paces ahead of me but nearly on top of me. We got to the top and walked to the left and saw the logging road that the dude told us about. At this point though, my spirit was broken and I was soaked. To the lodge! I have realized that ski resorts, at least this one, on this day, was like Daytona Beach but in the snow. People drive huge pick up trucks or cars jacked up with fancy wheels and then drive entirely too fast, do donuts in the parking lot, screaming, playing music out of the backs of their cars and then head off the side of the hill to smoke pot. There wasn't any visible alcohol in the parking lot but that was because a policeman was patroling, otherwise it would have been reminiscent of a college football tailgate party. Dogs running around and young frat boys yelling at each other - the comeback of 80s fashion has also made it into skiing apparel as we saw some crazy get-ups. It was good people watching. We spent the rest of the day in the lodge, drying, relaxing and people watching.

The next day, we went on the trail that we were originally supposed to take and it was like night and day. It was quite lovely and we paved our own path through the snow and it only took 5 minutes or less and we couldn't even hear the resort. It was snowing lightly but not enough to get wet so it was mostly just gorgeous. Unfortunately because of the precipitation, visibility was low so we didn't get awesome views of the surrounding mountain but that's okay, it'll make for a good reason to come back. I took a video and a photo of my legs after going down the cliff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUGa0BhwAE