I have been to Mount Baker twice during summer, but never in winter. Last Saturday we decided to give the local ski center a try and drove there from Vancouver. As expected, the snow was just heavely and already now crazy deep!
The drive up the mountain is beautiful, even in the first morning light.
Closer we drove, higher the snow banks got. No wonder that the base is currently at respectable 282cm (111 inches)12:36 14.1.2016.
One of the biggest surprises to us was that 6 out of 8 chair lifts at Mount Baker have
no safety rail whatsoever! I have never seen such and found it very unpleasant to be sitting there when you suffer from minor vertigo. I just wonder how often people fall off from these lifts and hurt themselves badly. Incredible that such lifts still exist in 2016!
The ski center is actually not on Mount Baker (3,286 meters / 10,781 feet), but on a ridge between Baker and Mount Shuksan (2,783 meters / 9,131 feet). You cannot even see the former, but you can see the latter, which looks epic. The ridge right from the mountain is a backcountry skier's heaven!
Be aware that the ski center is on a north face of the ridge and is in a shadow for the most of the day.
View from the top of the ski center (1,551 meters / 5,089 feet) is gorgeous on a sunny day.
Yeah, there is no lack of snow on Mount Baker. They hold the world record for snow fall at 29 meters (1,140 inches) and even the average annual snow fall is 17 meters (669 inches)!
After a full day of skiing we drove to check out the famous Picture Lake, which was frozen all over.
Back in Sumas the sun was already setting and it felt like spring. All mountains behind the trees is Canada.
Mount Baker definitely makes for an amazing day trip from Vancouver. You just have to leave at 6am and you will be there when the lifts start running at 9am. We will be going back, since the snow on Baker is so heavenly dry and crazy deep.
