Mt. Baker, Washington
Monday Feb 28. Mt. Baker was about an hour haul from Bellingham, where we are staying with Kate's grandmother, and although it was raining for the majority of the drive up there, it was DUMPING on the mountain, and there was about 2 feet of new snow which fell through the day before and on into our ski day. Kate was on the Auras and I was on the Libertys, and we had a really fun day, just shooshing around. Some of the terrain was closed due to an extreme avalanche warning, but we were able to still ski mostly where we pleased. Mt. Baker is in a Natl forest and there is nothing there, besides the lodge, which has food and a bar, but when the lifts stop running at the end of the day, 3:15-3:45, the moutain evacuated completely and shuts down. So after a long full day, we did a single beer in the lodge, and we took up the remainder of Apres at 'Chair 9' (there are only 8 chairs at the mountain) which is the first bar you encounter coming back into the town of Glacier. We made some friends, also from the East coast, who we bonded with over the fact that I didnt realize that the same 2 guys who were making fun of me in the lodge for having a camera straped to my helmet, were the same ones making similar comments when we ran into them in the lift line. I didnt quite get the joke. I thought I was just being made fun of twice. For the same thing. Which happens often in my life. So we shared a run and a beer. Actually 2 runs, after one of our new friends lost his ski about 40 feet up from where he came to stop, after a tumble. So there was a bonus run, that involved skiing down, riding back up, and skiing down to retrieve his ski. I might mention that by that time, he had managed to lose his other ski somehow, farther down than he was sitting. Luckily Kate was there to offer moral support. The bartender at the end of the day was hesitant to serve them because they were so giddy. Powder Monday!
