Balmy Baker Backcountry
A deep freeze arrived in the PNW in early January. The lowlands plummeted into the teens and even single digits – possibly the coldest temperatures I have experienced in my lifetime in Western Washington. With fresh snow and a sunny but bone-chilling forecast, the question was: where should we go to enjoy this ephemeral cold snap during an otherwise warm winter?
Wyatt and I have been producing weekly weather videos for Cascadia Mountain Weather. In our video before this weekend, we focused on the temperatures and wind chills. Due to big pressure gradients, the passes would funnel strong easterly winds, damaging the snow and creating dangerously cold wind chills. So we decided to go north to Baker, seeking more moderate westside temperatures and calm winds. Our decision turned out to be a great one!
The cold weather gave us an excuse for a late start, but we were surprised to find a balmy temperature of 15F at the parking lot – warmer than it was in the lowlands. The wind had just died down and the sun was out! John had driven up from Issaquah with me, and we picked up Wyatt on the way. Our friends Brigette and Anna also joined us for a tour.
The NWAC observations from the day prior spoke of substantial wind effect, especially higher up. So given the cold, our plan was to explore some of the more protected south-facing glades. We figured that a Table Mountain Circumnavigation would be a highly scenic route, and we could assess snow conditions on a variety of aspects along the way.
Skinning through the Bagley Lakes Basin on a sunny morning is like staring at a buffet and wondering what you should eat first. We decided to follow the existing tracks and ski a beautiful east-facing slope beneath Table Mountain in the morning sun. We passed probably 50 people on the way up; it was busy out there!
With a little wind effect up top but perfect powder below, it was a great first run! Then we headed back up towards the Herman Saddle to continue on our tour. Without any wind, it was downright balmy in the sun!
We skinned a little higher than Herman Saddle to find some untracked powder on our way down to Iceberg Lake. Despite the warm temps, the snow was completely dry and cold. It is such a rare treat to ski south-facing powder in Western Washington, without any sense of urgency. We knew it was cold enough to stay dry all day.
After seeing probably over a hundred people in the Bagley Lakes Basin, we somehow found ourselves breaking trail across Iceberg Lake as we continued on the circumnavigation.
Past Iceberg Lake, we started to run into groups coming the other way on the circumnavigation. I led us up Back Pocket on the south side of Table Mountain. From there, we enjoyed another nice south-facing powder run all the way to the bottom of the Bonsai Trees.
We discussed our options for the rest of the day. We could continue with the standard circumnavigation, but the remainder of the skiing would not be that interesting. Instead, we decided to skin back up Back Pocket again and cross the plateau of Table Mountain to Corner Pocket. This would take us more directly back to the car and give us the option of an additional lap on Herman to finish!
We crossed the top of Table and skied a bumpy but decent run down Corner Pocket. At the bottom, Anna decided to head back to the car while the rest of us quickly transitioned, racing the sun up the south side of Herman. Wyatt’s skin kept failing, so he initially said he would head out with Anna. But a few minutes later I looked down and a single person was following us upwards – Wyatt could not pass on an alpine sunset!
With a steep, icy skintrack, Wyatt’s skin was toast. I set a new, lower angled skin track for a good portion of the way up Herman, allowing Wyatt to limp to the top with a non-adhering skin. It was struggle, but we made it up just in time for an incredible sunset. As we transitioned, we watched Shuksan and the Northern Pickets explode in alpenglow.
Eventually, it was time to ski down, although the light show continued. The glow faded to a deep pink in the sky behind Shuksan. We kept taking photos until it was simply time to get out before dark.
The east face of Herman is rather complex, with plenty of cliffs at the bottom. The main runs were tracked out like a resort. We got lured by untracked powder into a series of cliff bands. Luckily, there were some tracks to follow through some gnarly terrain. It required some careful skiing, but we all made our way through the cliffs and back to the car just before dark!
This was a super fun, surprisingly full-value day in the Baker Backcountry! All we hoped for was reasonable temperatures and calm winds, but we also scored delightful south facing powder and an incredible sunset. Even though nothing was overly adventurous or novel, it was fun to return to this part of the Baker Backcountry after a few years away and use my experience to improvise on the fly. Thank you to Wyatt, John, Brigette, and Anna for a great day!