Mount Baker offers incredible backcountry terrain. Here, some off-piste enthusiasts stand in the shadow of Mt. Shuksan.
Mount Baker offers incredible backcountry terrain. Here, some off-piste enthusiasts stand in the shadow of Mt. Shuksan.
MOUNT BAKER
RECOMMENDED BY Tom Monterosso
“There is a place in the ski and snowboard world for full-blown resorts,” Tom Monterosso ventured. “The full mountain experience—condos, food courts, ice-skating rinks, and the rest—is just right for some, especially the more casual rider. But if you have $500 to spend, and you want to stretch it as far as you can and ride your heart out, Mount Baker is for you. For as big as the terrain at Baker is, the mountain—and the surrounding area—hasn’t crazily expanded. There aren’t any five-star hotels with hot tubs the size of small towns. You don’t find the kind of amenities that pull your attention away from the hill, and for me, that’s what it’s about.”
Mount Baker rises roughly thirty miles east (as the crow flies) from Bellingham, Washington, near the Canadian border. At 10,781 feet, the volcano (second most active in the Cascades after St. Helens to the south) is in view on a clear day from as far west as Vancouver Island and as far south as Tacoma. Baker is renowned as one of the snowiest places in the world; it averages 701 inches a year; in the winter of 1998/99, the mountain accumulated a remarkable 1,140 inches (nearly the height of a ten-story office building, if you’re counting!). The portion of the mountain where the resort operates is not terribly high, registering 4,300 feet at the top of the Heather Meadows area and 3,500 feet at the White Salmon area, with a vertical drop of 1,500 feet. Yet, these statistics can be misleading. Professional snowboarder Lucas Debare, who calls Baker his home hill, described it as like a skate park, with features everywhere to appeal to different styles of snowboarding. Thanks to the coastal snow, there’s relatively low avalanche danger. The inbounds terrain is unrivaled, with runs as gnarly as you could desire. The backcountry seems to go on forever. (Baker offers one thousand acres of terrain.)
“If I were to be at Baker on a bluebird day with fresh snow, I’d first head to Chair Five, one of the most famous lifts in snowboarding,” Tom continued. “There’s so much amazing inbounds terrain here. [For example, the chute-riddled Gabl’s.] I’d lap that for a while, make some turns, and then grab my avalanche gear and head over to the out-of-bounds area near Hemispheres. It’s world-class, some of the best out-of-bounds terrain anywhere. You could ride for a year and not come close to covering it all.”
The event that helped put Mount Baker on the snowboarding map is the Mount Baker Banked Slalom (known in some circles as the Legendary Banked Slalom). First held in 1985, the five-hundred-foot-long course featured fifteen gates; the winner received (and still receives) a trophy fashioned from duct tape. (The event was held at Mount Baker, incidentally, because few other mountains were allowing snowboarders at the time.) “Growing up on the East Coast, I never had the money to come out to Washington and participate, though I was certainly aware of the event,” Tom continued. “It was in the top three on my bucket list. During my first year working at Snowboarder magazine, I told my editor how I’d always wanted to go up to the Banked Slalom, to run the race, eat the smoked salmon, attend the parties. I got the green light and I was off to Mount Baker.
“There are several things that make the event special. The Banked Slalom is the only snowboarding event where members from all the different boarding communities inter-mingle—rail kids, pipe kids, mountain freestylers. You’ll be standing at the top and to your left you’ll see Wolfgang Nyvelt, to your right, Danny Davis. Up-and-comers can hang with old-guard riders like Tom Burt. It’s also the only contest in snowboarding where you never have to leave the ground, where you don’t have to do any tricks. Whoever turns the best and goes the fastest wins. The Banked Slalom captures the whole vibe of Mount Baker. People don’t need the latest gear or ride the latest trend. They wear clothes that are functional. They are there to ride.
“Incidentally, on that first trip, I finished dead last in the qualifying event. That may have been because it had snowed approximately six feet in two days, and I’d been lapping the best snow I’d ever experienced the whole day leading up to my run on the course!”
If there’s an unofficial post-riding gathering spot for Mount Baker snowboarders, many would say that it’s Milanos, an Italian restaurant (with a fine snowboarding pedigree) in the little town of Glacier. “I’ll never forget my first visit to Milanos,” Tom said. “During the day, I’d ridden the deepest powder I’d ever experienced. It was my first Baker Banked Slalom, and everyone I knew in the snowboarding world was there on the mountain. A group of us went down to Glacier, the nearest town, for dinner. There’s just one strip of asphalt, one bar, one snowboard shop, and one restaurant. Milanos is partly owned by the Debare family, a clan that’s nothing short of Mount Baker royalty. The Debare children, Lucas and Maria, are big-name pros. All of my friends were there drinking beer at the bar. Eventually we had an amazing Italian dinner, and got to meet Lucas’s mom, the queen of Mount Baker.”
A perfect ending to a perfect day.
TOM MONTEROSSO is senior editor of Snowboarder magazine.
If You Go
Getting There: Mount Baker is roughly an hour east of Bellingham, Washington, which is served by Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com), Allegiant Air (702-505-8888; www.allegiantair.com), and Frontier Airlines (800-432-1359; www.flyfrontier.com).
Season: The season generally runs from mid-November to late April. See up-to-date ski reports at www.mtbaker.us.
Lift Tickets: Full-day tickets are $47 to $52; multi-day tickets are available.
Level of Difficulty: Nearly a third of Mount Baker’s terrain is considered advanced or expert. The Baker Banked Slalom is generally held in mid-February.
Accommodations: A number of lodging options are listed on the Mount Baker Ski Area website (www.mtbaker.us).
