This season I spent most of my time in Glacier, a short 20 or so minute drive to Mt. Baker Ski area, and instead of hitting the mountain once or twice a week, I hit the mountain three to five times a week.

I'd have to say this season was a resounding success.

• powder days galore
• claiming first chair (or second or third) on a regular basis
• new boards (Dynastar Legend Pro) that changed everything
• a winter full of epic heli-style runs in bounds and out of bounds
• got to know the mountain like my own mouth
• revived big air this season, put the memory of my Aspen big air disaster away
• stopped drinking energy drinks (sub with odwalla/naked vitamin B drinks, work just as good if not better, and cheaper too!)
• got into the best skiing shape I've been in since I was 21
• learned a lot of new names, new faces, waiting in blizzards for chair 5 and 6 to open throughout the season

The mountain shut it's lifts down last weekend. By Friday they had already removed the chairs from chair 1. I've been told it was the first chair lift in Washington, one of the first in the country. The chairs are being auctioned off and all proceeds will go to the Northwest Avalanche Center. You can go to Mt. Baker Ski Area's Chair 1 Page for more information and some history.

We played music for the volunteer ski patrol party on Saturday evening at the White Salmon Lodge and had a chance to hear Duncan Howitt, the CEO of the Mt. Baker Ski Area group, speak for a few minutes. He said that the entire annual budget for the NWAC is roughly $325,000 (I could be off a bit), and even though the money saves lives, apparently it's not important enough for the state or federal pockets to fund.

$325,000 isn't a lot for a service like the NWAC. I'm sure that one of those fat political pigs out there who doesn't know what a mountain is makes that in two months. Just goes to show you where society keeps it's brains these days. Lounging in front of the big screen covered with Dorito crumbs wondering when the pizza delivery will arrive.

The NWAC isn't just for people who are pushing the edge out in the back country, it's for everyone who drives across I-90, Highway 2, and other mountain passes too, including delivery trucks full of Doritos.

With the NWAC we have a consistent chain of information that warns travelers on the highways and in the back country as well as the department of transportation so they know when avalanche control needs to be done before disaster strikes.

Well, apart from the drama of the NWAC, this season has been a roaring success. But it's not over yet, not by a long shot.

Table Mountain, Herman, Artist Point, Heliotrope, Church, and all the others wait for us to track them out. Sure it's going to take longer to get to the top, but we all have our skins, our thighs are as strong as steel, and the back country beckons.

It's a siren call because out there it's you and the slope and the dangers of not paying attention, and sometimes it feels like that's all there's ever been.

Ok, sure, I should have used more sunblock. My face is red but Aloe Vera with vitamins seems to help the pain and today I don't look as much like a lobster out of the pot as I did yesterday.

But it was worth it.

The lifts at Baker are closed now except for weekends through April, so the only way to get some turns in is to put the skins on and start hiking. Or go up to Canada.

It's a lot cheaper to go hiking and good for your health, too!

My buddy and I drove up to Heather Meadows, put our gear on, and made our way up to Table Mountain where we had super steep, super deep, fresh tracks that seemed to last forever.

When I say fresh tracks, I mean on slopes that never get tracked out, that hardly ever get skied, so when you're gliding down these snow covered cliffs it feels completely different than the foot of powder with hard pack under it you get in bounds at ski areas.

We took two runs down the slopes of Table, then we took two runs from Artist Point where I had some accidental fun by finding an invisible cornice in the middle of the hill. No harm done, the landing was perfect and skiing is skiing whether or not my boards happen to be touching the snow.

I saw four other people. Two over on Mt. Herman (other side of the valley), a woman on snow shoes, and another guy playing on Table.

Here's a panorama I took earlier in the season. Baker on the left, Table in the middle, and Herman on the right. The peak in the middle of the picture, just to the left of Table, is called The Chimney. It can be a real pain to climb in some conditions.

I'd say it was a pretty good day and with all the skiing I did this year (over 50 days so far) I was in shape for it even though I hadn't skinned all season long.

The hike up to Artist Point is spectacular if you're looking for something to do during the week in April. Everything is visible from Artist Point, all the mountains, amazing views of Baker, and if you happen to bring your boards up, you can pretty much ski back down to your car.

The season isn't over when lifts close, it's over when the snow is gone.

Where are all the people?

On Thursday I had the hill to myself. Fresh tracks all day long. A month ago the place would have been packed full of locals and tourists, but now, well, it's March.

Know what happens in March? Some of the best snow falls and three quarters of the people who enjoyed it in January are already thinking about spring and summer. White sandy beaches.

Well, good, more fresh turns for me. Granted, Mt. Baker goes weekends only in April and if it's sunny and warm the mountain will be crowded, but that's OK. Slushy spring skiing days are made for crowds and Tequila. The cold smoke days of March when the wind is ripping over the edge of Shuksan right down to White Salmon Lodge are made for the locals.

There's a system moving in tomorrow that could potentially bring in two or three days of powder, two or three days of splashing down into my own kind of white sandy beaches, except there's no sand, it's not warm, and the only bikinis I'm likely to see are on 53 year old retired free style skiers who enjoy drinking beer and eating salty smoked salmon on the lift and picking their teeth with the bones on the way down.

Sometimes while reminiscing about the Rocky Mountains, I fondly recall spring skiing in Aspen. I lived there for a few seasons, and well, there's nothing like it. Free style Fridays where a snowboarder would race against a skier on a mogul face. Near the bottom are two huge big air jumps, too big even for sanctioned events, yet the racers, dressed in anything from duct tape to wedding gowns, do insane acrobatics, land on the nastiest bumps around, and somehow come out of it smiling. The rest of us are lounging in the sun while pretty girls whip up tropical drinks and pass them around. Ah, good times, good people.

Where was I? March, yeah, I like March because there's no one on the mountain and yet we're still getting amazing powder.

Enjoy spring break with the beaches and warm air, I'll hang out in the snow for a bit longer. Sure, summer is waiting, and when it gets here I'll be the first one in the river for some of that great North Fork inner-tubing, but until those 80 degree days are upon us in full force, I'm going to be laying down fresh tracks with the same smile on my face I've had each of the 50+ days I've hit the mountain this season.

It has been to long since posting on the PI between work and making some turns so here is a little what I have been up to.

The first day up was early December and the destination was Mt Baker. A buddy and I had to get up early (he was coming from north Seattle and I am in Marysville) to make it there before opening. After making good time we arrived to find the mountain being covered in snow but with high winds and low visibility. At least we weren't at work!

Then I skipped work and hit a sunny day in mid January and another one at the end of the month to mob around Stevens. Conditions where the same both days; some ice, some slush and all high speed groomers. It was fun just to break in the legs with some burners especially when there was no body on the mountain.

And most recently coming back from a 4 day trip to Mt. Bachelor with all my ski/snowboard buddies. The trip was rock'n and finally uploaded all the pictures at my other blog. We stayed in a mansion (well it felt like one) in Sunriver that had 7 bedrooms, large kitchen, hot tube, 3 car garage, slept 18 and most of it had a theater room.

The first day there was tons of snow but the Northwest and Summit chair where closed due to high winds, typical from what I heard. The day went by really smoothing with us getting a few jumps in the terrain park and some powder turns in the well spaced trees. The low visibility continued all day and getting worse towards close with freezing rain the goggles; hate when that happens. So by this time we called it good just before closing and hit the lounge to rest the bones.

That night we cooked, had some beverages and talked about the day; who made what turns, how everyone's tumbles felt and what we like and where we would go the following day.

As the Snow Gods would have it they took a break and gave a day of sunshine, low wind and one of the perfect days of all time. The snow was a little crusty but no one cared; we could see and that was all the mattered. My buddy, David, took us on a short little hike on what looks like a miniature dome (when compared to the summit dome of Mt. Bachelor). the group picture (I'm far left) turned out great and it is tradition dating back a few years with a hard core group of riders from Boston, New York, Vermont and Washington. Even though the dome was tracked up I managed to find a full run of untracked off the right side and enjoyed every minute of it.

The day went by too fast and once again we found it closing time and back to lounge to soak our wounds in frosty adult beverages. Soon we were back in the hot tub and doing the super-relax as it was our last night and the next day we would all scatter to our homes.

This is my third trip in a row with this group and cannot wait until it is a forth. It is so much fun to get away with close friends to make some turns on a different mountain, laugh at each other's stupid antics and just share in the moment. But I bet this story is not that uncommon and annual ski trips date back many moons, can't wait to build more stories...take care and keep on riding!

This weekend Mt. Baker Ski Area hosts one of the most famous snowboard races in the world, the Legendary Banked Slalom. Olympians and world cup gold medalists from around the world join local legends to see who has what it takes to win the prize: a trophy made out of a roll of duct tape painted gold.

With all the snow, there hasn't been time to be very creative with the banked slalom course. In the past there have been features like cork screws and other crowd pleaser's, but yesterday we saw a more traditional slalom course- gates and turns.

Yesterday the locals were qualifying and the top group will move on to the main event on Sunday.

However there's a glitch this year. Washington State DOT has closed the Mt. Baker Highway today because of the scary possibilities of death from above. Apparently they did a controlled blast of Excelsior peak that might have covered the road.

That means the ski area is closed as well. It's going to reopen tomorrow with tons of fresh snow, but that doesn't help the Banked Slalom situation.

Remember, call the ski report before going up to the mountain, any mountain. In rare circumstances, things like this happen and when that train of cars I see going up to the mountain gets turned around, there will be a lot of disappointed people, not only racers, but people who just spend the last hour and a half driving to get here.

Usually DOT posts signs in Bellingham, Maple Falls, Sumas, Glacier, and other spots when the highway is closed so people are warned in advance. However, there's always people who want to check to make sure, regardless.

Visiting snowboarders were supposed to do qualifying runs today, and this usually takes all day long. The Mt. Baker ski report hotline (360-671-0211) discusses this and says that everything is going to happen on Sunday.

For those of us who live up here, this is nothing new. Tons of snow, wet and dry, have closed the road before. It's just bad luck on the timing this year. Yep, welcome to Mt. Baker!

As a 1980's cliff jumping fanatic, there was only one choice when I wanted a more stable, faster pair of boards: downhill or GS racing skis.

My old boards from those days range from 200cm to 220cm. The length was the only way to increase surface area, and after a big drop into avalanche debris, you needed as much surface area as possible or you'd be the center of attraction in a three ring yard sale.

As the years went on skis evolved to match available technology, but the idea was the same. Increasing the side cut, the difference in the width of the ski where the boot is verses the tip and tail, started really catching on back then, yet like the computer chip the basic idea of what made a ski go didn't change.

Last Thursday I found a new religion. The experience reminded me of the very early 1980's when my incessant pleading and whining finally landed one of the first mass produced mountain bikes for Christmas: a Schwinn High Sierra. At that time, we were using up 10 speed road bikes like chalk on a sidewalk. Jumping, trail riding, wheelies, indeed, road bikes don't last long in those conditions.

The day I showed up at the quarry with my Shwinn was the day that my entire biking paradigm shifted.

Fast forward to four days ago when I showed up early waiting for chair 5 to open for another epic powder day at Baker with a pair of Rossignol Scratch BC boards on my feet instead of my three season old Atomic Beta Ride R-ex skis. The Scratch BC skis are the same as the Rossignol Sick Birds, but cost more because they are marketed towards freestyle while the Sick Birds are marketed towards tele skiers and have more retro looking graphics (quite cool, actually).

The Scratch BC twin tip skis are springy, light as feathers, agile, forgiving, and funky looking, and were the reason that I had one of the best days I can remember having on the snow.

Towards the end of another great day at Baker, my brother saw me from the chair lift as I took a couple of turns down chair 7 face and flew off the cat track at the bottom. When he saw me later at White Salmon Lodge, he said, "Hey, you look like one of those guys."

The experience is like spreading soft butter on a slice of cantaloupe. It took two runs to get used to the different turning style, then my eyes were opened.

Catching air with these skis is as simple as clearing your throat. They are super agile and have an amazing pop to them, no matter if the drop is big or small. The landings are plush and of course it doesn't hurt to be landing in a week's worth of powder.

One jump I enjoy because of the potential for huge air and pillow soft landings is off a cat track from the White Salmon run, a groomer that will eventually bring you down to the bottom. I hit the lip with the same speed and pop as I would with my Atomics and then watched the snow below me recede into the distance.

When I finally touched down I had gotten more than twice the air time than I ever did with my Atomics, and skiing out of a super fast landing in heavy crud was a breeze.

In addition to more air time with these skis, the level of control and stability in any kind of snow - crud, powder heavy and light, debris, packed down cruising runs - also surpassed my Atomics by far. I probably won't be doing any sub-sonic cruising runs on the Scratch BC skis, but then again who cares? I've got a pair of Atomic carving boards for that.

Questions arise, universal truths shift, the big questions like, "Why are we on the mountain?" and, "Are we here to have fun or work hard?" get asked.

Don't answer those, at least not out loud.

The next day I tried out a pair of Icelantic Nomads, a beautiful unique pair of boards complete with stunning graphic of a woolly mammoth.

Briefly the Icelantics were heavier and demanded a lot of aggressive attention. They ate up everything on the mountain but at only 155 pounds, I had to expend a lot of energy pointing them in the right direction. Once they got going I had to stay on top of them or they'd take me for a ride, but on the flip side, I was going faster than snowboarders on terrain that skiers are usually left behind on.

The Nomads will ski anything you want to hit on the mountain, and being able to carve deep, wide, sweeping turns in any conditions is always a plus. I think if you're a heavier skier these boards would be like heaven, but for me the extra work involved took away from the fun factor a little bit.

On super deep and heavy powder days, these might be a great pair of second boards, but I couldn't see myself using them on a daily basis.

So what's the bottom line? I think skis have jumped into another realm and if you're still using three inch wide sticks and saying things like, "Oh, I've been using these for years, I don't need new skis... hey, can you wait up a minute, I need to rest!" then you are definitely missing out.

Two runs on the Scratch BC boards and I was converted, night and day, fun without the effort, like going from a skinny tires to big old fat tires and wondering why I didn't do it sooner.

The last week and a half at Mt. Baker Ski Area has been one day after another of sun, powder, and good times.

The other day my brother and I walked over the hill from chair 5 and dropped into the canyon from the saddle a number of times. When you're making your way there, the view of Mt. Baker, Table Mountain, and Mt. Herman are amazing.

Even though the temperature stayed in the teens, being in the sun and having some serious cruising fun this time of year is a nice break from blizzards, for a few days at least.

The snow fell for Sunday and we were up there before lifts opened and had second chair for Gables. Heavy and consistent, the powder could not have been better. Light powder is nice, but a good medium heavy powder is best for soft landings and tree skiing. Easy to keep the speed reasonable and forgiving when things go wrong.

Now, today... 25 or so degrees and a foot of new when they opened chair 5 this morning at 9 AM, and it dumped throughout the day. The visibility was so low out in the open that they decided to keep chair 6 closed all day long, but no problem, the mountain was empty today. Fresh tracks all day long.

It's snowing up there now and will probably get another foot before tomorrow morning. They are working on the Legendary Banked Slalom course, or rather, they are letting people ride the gully and watch as the course sort of works itself out. The race is the weekend of February 9th. I wonder if it will stop snowing before then? I'm getting reminded of the 1998 record breaking season.

I wanted to try some "rockers", reversed camber skis, tomorrow, but that will have to wait. The Glacier Ski Shop doesn't have any and I wasn't able to show up at 3:30 to rent a pair of Blizzards that I've had my eyes on. Maybe for Thursday, if the snow is good.

Dalbello boot update:

I've really been enjoying my Dalbello Krypton Pro boots. Very lively, responsive, comfortable and warm. Light weight, too, it's as easy to hike out back as it is walking over the hill to chair 5. I cooked the liners again, wanted to make some adjustments, but the left ankle has a pressure point. We'll see if I can work that out without cooking the liners yet again.

Well, I cheated death of skiing, in that I am not in/on a brace/crutches and can walk and work-out with no pain. The doctor did not rush me into an operating room.

So how can this be? The Doc said:

1. Being in shape. I have always done weight exercises for legs and upper body, year around. Always done aerobic exercises, and not for skiing, just out of habit.

2. Ski bindings adjusted for slight pre-release - a compromise on a guy who skis like a 20 year old freestyler IN A MUCH OLDER BODY.

3. Not skiing down the hill after the accident, which is apparently incredibly common and stupid.

4. Lucky (Duh!)

The Doc said that I popped a little piece of bone off the outside, lateral knee attached to ligament, and that takes 6-8 weeks to heal. That is easily seen in a regular X-Ray. Even if you are not a doctor and saw the X-ray, you would point it out. The MRI showed an ACL, part of which was fuzzy, i.e. torn, which you need an expert to show you on the digital X-Ray photos on a huge flat screen monitor in EACH exam room.

The manual knee stability test the doctor does is by pulling and pushing the leg around. The Doc found that when pulling my right lower, 90 degree bent leg away from the knee, he could feel 1-2 mm (0.1-0.2 in) of slop. A typical ACL injury will have up to 10 mm of slop.

He said the fact I could straighten my leg completely and use weights to extend my leg on a Nautilus was unusual. Most ACL injured can't straighten their leg for weeks.

He does not want me to carry heavy weight (did you know heavy people wreck their knees daily because of their high weight?), or create artificial weight by riding a regular or stationary spinning style bike, the latter being how I stay in aerobic shape.

So to rehab, I am walking a treadmill daily (aerobics is hard to come by), doing full body weight exercises every other day. Pulling leg backwards to get heel to touch butt for 15 minutes a day (this is what hurts). Ice knee for 20 minutes before. Ice after. No heat.

Full recovery is 3 months and doc wants me to call after skiing to tell him if I notice roto instability, which is ski left, right knee goes straight or right. I will make sure I ski such that this WILL NOT HAPPEN.

I will definitely slow down from now on. Just turned 59 years old and Doc said he knows two orthopedic docs in Seattle who tore their ACLs over 50 and did not have surgery to repair because of age. Don't know exactly why, but it sent a message.

I'll blog in March after skiing. Ski safe.

The last few days at Mt. Baker have been endless powder. It's starting to feel like that record breaking 1998 season. However three solid days of eating up the mountain have taken their toll on my legs, so I'm taking it easy today and trying to get some real work done.

It's been so good up here that I haven't been able to drag myself away from the mountain until the lifts close. Normally I'd only ski about three hours, but when all that fresh white stuff is flying into your face while you drop into some of the best powder tree skiing there is, it's hard to stop.

Yesterday, or it could have been the day before (it's all a blur with this kind of snow), my brother and I saw someone named Adam getting ready to pull off a back flip off a crazy huge outcropping on a very steep powder slope right next to the White Salmon tow rope.

My brother and I were skating down a traverse that connects White Salmon with chair 8 and we both stopped and looked down the slope to our right. Steep and deep and full of trees, pure heaven, but going down there requires a fairly serious commitment.

The thing is, if you go down that way, you're in trouble or in for a huge amount of work trying to climb back up through steep endless powder (bring snow shoes maybe?) If you ski down this, you eventually get to the bottom of the valley and then have to follow it for miles before you run into a raging winter Nooksak River straight from the glaciers. If you're lucky and haven't died already, you'll have plenty of chances dealing with angry currents, slippery moss covered rocks and cliffs, and impossible underbrush and tree wells.

Basically you're asking for trouble.

Sometimes people new to the Mt. Baker back country wind up going that way thinking they'll hit the road again. Bad choice.

So my brother and I are watching this guy, Adam, get ready for his jump. He asks the camera guy if he's ready, then takes a deep breath and yells, "3.. 2... 1..." and boom. He starts around twenty feet above the outcrop, hits it, and gets so much air during the back flip he pulls that you could count to three before he hit the snow where he disappeared in a splash of powder.

Of course my brother and I wanted to try it too, but we chickened out mostly because of the obvious frustration that would ensue as we tried to climb back up the slope to the traverse.

Now earlier in the day I saw a car with Ski Journal, Frequency, and other stickers on it, and though I didn't know if it was an official car of some kind or not, I slipped a couple of my east5t42.com stickers in the window. If you like stickers, there's nothing better than getting some more!

Later as my brother and I were getting ready to hit the road, the guy with the Ski Journal car showed up and we all chit chatted for a bit. Turns out it was Grant Gunderson, a legend in the ski photo business. He was the photographer for the sick jump we saw earlier.

If you're not familiar with Grant's work, all you need to do is look in Powder magazine photo spectaculars to see a lot of his work. Ski Journal is also a great ski magazine that carries some of his photos, and the photos speak for themselves

So my brother and I are both taking a break today and I'm sure his legs are thanking him for it just as my legs are. I've had 15 days on the mountain so far this season and my legs are just about in prime winter shape. I can tell because I can't fit into my summer jeans. I always look forward to pulling out the larger winter jeans- it means I've been skiing, a lot!

Baker Report

Anyone going up to Baker tomorrow? It should be epic, anywhere from 12 to 24 inches of powder is expected. According to the Northwest Avalanche Center, Baker is at this time getting around an inch an hour of snow. I don't think it's going to stop!

There haven't been any lift lines for the last few days except right before lifts start running, and the only real lines at that time are over on Chair 5 and 6 for the serious locals who like to get warmed up by taking the short walk up and over at 8:15 or so. Even though lifts don't open until 9, if you're going to steam up your goggles by hiking over the hill, you might as well be on the first or second chair. There's nothing like cutting first tracks on Gobbles (Gables), Sticky Wicket, Chicken Ridge, Gun Tower, or any of those other sick runs.

The only real problem is this: powder is hazardous to your health. It might even be carcinogenic. Especially at Baker.

Really.

Don't ski in it.

You could, you know, hurt your knee or something, or crash and lose a ski for hours, or even suffocate as powder flies up into your face on every turn. Just leave that untracked white stuff alone. Eventually it will get tracked out by ski nuts such as myself and THEN it's safe. Remember, fresh tracks equal broken backs (just made that up, but it sounds good).

As the old saying goes, be aware, ski with air...

My break here at home has been good to me. So good in fact I have neglected my duties on this blog. A thousand pardons.

I made it up to Alpental on my birthday and found it to be a good day. There was about 8 inches of the fluffy stuff and I took full advantage of it. However, I soon found out why, if one is out of shape and skiing early season pow, you can pay for it.

After riding the Edelweiss Chair, my dad and I took a high traverse to some untouched stuff. About 3 turns in, my skis got crossed up under the snow and I took a nice spill. Unfortunately, the fall wrenched my knee. Eventually, I made my way down to the bottom of the hill and retired for lunch. I took some Advil to try and reduce the pain, but after one run on the Armstrong Express, I realized my knee was telling me "No dice".

Following dinner and dessert at my grandma's house, I fell asleep quickly at home. The next morning, my knee was making me pay.

Needless to say, I decided to ski New Years Day, 1/3 and 1/4. Advil was my friend every day I went up to the hill.

Why am I tell you all this?

It because I will never go into a ski season again out of shape. Part of the reason I fell was because I wasn't in the correct shape to be making good, solid, fundamental turns in powder and my knee paid for it. After each day, my quads and calfs feel like they could fall off my legs and I'm tired enough to fall asleep during the evening news. I am woefully out of shape and regret it greatly.

Either way, I'll be taking a trip to Schweitzer or Silver Mt. on a weekend when the Cougars aren't playing at home. Hopefully we'll be heading to Sandpoint, I understand it is quite the up and coming resort.

Go Hawks and Cougars!