Every year, I aim to make a trip down to Mt. Baker right before Christmas. For those of you that have never been, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Baker is one of Washington State’s most legendary mountains. The inbounds ski area is HUGE, with so many lifts, that there are never lift lines longer than 2 minutes. On any given day, you’re always bound to find a playground of powder somewhere on the mountain. If the inbounds terrain bores you, which it shouldn’t, you can always hike into the backcountry, given that you have a beacon, a shovel, are avalanche safety certified and a bunch of other things.

We left Vancouver bright and early, at 5:30 in the morning. Usually too early to be alive, I came up with the genius idea that instead of sleeping and struggling to wake up, I’d just stay awake till 5 in the morning. Needless to say, the drive there was a challenge (the drive home had it’s own pleasant situation. Ask me about it if you see me on the mountain, it’s a great story). In any case, we got to Baker at 9 am, after making a quick pit stop in Bellingham for a hearty breakfast at McDonald’s, where a super size meal actually means a super size meal. My buddy Charlie and I met up with Duke and Jordan, a couple Washington locals and hit up the mountain. There were freshies on the ground and not a cloud in the sky. It made for a perfect day of riding and was a nice break from the local skating rinks we’ve been riding. My words won’t do it justice, so here are a couple pictures that sum everything up.

I was riding a 150 Rome ArtifactSK 1985 the entire day.  For those of you that haven’t tried reverse camber in powder yet, it’ll change your life. I’ve never had such a fun pow day in my life.  That being said, if you getting into the deeper stuff, you probably don’t want a super soft jib board with reverse, but seriously, reverse camber is the beeeest. All in all, a great day with good friends and new friends.  Get up there if you can, they still have midweek discount lift tickets, so try to get there between Monday and Friday.

Lastly, from all of us at Grouse Mountain Terrain Parks and Grousepark.com, we’d like to wish you and your families a super duper Merry Christmas.  Hope you all had a good one!

Sam