The Ahlers

Bill and I went up Friday night, thinking Saturday might be okay, and Sunday looked like it might be pretty good. It was the 22nd Legendary Banked Slalom, so no matter what, I was looking forward to seeing the spectacle.

Saturday was good, but not in the way I thought it would be. It was *sunny*, of all things. And warm. Too warm in places, and not warm enough in others. Seemed like it was either pretty icy, or way too soft. It was fun seeing parts of the banked slalom -- 22 with a screw, as it were (ask me about it sometime). We found some good new (!) snow from the day before under the top of chair 1, but you can only do Ch-Face so many times...

Sunday was a little colder, and really heavy, wet snow. We rode for about an hour, but since the snow melted right when it hit you, you got as wet as you would if it was outright raining. And it was snowing *hard*. It didn't help the matter that it was raining anywhere below the bottom of chair 1. Plus the fact that the snow seemed to be getting wetter and wetter to the point where I couldn't get up enough speed to get up the mid-way station on chair 1. We skied for an hour but again, you can only do Ch-Face so many times...

The forecast for this week is looking better, but this weekend is now looking worse. Can't buy a break these days, I guess.

Pictures, as always, are here.

I promise this one will be shorter than the last two.

Rob, Vanessa, and I hiked Mt. Herman last Sunday as well. Vanessa was on snowshoes up, but she skied down. Same route up as before, different route down. Tons of fun, got started a little earlier, was even a little warmer on top.

On a picture I took from Chicken Ridge a few weeks ago looking at Mt. Herman, I drew a line roughly where we descended on Sunday. Here's the picture.

It was pretty sweet. Mt. Herman is *so* *big*, there's so much more terrain I'd love to try later.

My pictures from this day are located here.

Labels: Backcountry skiing, Mt. Baker, Skiing