Mount Baker with the Boys
When you live in the Vancouver area, you live within view of Mount Baker. On a clear day, Baker dominates the southeastern skyline… and yet it took me this long to finally visit the mountain up close.
Me and the boys - Amar, Tristan, and Jacob - picked a Sunday a few weeks in advance to make the day trip down to Mount Baker. When the Sunday finally came, it hadn’t snowed in a couple of weeks but it was promising to be a bluebird day.
We left our houses at 6:30am, hit up a McDonald’s for breakfast, crossed the Sumas border, and arrived at Mount Baker right around 9am. The boys had all been to Baker before but it was six years ago, so we quickly studied the trail map and got some advice from a liftie.
We spent the first half of the day riding groomers on the Shuksan side, cruising down blues and with me falling down an accidental black a couple of times. The runs were a bit icy but still carvable, and the bluebird day meant incredible views all around us.
All morning long, views of Mount Shuksan astounded me, sometimes stopping on the crest of a run just to take it in. After lunch, we moved over to the Panorama Dome side of the resort, where the Blueberry Cat Track had incredible views of Mount Baker.
Since I’m preparing for a mountaineering course and summit attempt of Mount Baker in June, the views had an extra impact on me. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that I’m going to try summitting such a large, glaciated mountain.
Mountaineering goals aside, the boys and I voted The Canyon as our favourite run and did three or four laps of it. Around 3:30pm, we reluctantly started heading back to the packing lot as last chairs started to hit.
We headed to the Chair 9 pub for some much needed pizza and beers. Three pizzas and three pitchers between us felt very well earned. Best of all, we headed upstairs and took advantage of the free arcade games, pool table, and air hockey table.
Hopefully we’ll get in a day up at Whistler together this season, but Baker with the boys was one of those days I wish could have gone on forever.
