December has been an odd month for the Cascades with insignificant snowfall and unusual sunny skies. Jeff, our friend Collin, and I decided we would take advantage of the clarity and explore the mountains around Baring, Washington. We originally had plans to summit Merchant Peak but low snow cover made the drainage we were traveling through unsafe. After some interesting skinning, a few face plants, and plenty of laughter we hunkered down for lunch and enjoyed the view of Mount Baring.

“Jeff and Colin route finding” Photo: Kristin Campbell

The Cascades offer a unique experience for mountain enthusiasts. Generally the mountains are hard to access, especially in the winter, involving a lot of route finding. Although today was more skinning, booting, and scrambling than actual skiing we enjoyed the adventure. Jeff’s phone call to Collin sums it up pretty well:

“It could be potentially amazing… or an epic failure.” 

“Baring Mountain, Washington” Photo: Kristin Campbell

Early season for Jeff and I is all about the numbers, trying to log as much vertical hiking as possible to prepare for our larger objectives. This weekend there was a window of sunny skies on Saturday for about 6 hours of the day so we headed to Mt Rainier to do a little recon hiking in an area called Paradise. The recent rain event, wind and sun exposure made for some interesting skiing but the views of Mt Saint Helens, Mt Adams and even Mt Hood were amazing. 

This past weekend Jeff and I took an Avalanche Refresher course with the American Alpine Institute at Mt Baker, WA. We reviewed snow science, terrain management and rescue scenarios. There is a wealth of knowledge about avalanche safety in books and online but no written information can replace clinics and personal instruction. 

Our go to resource for weather and current avalanche conditions is the Northwest Avalanche Center. This site gives us a baseline to begin to make decisions about our tour. For more info click the link below. 

Northwest Avalanche Center

Nothing beats training with good friends. 

Yogi Dog helping us out with some Beacon Drills. 

The next day we went on a short tour near Mt Baker Ski area. We skied the Gratto (seen in the above photo). The snow was good with about 4 inches of recrystalized powder on top of last weeks rain crust. It felt good to stretch our legs and get out in the SUN! 

Lunch from the Gratto offered a great view of Mount Shuksan. 

Now its back to some inbounds skiing and praying for snow :)

-Kristin

Jeff got the cover of POWDER December 2011 issue! This shot was taken by Garrett Grove at the Sorcerer Lodge in the Selkirk Range of British Columbia. 

For information about the shot please visit Photographer, Garrett Grove’s Blogsite:

http://blog.garrettgrove.com/2011/11/december-2011-powder-cover/

Jeff and Garrett have been a very productive team and I am excited to see what content they will produce this year! 

-K