Mt. Baker is now closed for the season.
With over 800 inches of snowfall this season, and 260 of that falling in a very memorable month of March, it has been another fun powder year at Baker!
When much of the country suffered for snowfall through much of the year, we can be grateful that the weather turned our way with both a good amount and great quality snowfall received.
We recently sent one of our lift supervisors to a conference back East and in one of the roundtable discussions with other industry people he heard that some of those areas had a grand total of 16 inches of snowfall for the ENTIRE YEAR! We have had that in one afternoon this winter! Actually, on more then one occasion!
With all the snow that fell this winter we certainly had some operational challenges. From the strong efforts put to avalanche control, extended grooming shifts to keep the runs groomed and lifts dug out, long hours of parking lot plowing and steady coordination with the highway department it was a busy year for our crew.
Speaking of grooming, we hope that you liked the new grooming policy we implemented this year where we left some runs, such as Diehls and Boarder, ungroomed when fresh powder of 4 to 8 inches (at 28 degrees or less) fell overnight. This gave you intermediates a chance to test our your powder skis and enjoy some fresh powder runs without having to go over to extremely steep or expert terrain.
We also hope you enjoyed the new Raven Hut Lodge this year . . . we have received many good comments and it is now hard to imagine that area without it!
We appreciate our backcountry users who continue to make the effort to stay tuned to the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center weather and rating info ,and to those 200 plus participants of our Mountain Education Seminars who attend classes each winter and continue to become more and more educated about backcountry travel.
If you have comments about the operation, feel free to give us a call or send us a note with your contact info so we can get a hold of you.
We would like to thank you all . . passholders and lift ticket holders . . for your continued support and enjoyment of Mt. Baker. We hope to hold our lift tickets prices lower then other areas in our region and maintain our reputation as one of the best valued lift tickets in North America. Keeping ticket prices as low as possible is increasingly challenging with the fuel prices as they are and our lifts being run on diesel. Also, the ski area is completely off the grid with no public utilities and fuel prices have a direct effect on this aspect of the operation as well.
We know the economy continues to be challenging for many of you, and we are mindful of this as we set our prices in all aspects of our operation.
Next winter is already being forecasted as a normal winter and since we average about 700 inches we are hoping for yet another good powder year. Although it is certainly a bit early to start predicting next winter, we are hopeful.
Thanks again for a terrific season,
Duncan Howat & The Crew at Mt. Baker