Mount Baker riding area was open and active on 28 June 2008

[Joe]

I was up at Baker lake (Washington) last week and saw some sleds on trailers coming down the mountain about dinner time. I followed the road up the hill and found about two dozen trucks with snowmobile trailers parked along the road. Some guys came down the mountain and I had a chance to talk to them. The south side of Mount Baker is open whenever the snow sensor at Schriebers Meadow reads more than 24 inches of snow. They said it was reading about 39 to 36 inches the last week of June. Melt rate was about 3 inches a day at 80F (like when I was talking to them) and they expected the area to close to snowmobiles just after the Fourth of July.

The website for the snow sensor is at: http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/interactive/h ... 667&y=48.7
It shows that the snow level dropped below 24 inches on 11 July.

I am amazed that they were snowmobiling in late June and early July.

They told me that they had ridden all the way to the top of Mount Baker (10700 feet) and had looked down into the steaming crater at the top. They told me that it was not an area for novice riders since there were so many steep ravines to avoid on the way back down the mountain and the visibility can turn from 100 miles to 100 feet in a matter of minutes.

It sounds like a neat place to go with some other experienced riders.

Is anyone interested in a vintage ride in this area this coming season?