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North Cascades Nirvana: Mount Baker's big terrain draws hard-core riders and sliders
By GREG JOHNSTON 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
You get a real sense of what this place is about in the last several miles of the seemingly endless drive, a narrow, slippery mountain road lined by snow plowed so high you're in a virtual tunnel of white.
It isn't particularly dangerous, just dizzying, torturously twisting and turning.
Finally, it ends.
You get out of your vehicle, stretch and breath deeply in relief and anticipation. You look around at real mountains, big and steep.
Welcome to Mount Baker Ski Area.
Now get your ticket and head for Chair 8, the doorstep to pure North Cascades nirvana.
Then lock in your heels, or strap your snowboard bindings tight. Pull your cap down low, over your ears. Adjust your goggles just right.
From here on, the ride is like the drive, but faster, wilder.
For snowboarders and skiers who like major terrain, the possibilities at Baker are so varied it's scary. Situated on a stunning ridge between two of the most westerly peaks of the Cascade Range -- the 10,750-foot namesake volcano and the 9,720-foot jagged rock called Shuksan -- the area is rife with rolls, bowls, bumps, slot canyons, cliffs and slopes ranging from mellow to mind-blowing.
Add to that an average annual snowfall of 595 inches -- more than any other ski resort in America -- and you've got frequent opportunities for untracked sliding on superior terrain.
After a "big dump" of snow, Baker is where you'll see people do things on the outer edge of possibility. The buzz lately is about legendary snowboarder Mike "Tex" Devenport.
A former cook at Baker who now rides professionally worldwide, Devenport earlier this month launched himself off a cliff just outside the ski area on Shuksan Arm.
The drop was an honest 80 feet -- some say 90 or 100.
And he didn't just jump this cliff, he did a backflip off it.
Then he "stuck" the landing, flawlessly riding out the nearly vertical slope on 18 inches of powder.
"Tex, man, he's incredible," says Dean Collins, coach of Baker's Air Bears Freestyle Club, no stranger himself to capers on cliffs. "To do a backflip off an 80-foot drop, that's in the top 10 or 20 guys in the world, no baloney. Baker breeds some of the best snowboarders in the world."
Incredibly, some say Devenport's daunting drop is not the most daring thing done on Baker's backcountry.
"That's a very, very long drop. That's huge," says Gwyn Howat, marketing director at Baker and daughter of general manager Duncan Howat (whose other daughter, Amy, is a former world-champion snowboarder). "But Teal did one last year ... that was more intense."
That would be Teal Copeland, another famous boarder.
Baker looms large in the snowboarding world. The area appeals to riders not only because of its no-frills, big-mountain ambience, but also because of management's live-and-let-ride attitude.
There are no high-speed quads or cushy six-person chairlifts at Baker. Most of its eight lifts are butt-busting two-seaters with steep off ramps and they all go slowly. There are no condos, no hotels, no swimming pools at Baker. The nearest accommodations are 17 miles down that icy road in the town of Glacier, where Devenport, Copeland and several other world-class snowboarders spend their winters.
If you're into a quick morning run and then riding a bar stool, soaking in hot-tub bubbles or surfing the shopping village, Baker's not your spot.
"People always used to say, 'When are you going to put high-speed quads in, when are you going to get lodging up here?"' says marketing director Howat. "Now we're finding people coming down from Canada because they don't want to drive from the city to another little city."
Baker is so close to the border that half of its tickets are sold to Canadians.
Inbounds at Baker, the runs have not all been bulldozed into wide sliding freeways. Tree runs, chutes, steeps and powder "stashes" abound. The slot canyon known as Razorhone will sharpen your skills.
Baker's vertical rise is a piddling 1,500 feet, but it feels double that.
"Our runs follow the natural contour lines of the mountains, and we've kept the trees and little rollies." Howat says. "For that 1,500 feet, you'll have 10 to 15 changes in terrain."
And just outside the area, snowboarders and skiers carry their planks up the slope above Chair 8, known as Hemispheres, with the more daring going out onto the adjacent Shuksan Arm.
"Where else are you going to get the steeps like that without hiking a long way or taking a helicopter?" says Noah Salasnek, a pro for Sims Snowboards who lives in Tahoe but rides Baker every year. "Even inbounds, you get off the lift and it's right there ... you're banging out air right away.
"I've been everywhere -- Europe, the U.S., all over. Baker is as good as it gets."
Devenport, who rides for Air Walk snowboards and Da Kine equipment and whose actions scream way louder than his few words, agrees.
"It's in the top 10," he says.
In America?
"In the world. Top five in my book. There's a couple other places, Alaska, a place in France. Valdez (Alaska) is the best."
Most resorts wouldn't allow skiers and snowboarders to access such dramatic backcountry. Baker allows it, but has a sign at the top of Chair 8, at the entrance to the boot-packed snow trail to Hemispheres. It warns that all are on their own if they go out of bounds.
Baker was one of the first resorts in America to allow snowboarders (in the early 1980s), and is thus steeped in boarding lore. The exploits of early Baker boarders -- the "Mount Baker Hard Core" -- are legend.
Baker's Legendary Banked Slalom snowboard race is revered by elite snowboaders. It's 14th running is Friday through Sunday, and huge names are expected: Terje Haakonsen, considered the world's best; Jamie Lynn and Matt Goodwill, both Washington-grown pros; Rob Morrow, last year's winner; mega-leaping Devenport; and top women riders such as Victoria Jealouse and Morgan Lafonte.
Long before these wild riders came on the scene, Baker's demanding terrain was growing superb skiers. Otto Lang, now of West Seattle and one of the Austrians who brought the famous Arlberg teaching technique to America, first set up a rope tow at Baker in the 1930s.
Collins and his best friend, Lane Barrett, first became airborne here. Collins did a stint with Ringling Bros. circus doing big-top flips off a huge ramp. Barrett became a Canadian national freestyle champion and Olympics competitor. Recently retired Olympian freestyle skier Bronwin Thomas began as an Air Bear.
"No matter what time of season or what the weather is, there's always something going on up here," Collins says. "There's always terrain you can play on. It's an incredible area for freestyle skiing and snowboarding."
However, the same things that bless Baker can also be curses. The prodigious snow is often as heavy and wet as it is dry and light.
The incomparable North Cascades scenery is usually obscured by clouds.
The terrain is superior, but wicked. Newcomers must keep their wits, use a trail map and stay on runs appropriate to their skill levels -- Baker has excellent intermediate slopes, too.
Remarkably, the area has had just one fatality in 10 years. That was earlier this month when a 17-year-old snowboarder suffocated in deep powder under a clump of trees.
Locals credit the good record to the avalanche control and safety work by specialists Jon and Martha Bengen, who emphasize the buddy system for skiers and riders.
Finally, Baker is so remote it generates its own power. There are no phones, no faxes. It helps keep intact Baker's rough-hewed character and lift lines short.
If they could only do something about the drive.
If you go ...
Mount Baker ski area is 56 miles east of Bellingham, a three-hour drive from Seattle. The nearest lodging is in Glacier, 17 miles from the ski area.
Weekend lift tickets are $29.50 for adults, $22 for youths 7-15 and seniors 60-69, $5 for those 70 and older. Monday-Wednesday rates are $18, $13.50 and $5; Thursday and Friday's are $20, $15 and $5.
For details, call 360-734-6771. Baker's snow line is 360-671-0211, but in the Seattle area you can call the Cascade Ski Report at 206-634-0200. Information about lodging, prices, a trail map and other topics is on Baker's Web site at www.mtbakerskiarea.com
Vital stats: Average annual snowfall, 595 inches. ... Vertical rise, 1,500 feet. ... Total chairs, eight, with two fixed-grip quads. ... Terrain levels are 28 percent expert, 42 percent intermediate and 30 percent beginner.
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