Even though the weather this year is odd, it has been a decent ski season. The picture on the left is of Mt Shukson taken today--the rocky arm off Mt Baker. The Mt Baker ski area is actually on Shukson Arm.

 

As you can see, today was a blue-sky day. It was actually hot outside of the lodge. And when I left the ski area to return home today, the air temperature got colder as I descended the mountain--and then it got warmer as I approached Bellingham--a temperature inversion on the mountain. I think it was 60 degrees in Bellingham and at the foot of the ski area.

 

 Conditions today were hard packed, machine groomed. Some ice, but generally decent. I rode up the chair with a ski patrol who thought the conditions we were experiencing at Mt Baker were the same as the skiers in the Olympics are experiencing at Whistler. If you've watched, the skiers were describing their runs as fast and hard. That was the condition at Mt Baker as well.

 

The ski patrol also commented that many skiers today were in Olympic skier pretend mode--"let's pretend that I am skiing in the Olympics". No serious injuries, but some people going very fast. (I have to confess that I was trying much harder to put in good quick turns today--just like the German skier who won gold).

 

The picture on the left is a snow board track. Looks like he/she became aerial for perhaps 20 ft.