Hemispheres 1/1/2025

0.25 miles, 400 feet

I’ve been working up to go out of bounds a Baker for a year or so. I didn’t happen last year because I don’t think I was ready by the time the snow was good enough and Ross and I never really talked about it. I think we brought our backpacks and avy gear once, but weather was bad or whatnot. He suggested New Year’s Eve that the weather was going to be good, and the snow was good, so we brought our stuff.

When we got up to the ski area we just started with our backpacks and headed up chair 1 to do some warm up and practice runs. We came up with a plan to do Pan Face from the top and then North face and work our way over to chair 8. True to Ross form he suggested doing a lot more runs in between but I need to stick to my plan! ALWAYS! Otherwise things don’t work in my head. Also, I did see that weather looked like it was moving in over Shuksan Arm, whether I was right or not, I didn’t want to be in a position where I was all ready to go and we couldn’t.

Over at the top of 8 the lady came and checked that our beacons were on, she didn’t check another group, and I immediately got paranoid that she knew I was new and didn’t trust me…. bad brain block. I know there is a way to strap my skis on my pack, but I always just assumed I was going to carry them, I wish I figured it out at home because carrying them sucks. Ross went first and started up the boot back and I went up right behind him, poles in one hand and skis over the should.

OMG, it sucked. The steps were huge and super scary, my poles have really small snow baskets, so they didn’t work great for putting any weight on. My skis were getting in the way of taking steps, I really was scared I was going to roll back down the hill! My heart rate soared because I was scared and probably out of shape, it’s been a while since we’ve hikes and holidays…. I got to a point where the chair was out of sight, and I felt better about stopping and letting some people pass. I think there were four different hills, and I pretty much feared for my lift on each one besides the last one. Next time I will have better poles and figure out how to get my skis on my pack.

By the time we got up to the top the clouds were moving in, I was right! This isn’t a normal peak I would put on here, but it is on Peak bagger, and it still is a summit. The ski down was not very fun either, limited visibility and it was pretty tracked at this point. But, that was it! I did it! And now I know what I need to do for next time!

Oh I think my Instagram post hashtag was #donttellmehowtocarrymyskis