Mount Baker resort gears up for Legendary Banked Slalom race
Eyeing the steep-walled, snow-filled gully into which he's about to throw himself, the 41-year-old Mount Vernon resident smiles and shakes his head at how he's chosen to ring in the New Year.
"I haven't done this (event) for a long time," says a chuckling Swanson, his breath turning into vapory cloud puffs. "Not since the first one, 20 years ago."
We're up high in the northwest corner of the state, where the skyline to the north is dominated by jagged, snow-topped peaks that straddle the U.S.-Canada border just 10 miles away. To the east, the morning sun has finally risen over Mount Shuksan's chipped, craggy shoulder and five inches of new snow fairly glitters around Swanson and some of the 150 or so others vying for one of those 25 spots and waiting their turn in the starting gate.
In January 1985, Swanson finished seventh out of the 14 riders who took part in Baker's first Legendary Banked Slalom race. Back then it was little more than a curiosity, a sideshow for those oddballs making their way down the ski slopes duct-taped to what looked like mini-surfboards.
"They held that first race on Super Bowl Sunday because they figured the mountain would be dead and we wouldn't get in anybody's way," Swanson says. "There were maybe 20 people watching us, if that."
These days, the race is a major event in snowboarding, and Mount Baker is canonized for having been among the first ski areas anywhere to welcome boarders rather than ban them (as many resorts did at the sport's genesis). Banked Slalom weekend — Feb. 6-8 this year — is Baker's biggest bash, a three-day annual affair featuring rock and hip-hop concerts, a salmon barbecue and a bonfire so big they say it's visible from outer space. Industry bigwigs come from all over to schmooze and showcase their latest and greatest gear. And race directors have to turn away hundreds of applicants for a race that at one time or another has featured every big name in the sport (to wit: Terje Haakonsen, Karleen Jeffery, Craig Kelly, Tom Sims, Victoria Jealouse, Barrett Christy and Ross Rebagliati, snowboarding's first Olympic gold-medal winner).
As for snowboarding, the phrase "Olympic gold-medal winner" attests to the sport's meteoric rise and acceptance into the mainstream. Much of that can be traced right here to the Mount Baker Ski Area, where snowboarders started sliding the slopes in the early 1980s.
Happy anniversary
The Banked Slalom's anniversary isn't the only milestone being celebrated this year at Mount Baker; the ski area itself is now eligible to join AARP. That's right: The little day ski area at the end of the Mount Baker Highway known for its world-record snowfall, its steep terrain with natural half-pipes that look like waves frozen in snow, and for being the fountainhead of slacker snowboarder cool, turns 50 this season.
Though the anniversary celebrates the Mount Baker Recreation Company's installation of the first chairlift in 1954, skiers have been sliding down the nearby slopes since the late 1920s. That's when the road to present-day Heather Meadows Area, where the ski area is situated, was first completed, thus giving skiers high-country access.
Back then, the road led to the posh Mount Baker Lodge, a spectacular 100-room hotel in which each room had not only hot- and cold-running water, but a telephone, which, today, more than 70 years later, is more than can be said of the ski area. Phone lines end at the tiny town of Glacier, about 20 miles down the hill, so there's no phone service at the Mount Baker Ski Area. Unfortunately, in 1931, the original lodge (which boasted a miniature golf course, among other things) burned to the ground just four years after it was built.
But the road to Heather Meadows and the high country was still intact and the number of burly souls willing to hike and ski the unplowed road, then side-step the hills with their skis to pack down the powder, increased. In 1934, Clark Gable and Hollywood gave skiing at Mount Baker a shot in the arm when "The Call of the Wild," the Jack London classic set in Alaska, was filmed at Heather Meadows.
In 1952, Bellingham businessmen formed the Mount Baker Recreation Co. and a year later started construction on the first chairlift up Panorama Dome, where Chair 1 is today. It opened in May 1954, better late in the season than never. The next chairs wouldn't follow until the mid- and late-'60s, and even today, the Mount Baker Ski Area has just eight chairs, none of them of the high-speed variety.
That the ski area is in a somewhat remote location — at the end of a winding 56-mile road heading east from Bellingham — and has no on-hill accommodations would seem to prevent it from ever becoming a major destination area. However, ski-area management focuses less on frills and more on the area's sublime setting at the foot of Mount Shuksan. There's no advertising on ski towers or trail maps. No video games. No televisions or neon signs. And, if it weren't for the power they're forced to generate themselves, no electricity.
"We made the decision to market the ski area as a true wilderness mountain," says Gwyn Howat, the area's marketing director. "We don't want to be a McSki area. People come to Baker because they want the wilderness experience, not just some city that's in the mountains."
It's a decision that's paid off. Mount Baker might rank fourth in Washington state in number of skier visits, but it's ninth in the world when it comes to ski areas written about or photographed for ski and snowboard publications. And of course, its 1998-99 world-record snowfall of 1,140 inches — 95 feet — only boosted its already legendary status as snowboarding's mecca.
Way back when
Almost 25 years ago, Swanson and fellow Mount Vernon resident Jeff Fulton ordered a couple of these things called snowboards that they'd seen in a catalog from some company in Vermont. Then they headed up to the Mount Baker Ski Area to see if they'd be allowed to ride them.
"We went to Duncan (Duncan Howat, the area's general manager) and he said, 'I'll let you do it, but I don't want to hear any bad reports about you guys,' " Swanson recalls.
Swanson and Fulton kept their noses clean and soon other snowboarders were joining them — especially since other ski areas wouldn't allow snowboards on their hills. Duncan Howat, Gwyn's father, took up the sport himself and so did his other daughter, Amy, who would eventually win the Banked Slalom in 1987 and go on to be a world champion in moguls and slalom.
A loose-knit group of Whatcom and Skagit County boarders began referring to themselves as the Mount Baker Hard Core, MBHC for short. They rode daily, regardless of the weather, putting in more than 100 days on the slopes each winter. Along with Swanson and Fulton they included riders such as Carter Turk, Kelly Jo Legaz, Dan Donnelly, Marcella Dobis and the late Craig Kelly, generally regarded as snowboarding's first superstar. (Kelly died a year ago in an avalanche near Revelstoke, B.C.)
A pioneer paces himself
Though Swanson's time of 1 minute 38 seconds in the New Year's Day Locals Qualifier won't qualify him for the Banked Slalom, coming up in three weeks, he's pleased with his ride.
"I maybe went at it a little too conservatively, but that's all right; I'm going to be in the Retro division anyway," he says.
Along with all previous winners in all divisions being invited back for the 20th Legendary Banked Slalom, this year's race will feature a Retro division in which participants must ride boards and wear gear that's circa 1989 or earlier. That's considered the turning point, when boot and binding technology finally caught up and was able to accommodate the rigors that snowboarders put it through.
"Prior to '89 you needed some degree of duct tape," Gwyn Howat says.
Though he was one of snowboarding's pioneers, Swanson wasn't much for racing. He never could handle the pre-race anxiety, which explains why he raced the inaugural Banked Slalom only. These days, Swanson rides about six or seven times each year, usually at Mount Baker, though not with the abandon that he and his hard-core mates once did.
"You know how it is: the older you get, the fewer risks you take. Heck, I'm a grandpa now."
Mike McQuaide is a Bellingham free-lance writer and author of "Day Hikes! North Cascades" (Sasquatch Books).
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