Love reading the bad reviews! lol. Which means, good news for me who like going there especially on mid week. They have this Wicked Wednesdays (I shdn't tell you!) where prices are a bit lower. I live in Seattle and can plan for better weather. Don't care about apres, food, I come here to snowboard and hike in the summer. Lucky to be living in the NW where we have 3-4 choices of resorts to go to. Baker is a hidden gem, like your resort in the 70s, no hotels and restaurants, just a resort in the wilderness. You come here to enjoy the outdoors without the urban buzz. Here's hoping they don't get snatched by big corporations out there.
I have ridden almost all of the major resorts in the PNW. Baker is not for everyone. If you are the type that likes to go to ski resorts for everything but the riding, go spend your money at Whistler or Revelstoke. If you are a serious, and capable skier or snowboarder, Mt. Baker is the Mecca of powder and big terrain. Don't listen to the clueless wannabe's in the comments. Most negative reviews are glitzy daddy's money types looking for expensive bars, fancy hotels etc. Mt Baker has amazing staff, great facilities, and the lions share of the best terrain in the world. Not to mention, Baker also holds the world record for the most snowfall in a skiing season. There is a reason Baker is featured in many Burton, and K2 films. It is a hidden gem, and frankly, I hope it stays that way.
Baker is... Baker. There's nothing like it. That's good, and not so good. But you don't come here for the glitzy, corporate, mani-pedi, $20 apres drink, packed like sardines gondola, sleep in your king-sized goose down comforter bed. You come here to shred, without all the B.S. I've skied all over N. America and Europe for 50 years, and for me, Baker is heaven. Sure, Alta has better snow. Sure, Whistler has a cool village. But they also cost you $2,000 for a weekend and you're surrounded by thousands and thousands of people, Not all of whom you really want to mingle with. Yeah, I've made the (short) drive only to find rain and sleet. But I've also skied untouched powder out of bounds (legally) with not a soul around. That's winter sports. Mother nature is fickle, so deal with it. Some days you win, some days you lose. But it's always real.
I have skied Baker for about the last 50 years. I'm 71 years old and I do remember back in the day having my ID checked in order to access the bar. Baker is large enough to offer excellent facilities yet small enough to offer good old American hospitality to y'all including us Canadian guests. The property has very good lifts leading to a number of excellent runs. Baker has a good choice of very good dining facilities. Past principal operator Duncan Howett and now his family deserve a huge kudos for bringing a lot of joy to skiers and boarders who come from the Pacific North West, Canada and other parts of the world. Baker is the place you want to be this winter.
I have skied at Baker many times over many seasons in all conditions and I don't understand why I keep coming back. The terrain is mild and boring, there is never any good snow, only warm slush and its always completely tracked out after one run so you only have moguls. There's also a complete lack of groomed runs, its mostly crappy off piste. The employees are all terrible, they are rude and don't want to deal with you, the lifties suck and they hardly do their job. So every time that you get on the chair you are met with a hard whack on the back of your legs. The food is terrible and ridiculously expensive. I don't need to spend my kids college fund for a crappy burger. The only lodging there are rental houses that are super expensive and booked out months in advance and even then the closest are still a hour away from the mountain. There is no food or gas, the two restaurants there are in town are almost always closed and the nearest gas station is over an hour from the mountain. So make sure you don't run out gas. Even the ski patrol on the mountain sucks. I broke my collarbone at the mountain last season and they took over an hour to get to me and as they were transporting me they ended up injuring my collarbone more which put me off the slopes for 3 months. Terrible mountain, it is a terrible experience every single time.
February 11, 2022
Betty Rides
from
USA - California
I wouldn't recommend Mt. Baker. Liftlines are long and runs are short. The visibility is usually horrible and the snow is like concrete. There is no lodging or any kind of apres skiing scene. The locals are rude and don't want you to ride at their ski area. Don't waste your time or money.
Please don't come here. Nah, just kidding! Every time I drive up highway 542 into the upper parking lot, I feel like I'm traveling back in time. Back before everything sucked. My only real gripe about this place is the lack of any sort of park. Otherwise, it's pretty much exactly what I dream about riding. Lots of snow, drops and short hikes. No hotels or stores. If you are planning a visit, I must warn you it may be a very rainy / icy / horrible experience and you might end up regretting the long drive. If you are lucky, it could end up being the greatest session of your life.
The amount of hater-ade that flow from some of these reviews is incredible. This place is probably not for you, haters. This is the Mecca of snowboarding. You don't come to Mt. Baker because of its lodges, its food, its groomers, etc. You come to Mt. Baker because it's legendary. It's one of the last true locally owned mountains in the west. It's no secret that the PNW has wildly variable weather (so stop whining). Baker sits in the convergence zone, so you may get something like 23 inches overnight, or you may get a little bit of rain, but at the end of the year, you've gotten the most snow out of any resort in the lower 48. Facts.
Yeah, there is no cell service and the winding highway can be treacherous in the stormy weather. Don't bring your 2-wheel drive BMW up, you will have trouble. This is a mountain, in the wild. There are no hotels but you can overnight camp in the lot for a small fee, because, again, this is the Mecca, not a resort. You come here if you're a hardcore skier or snowboarder and you want to experience the legend. You want to ride snow deep enough to swallow you whole, near tree wells that'll bury you for good, by cliffs that'll chew you up like a blender dropped from a high rise and you shred it all within the glacier-faced glare of Mt. Shuksan that's quietly towering over you.
Read these reviews, this mountain is probably not for you, snowflake (pun intended!). There are plenty of overly crowded Vail & Ikon corporate mountains in Washington state that'll probably be more your speed.
Horrible/rude staff. They made my 18yr old daughter pay a $250 fine for an expired lift ticket instead of just having her purchase a lift ticket (which she offered to do). And they were very rude about it.