This could shorten the Whatcom summer hiking season in the mountains
Deep mountain snowpack and a cool, wet spring could shorten the summer hiking season in the mountains by two weeks or more, according to long-range weather forecasts and historical data.
Meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are forecasting below-normal temperatures and above-normal rainfall for March through May in Northwest Washington as this season’s moderate La Niña weather pattern persists.
That means that the snowpack — which is 130% of normal in the Mount Baker wilderness — will take longer to melt, said meteorologist Justin Pullin at the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“It’ll be a little bit delayed for hiking at the higher elevations. Delays of a couple weeks to a month aren’t out of the ordinary,” Pullin told The Bellingham Herald in an interview.
“A lot of the melting will hold off until the latter part of the (spring),” he said.
And more than 560 inches of snow has fallen this year at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, according to its website.
That means that some trails at higher elevations will stay covered in snow later into the season, and it could mean a later opening for the road to Artist Point at the end of the Mount Baker Highway.
“Usually with Artist Point we like to keep it closed until it’s safe to open, said Jordan Longacre, spokesman for the Washington state Department of Transportation.
Because of the new coronavirus pandemic, the road to Artist Point wasn’t plowed in 2020 and the gates remained closed to cars until snow melted on its own in late August.
Further complicating the road’s opening date this summer is a 1930s-era retaining wall near the Austin Pass picnic area that began to crumble late last year, Longacre told The Herald.
“It’s really all going to depend on the situation with the wall,” Longacre said. “We want to make sure it’s secure and stable.”
Recent history and weather records show a connection between La Niña years and the clearing date for the road to Artist Point, which provides access to several popular summer hiking routes.
La Niña, a cooling of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of equatorial South America, often gives the Northwest a cold, wet winter and dumps more snow in the North Cascades.
In La Niña winter seasons, Mount Baker Highway opened in late June or early July, and the Mt. Baker Ski Area also reported generally heavier snowfall.
For the winter of 1998-1999, a strong La Niña season, the ski area recorded a world record snowfall of 1,140 inches — that’s 95 feet of snow, only 6 feet shorter than the Herald Building.
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 11:10 AM.
