First on the lift, Mt. Baker Ski Patrol clears the way for safety on the slopes
Senior Patrol Advisor Andy Sahlfeld has been working with ski patrol at Mt. Baker Ski Area for 28 years, and he says he’s enjoyed every minute of it.
“I’ve been asked — you know over the years, after all this time — they ask me if I want to do any other sort of management positions in other departments, but I’ve always just wanted to be on patrol,” Sahlfeld said during a recent interview with The Bellingham Herald.
Sahlfeld’s first season was in 1998, when the ski area set the world record for snowfall at 1,140 inches for the season. In comparison, the 2024-25 season had 584 inches of snow.
The ski patrol’s day-to-day operations typically begin at night, when members monitor weather reports and updates from the Northwest Avalanche Center for the following day.
If heavy snowfall is imminent, patrol directors may assemble a team of professional ski patrollers for avalanche mitigation work the next morning.
Usually around 6 a.m., well before the sun comes up, 12-14 ski patrollers typically ride chairlifts to the top of the mountain in full ski gear, their backpacks full of avalanche mitigation equipment, including some explosives.
It’s still dark when they get to the top, and patrollers often use headlamps to see where they are skiing. They divide into teams of two, and each take a ski route on the mountain, using their equipment to reduce the risk of avalanches.
This is sometimes done by “ski cutting,” in which people trigger small avalanche slides with their skis to push all the snow down the mountain before the public arrives.
If more help is needed with the mitigation control, ski patrol will call in “the legends.” Legends are people who have served on patrol at Mt. Baker for a long time and are available when extra patrol staff is required. Sahlfeld said about two to four legends show up for avalanche control on a normal day.
About four of the legends are members of the Bellingham Fire Department, according to Sahlfeld. The Glacier Fire Department also provides a lot of legends, including Chief Josh Evans, who has been a ski patrol legend for several years.
Along with the staff of paid patrol members, the mountain relies on several volunteers as well. Avalanche control is conducted by the paid staff, while volunteers generally assist in preparing the mountain for the public by digging out ropes and signs that may be buried under snow.
That task was tricky for the 2025 opening on Dec. 22. A string of mid-December storms left a lot to do in order to get the mountain ready for customers. Ski patrol needed to get avalanche control done and have everything set up before the mountain opens at 9 a.m.
“It is unusual for us to have to do avalanche control in order to protect ourselves so that we can ski around the mountain and set all the rope lines up,” Sahlfeld said. “Typically, we are doing it to protect the customers, but in this case it was snowing so hard while we were setting up that we had to do avalanche control in order to protect the people working here who were setting the mountain up.”
Friends in need
Sahlfeld recalled an opening day about seven to 10 years ago when there had been heavy snowfall in the early morning, but the skies had cleared by later in the day. Ski patrol got word that someone was stuck on a cliff side and needed help, a relatively common occurrence for ski patrol. A crew was dispatched to rescue the skier.
Then came another call reporting a second person stuck on a cliff near the initial incident.
Sahlfeld said they may see someone who needs to be rescued from a cliffside about every three months, and to see two people in one day had not happened before, to his knowledge, let alone on opening day.
Rescuers didn’t have enough rope to save both people at once, so Sahlfeld had to return to the ski patrol lodge at Heather Meadows and cut some more rope from the spool so they could perform simultaneous rescues.
Sahlfeld said there’s already been one cliff rescue so far this season. A skier was too close to a cliff edge, but was able to stop before going over. However, he was stuck near the edge of the cliff and unable to get himself out safely. He was spotted from a chair lift, and ski patrol conducted a rope rescue to get him out of danger.
“Words of wisdom — people need to remember to respect this place,” Sahlfeld said. “While it is fun and here for everyone’s enjoyment, it’s not entirely without risk. It is important to respect the outdoors and respect the mountain because the second you stop doing that it will come back to bite you.”
He said the most dangerous thing on the mountain is leaving the ski boundary area. Many people ski outside the boundary for any number of reasons, from privacy to better skiing conditions, but it can be extremely dangerous. Sahlfeld said there are days when it is safe, and days — or hours — when it’s not, and learning to tell the difference can be difficult.
Last year, a backcountry snowboarder became lost right before the end of the day. The 37-year-old skier had been separated from their partner, who contacted ski patrol and notified them the man was somewhere in the backcountry of the mountain.
Sahlfeld said it was a tricky situation because ski patrol has a duty to assist paying customers at the ski area, and incidents outside of boundaries are beyond their jurisdiction. However, ski patrol was willing and able to help, and soon began looking for the man.
“We caught sight of a track in the backcountry that seemed like it originated from the area where the point he was last seen was,” Sahlfeld said. “We immediately sent a couple of skiers down there. Now, at this point, the skiers are no longer with the ski area and were issued a search and rescue mission number. We essentially become deputies for (Bellingham Mountain Rescue).”
Rescuers determined the track was heading the wrong direction on the trail. Ski patrol communicated the location of the track with a search-and-rescue helicopter provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine. The helicopter soon located the lost man by following the track, but Sahlfeld said by that point it was too dark to get to him on foot.
Ski patrol put together a supply package for the stranded man and dropped it to him from the helicopter. The package contained tools and supplies he would need to survive the night while stuck in snow in the woods.
The next morning, volunteers from Bellingham Mountain Rescue made their way across the terrain, reaching the snowboarder around 5 p.m. Jan. 2, according to Amy Cloud with the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.
“That happens. I have been involved in probably a dozen or so backcountry rescues over the years,” Sahlfeld said.
Sahlfeld said the best thing people can do is to educate themselves on backcountry travel and avalanche safety. They should also learn more about ski patrol backcountry and rope line policy.
Anyone in need of assistance at Mt. Baker Ski Area can contact ski patrol at their emergency number, 360-300-7070. The number is posted in multiple places around the mountain and on most ski area maps.
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