'Labor of love' motivates scrappy nordic ski club in North Cascades

SALMON RIDGE SNO-PARK, Whatcom County, Wash. — On any given winter day, hundreds of cars carrying their fattest powder skis and snowboards head up Highway 542. En route to the legendary deep powder at Mt. Baker Ski Area, they typically zoom past an evergreen-lined clearing 5 miles before their destination. Those who do pull over will find another ski scene, albeit one with much skinnier equipment.

Salmon Ridge Sno-Park is the main trailhead to access some 14 miles of forest roads maintained by the Nooksack Nordic Ski Club for groomed skiing, plus many more miles of ungroomed backcountry trails. Founded in 1992 by a group of Whatcom County cross-country enthusiasts, the volunteer club has cultivated a small but mighty nordic community in an unforgiving setting that receives snow and rain in seemingly equal measure.

Keeping this scrappy operation going, said former club president Gail Garman, "is a labor of love."

The climate of the western slope of the North Cascades certainly tests that love. This close to sea level, the outcome of ferocious winter storms rolling in off the Pacific is extremely elevation-sensitive. Glacier, the nearest town nestled in the Nooksack River valley, gets some 65 inches of precipitation per year. Much of that liquid gold manifests as snow at Mt. Baker Ski Area (starting elevation 3,500 feet) — but whether it translates to the fluffy white stuff or drenching rain at Salmon Ridge (elevation 2,000 feet) is touch and go.

By comparison, the popular nordic trails at the Cabin Creek Sno-Park operated by the Kongsberger Ski Club start at 2,462 feet, but also benefit from their location east of the Cascade crest, where they capture more cold air from Eastern Washington.

Variable snow is just one challenge facing the intrepid nordic skiers of Whatcom County. A network of creeks flushing the...