Early season at Mt. Baker, WA, can be magic. On a good year, like 2017-18 and its 844 inches of snowfall, the terrain changes rapidly as each passing storm stacks into pillows and fills in billy-goat lines. Short days and a low-hanging sun preserve the crystalline blanket as it deepens by the day. And this year, Alex Lopez learned all about early season at Mt. Baker from one of the more knowledgeable Washingtonians around: Temple Cummins.

Alex, who’s from Bend, OR, usually spends the bulk of his season at home, with a few trips to chase powder in places like Japan and interior British Columbia. But in December 2017, he joined Temple in northwest Washington state. Those early days of winter had him hooked—he remained in Washington for much of the year, bouncing between Baker and Temple’s Olympic Peninsula home below Hurricane Ridge. It was a loose mentorship, with Temple schooling Alex on the intricacies of Baker and beyond with a follow-my-track curriculum…

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ABOVE Temple Cummins (left), Alex Lopez (right) and Wes Makepeace (out of frame) ride Mt. Baker Ski Area, WA’s Chair 5. The smiles on their faces say all you need to know about this January morning: It was deep and getting deeper by the minute as snow fell at a rate of an inch per hour.