Mount Baker Road Gap: Skier's Backflip Over the Highway Ends in a Faceplant

A skier launches off a snowbank above the Mount Baker Highway, throws a backflip over the road and lands face-first in the snow on the far side. Ben Dann’s clip, uploaded as Mt. Baker Road Gap Faceplant, spread quickly in 2014 because it shows what most ski edits cut out: the landing that goes wrong.

The Mount Baker road gap

The jump happens on the Mount Baker Highway in Whatcom County, Washington. State Route 542 climbs from Bellingham into the North Cascades and ends at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, 52 miles (84 km) and about 75 minutes from town. With deep snowbanks on either side of the plowed road, the highway itself becomes a “gap”: a takeoff on one bank, a stretch of asphalt to clear and a landing on the other.

Gaps like this are a staple of freestyle ski and snowboard films. The appeal is obvious on camera. A road gives the jump instant scale, and everybody watching knows exactly what is below the rider.

What happens in the clip

The skier drops in, hits the bank and commits to a backflip. He clears the asphalt, but the landing goes wrong and he plants face-first in the snow on the far side. The short video stays with the result: no slow-motion replay of a perfect landing, just the crash.

That is exactly why it caught on. Polished edits show the clean landing; this one shows how thin the margin is when a trick is thrown over hard ground.

Mt. Baker Ski Area at a glance

Mt. Baker has a reputation far beyond its size, thanks to one thing: snow.

• Snowfall: an average of 641 inches (16.3 m) a year. In the 1998–99 season it recorded 1,140 inches (29 m), the greatest seasonal snowfall measured anywhere in the world.
• Terrain: about 1,000 skiable acres on 31 trails, with a 1,589 ft (484 m) vertical drop from a 5,089 ft summit.
• Base areas: White Salmon at 3,500 ft and Heather Meadows at 4,300 ft.
• Lifts: eight fixed-grip quad chairs plus beginner tows. Chair 8, the longest, also gives access to the Hemispheres and Shuksan Arm backcountry.
• History: skiing began here in the 1920s, after the highway reached Heather Meadows between 1921 and 1926.

Snowboarders know it best for the Legendary Banked Slalom, raced since 1985 down a natural halfpipe. Professionals and amateurs ride the same course, and winners take home a famous duct-tape trophy.

Road gaps and safety

Leave road gaps to professional film crews with spotters and traffic control, and practise flips on safer features first. Inside the ski area, Mt. Baker’s steep in-bounds terrain and terrain-park jumps offer plenty of air with a soft landing underneath.

For another take on action sports in built-up settings, see Dan Brisse’s urban film setting, or compare a different specialist ski sequence.

Related reading

• Dub Roots: Dubsatch Collective’s Alta Ski Film
• The Dalai Lama’s 1991 Santa Fe Ski-Area Visit: Curiosity on a Chairlift
• Twelve North American Ski Destinations: Terrain and Trip Planning
• This Is Skiing!

Sources