Ellie & Dylan: Celebrating 5 Years of Adventure on Skis

What's the best way to celebrate 5 adventurous years of marriage? By backcountry skiing, of course.

That was Ellie and Dylan’s plan to celebrate their anniversary and look forward to many more years together of skiing, climbing, road tripping, and cat parenting. So, we headed up to the Mt. Baker Ski Area on a warm May evening earlier this spring and began skinning up towards Panorama Dome.

The mountains were bathed in golden light just as we got there, and Ellie and Dylan quickly changed into the same clothes they had worn on their wedding day: Ellie in her mother's wedding dress and Dylan in his father's suit.

They posed for a handful of shots together, then ripped skins and got ready to ski just as the sky turned from blue to orange. Ellie and Dylan carved down the slope, the North Cascades spread out in front of them, leaving intertwined S-curves in their wake.

As they booted back up, we turned to see Shuksan colored a bright shade of pink - and took advantage of the opportunity.

By this time, the sun had dropped behind the mountains, but there was still time for one more ski. So, Ellie and Dylan clicked back into their skis and dropped onto another slope, this time with Mt. Baker right in front of them.

We finished the descent as the light faded and got back to the car, where beers were waiting to toast Ellie and Dylan to another 5 years of adventure together.