Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Snowshoeing to Artist's Point


On January 2 a group of us, including several Australians, went on snowshoes to Artist's Point from the Mount Baker Ski Area.  Artist's Point, accessible in the summer by car, is inaccessible in winter except by skis or snowshoes.  The car park and toilets there are now buried under 25 feet of snow.  The viewpoint lies on Kulshan Ridge between Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan and offers fabulous views of those peaks and of the peaks to the north including Mount Larabee, Winchester Mountain and the Border Peaks.  The round trip on snowshoes is about 5 miles and we were gone for several hours.  The Australians had never experienced so much snow or temperatures so cold, but they were game and all made it to the top.  There was a stiff wind blowing at the top and it was bitter cold so we did not stay long, but did get plenty of photos.

some of the peaks to the east early in the morning





Mount Larrabee


Table Mountain from the beginning of the trail


getting higher


Table Mountain



Herman Saddle


the ridge above the trail






Table Mountain again


Mount Shuksan



Mount Larrabee and the Border Peaks


Mount Shuksan and Shuksan Arm





the valley between Shuksan and Kulshan Ridge



trees




shadows

snowshoers


snow and more snow







 Table Mountain coming into view again near the top


at the top



Mount Shuksan


Table Mountain


Mount Baker




still at the top






Mount Shuksan again


headed down


the valley between Kulshan Ridge and Shuksan



Kulshan Ridge from below


trees



Mount Shuksan


lone snowshoer


east


snowy branches





Table Mountain



one more view of Table Mountain


more trees


Mount Shuksan from the lower ski lodge

4 comments:

Thelma said...

Quite an adventure Ron. Lot of snow and beautiful photos.

Ron said...

Thanks, Thel. Snowshoeing in the mountains is an amazing experience.

klaraau01 said...

Ok Ron - we are in the middle of heatwave here in Sydney and I am looking at your beautiful pictures of majestic mountains covered by snow and dreaming....

Ron said...

I can well imagine, though we,a t the same time are dreaming of warm weather and green grass and flowers.