North Cascades Winter

With this photo we bid farewell to snowshoeing in the Mount Baker area, at least for now, that is, until I get up there again. I'm going to post some orchids and then some photos from a summer hike in the same area. Commenting will be delayed, however until this evening. This is Table Mountain, one of the peaks that dominates the Mount Baker ski area and the area that is popular with snowshoers and cross-country skiers. The area below the peak, shown in this photo, is sometimes skied but is quite dangerous on account of avalanches.

This is another photo from my snowshoeing trek up to Artist's Point last Saturday. Table Mountain is a long, flat peak that lies at the end of ridge which connects with Mount Baker. It looms over Bagley Lakes and Artist's Point. Son Edward and I are hoping to go back up to Artist's Point this coming Saturday and climb Table Mountain as well. In the photo, the slope in the foreground is the slope I was on but is not as difficult as it appears.

This was taken looking back down the "trail" on one of my recent snowshoeing excursions to Artist's Point. I took a number of shots of the patterns made by skis and snowshoes in the snow and this was one of the better results.

This was taken January of 2014 on one of our many snowshoeing excursions. On this occasion I went alone since everyone else was busy. The day was sunny and since we had not had snow for a little while there were a lot of ski and snowshoe tracks and little powder. The road to Artist's Point, visible in the center of the photo, is not open in the winter and in this case is covered by eight to ten feet of snow, enough to completely bury the toilets at the parking area on top. It is one route to Artist's Point. I did not follow the road but went up the hill at the right of the picture.

This was taken from Artist's Point looking down into the valley between Artist's Point and Mount Baker, a rather inaccessible area. Mount Baker is south of Artist's Point and the highest peak in the North Cascades. Artist's Point is nearly 1600 meters and Mount Baker is nearly 3300 meters.

We were at the top of the ridge (Artist's Point is on a ridge) looking down when this was taken. The people in the photo are following the main snowshoe and ski route to the top which is also in summer the road to Artist's Point. We did not come that way but followed the tracks at the upper left side of the photo past the lone tree.

This is another photo from one of our 2014 snowshoeing excursions up to Artist's Point. The view is over the valley up which we had come and over the valley northward to the peaks near the Canadian border (the names of the peaks can be found in the notes).

This was taken at Artist's Point just before the sun came up from behind the mountains. This is somewhere just to east of the parking lot and bathrooms at the viewpoint but they are buried under 20-30 feet of snow.

Taken at Artist's Point as I wandered up from the area of the viewpoint, not buried under 20-30 feet of snow. This was a recent snowshoeing excursion that I did on my own.