It was a beautiful day with plenty of snow. The entire ski area (which is currently closed) is now available for snowshoeing and appears to still be very skiable as well. This route will probably be snow covered for at least another month. Like virtually everyone else I started at about 10am.
There is a network of trails and roads at the lower end of this route. The road the snowshoe guidebook talks about actually runs through the downhill ski area and when the ski area is open one would have to use the snow mobile tracks on the edge of the ski area to approach the ridge. I should also note that the Mount Baker Highway cannot be followed initially as it is quite literally beneath the ski area and frankly is not worth following as there are more obvious and direct routes to get to Austin Pass.
Austin Pass is really just the top of the ridge where there is a large dip in the ridge. Currently the best approach to the pass is directly up one of the downhill ski runs after following the road for a short while. Aim for the dip and when you get close to the top of the ridge you will see an “out of bounds” sign and will see a trail that splits off of the ski run to the right. This is the trail to Artist Point. The trail continues to climb very steeply but is now on top of the ridge. In the morning when the snow is more solid you could almost shoe in a straight line on top of the ridge to Artist Point.
Because I started backsliding in the mushy snow on the steep slopes after the pass, I chose to follow the easier grade of the winding highway which becomes more obvious on top of the ridge the closer you get to Artist Point. The trail is uphill the entire way to Artist Point and one cannot see Mount Baker until you have topped out at the point itself. The entire area is really a complex of ridges and knobs that might be confusing to some and there are a few different possible routes.
Huntoon Point is visible from Artist Point and I watched someone easily snowshoe there while I ate lunch and took lots of pictures. The area is beautiful to put it mildly and the 360 view is well worth the trip. The entire trip to Artist Point was probably only 4 miles total. Most of the other snowshoers never left the ski area and I had the point all to myself.
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