Artist Ridge - Huntoon Point, Artist Point Snowshoe — Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

Mt Baker Ski Lodge Heather Meadows area Upper lodge to Artist Point then to Huntoon Point About 2.5 miles on the gps tracking scale one way. Temp 8-20 degrees Janurary 14, 2005 7:40am - 6:30pm Itenarary 1 hour drive to Bellingham area, took exit 255. Stay on road and it leads you out on Hwy 542 which ends at the Mt Baker Ski Lodge (another hour and 45 minutes). All total one way 2:45. Lv Evt 7:40am 8:45am: Arv Bellingham, take exit 255 and stay on Sunset Drive Breaktime at Bellingham - great muffins At ""The Grace Cafe"" 1065 East Sunset Drive, Bellingham, Wa 98226 360-650-9298 Stay on Sunset Drive which turns into Hwy 542 and ends at the Mt Baker Ski Lodge area. 10:30am: Stopped at the Lower Lodge area due to restroom available during the week (M-F). The upper lodge area does not have restrooms available during the week, only on Sat/Sun. Most of the ski parking is at the lifts on the lower lodge area (Mon-thru Fri). There was one lift working at the upper lodge area that went up to the more experienced ski areas. Picture Lake everlooking Mt Shuskan was great. Arv Upper ski lodge area 10:45am Start hike 11:10am Lunch at Artist Point 12:50pm-1:25pm Arv Huntoon Point 1:40pm at 5280' Started back to van at 2:00pm Arv van 3:15pm and got ready for trip back to Evt Stopped at lower ski lodge for quick restroom break then headed for Bellingham 3:45pm Took about 20 minute break at Bellingham then off to Evt. Arv Evt 6:30pm Hike notes: Crisp clear day. Great views. Temp averaged 15-20 degrees most of the day. At the end of the day as we neared the vparking lot in the shade it was about 8 degrees. Didn't hang around in the shaded area very long!!! I wore synthetic wicking long underwear and shorts, ear band, fingered gloves, insulated winter hiking boots with short 6"" gators, yellow visor biking shades. Used 6"" extensions on MSR Aveo snow shoes. Used the heel kick-step once on a long grade and had a couple hiking poles. With extensions on snow shoes, still sunk up to knees occassionally and had to work a bit. I weight 210 and had about 20 lb backpack counting water. Most of the time the shoes did fine, especially on the hills. Those in the non-msr's with no biting surfaces had to fight the sliding a bit going up hill, but tended not sink at much since they had wider snow shoes. Not very crowded and lots of great views. Warm in the sun at the top as long as you didn't sit in the very slight breeze.