Jan 2, 2016, - Bagley Lakes Vicinity

Friends both old and new had rented a cabin in Glacier for the long, New Year's weekend and invited me along. Traded the icebox in the passes and down south for the warmth of a temperature inversion in an area shut-off from the cold, easterly flow. Made quick work of the cat-and-skin-track to Artist Point in nothing but a t-shirt on Sat. AM, enjoyed the easy bootpack to the top of Table that had been kicked solid by the snowshoeing hoards (easily a 5:1 snowshoer:skier ratio), dropped into Little AK and enjoyed cold, consolidated powder turns all the way to the bottom. Followed a well-established and well-laid skintrack to Herman Saddle and took in the view of Baker in the afternoon light before traversing southward beneath the western arm of Table and dropping into an untracked line between groups of trees which offered excellent, protected turns and elicited several "whoops" from the group.

Quickly skinned out to Grandma's House and was back to the car in time to enjoy some light apres with others while soaking up a beautiful sunset. Hit the road in time to catch the pink alpenglow on Shuksan before catching the tail-end of the ski area traffic on the highway below.