April 21, 2007, Artist Point

Lorne and I crossed the border to meet up with several friends from the Peninsula Wilderness Club (Jon,Greg and Brian) at the upper Baker Ski Area parking lot. Their plan was to ski out to Ptarmigan Ridge for an overnighter; our goal was just to get out for some touring and turns while accompanying them to their destination. The sixth member of our party was Lorne's Husky who appreciated the snow as much as we did. It didn't take long to leave the noise of the parking lot (about 20 dogs and even louder owners). The Ski Hill appeared to be almost empty and only a few souls passed us as we climbed; we came across even less people in the back country.

  The forecast called to a weak low pressure system to come in by early afternoon. When Mt.Baker disappeared from view it looked like the weather was going to unfold as decreed. The threesome huddled up and decided that they did not want to risk skiing under Table Mountain in a possible whiteout the next day. So we reversed fields and climbed up to Hongtoung Point on the eastern end of Artist Point Ridge. While my American buddies set up camp, Lorne and I had lunch and enjoyed the views, which were still substantial if not a little gray. We offered to check out the snow cascades that flow easterly towards Shuksan and the Lake Ann trail. It has been a while since I had a clean slate to ski on; while a little heavy, the snow turned nicely. We waited for the others to catch up and then dropped even further in a more NEasterly direction. We stopped just short of the Lake Ann trail because of concerns arising from the big cornices above and the big turn wheels rolling past us.

  Back on the top of the point by 4:00 we decided to leave our friends at their camp. We dropped down between the ridge cornices and were down at Austin Pass in no time at all. We got one last run in the Blueberry Chutes, once again accompanied by lots of pinwheels ands big rollers.. We meet two fellow TAYer, Matt Church and Tony T., who had just returned from Mt.Herman, in the parking lot. Having paid more attention to the weather forecast and less to the health of my skin, I was glowing from my first spring sun burn.