Adventure on Snowshoes

Oh, where do I start? Maybe at 3:30 on Thursday morning, December 30, 2010. When Ron likes to leave the house early to go on an adventure......he means in the middle of the night! I must admit, it's fun being on the road when there's hardly another car in sight. So, I will begin at 3:30 AM Thursday morning. (warning: there are LOTS of photos in this post.....I just couldn't narrow them down!) (click on any photo to see it larger.)

A storm was just departing, and we have discovered that is the best time for photo opportunities. We'd been watching the weather reports for weeks and had been getting very discouraged, but then this perfect day showed up, and we took advantage of it. Mt. Baker has been "calling" us for a long time....so off we went! Perfect sky and only 2 degrees! We donned ski clothes and strapped on our snowshoes and started trekking up the snow covered road to Artist Point at Mt. Baker Ski Resort. Ron took the panorma below shortly after sunrise.

There were only a half a dozen cars in the parking lot when we arrived......(but it didn't stay that way for very long.) Thank you Jenni for the loan of your ski pants.....they really kept me warm in that 2 degree temperature. So with a heavy down coat and camera backpack on my back, we started hiking around 7:30 AM. The snow was so cold and dry that it really crunched as we walked.....you certainly couldn't sneak up on a bear or a deer even if you wanted to.

Below: the empty ski resort shortly after sunrise. The mountains were being "kissed" by the sun and the colors were spectacular. Everywhere you looked there were majestic snow-capped mountains. The photo below, is looking almost due north....Mt. Baker is behind me, and Mt. Shuksan to my right (out of sight.)

Turning slightly to my right (or east) you can see more of the mountain range in this area. There are two ski resorts here.....Mt. Baker Ski Resort where we were, and just a couple of miles down the mountain, the White Salmon Ski Resort right at the foot of Mt. Shuksan.......I don't know how anyone can ski with that mountian looming behind them.....I would end up staring at it the entire time.

I need to figure out the names of these mountain peaks......they are so beautiful. That's really an understatement. Just another view from the ski resort.

The clouds were clearing off from the mountains, but while they were still hanging around, they looked like soft cotton draped over the range. At this time of the morning, there were only a few cross country skiers on the trail with a couple of other people on snowshoes.....but nobody had a camera except us......what were they thinking?

The photo below is of Table Top.....the trees at the top were completely covered and frozen stiff. Mt. Baker is right behind this peak, so it can't be seen from here on the trail. The ski patrol keeps the road to Artist Point groomed with a tractor, so it was fairly easy going.....until we got to a shortcut they made......it went practically straight up.....at least it felt that way. We had to remember that they used this part of the road as one of their ski runs, so they didn't need to follow the switchbacks that the cars do in the summer. Skiers just go straight downhill!

Below: Ron walking on the trail towards Artist point.

Below: Ron all bundled up to stay warm......Table Top in the background.

As the sun came out, so did the skiers. It wasn't long before the slopes were crawling with people. There was one point where the trail we were hiking intersected with one of the runs......we felt like were were going to be run over by snowboarders! Ron yelled "Track!" once, just so they would be aware that someone else was around!

Below: this was the place where the trail crossed the ski slope. The trees were totally covered in snow and frozen stiff. It was picture perfect.

About halfway to Artist Point, Ron and I left the regular trail (just to get out of the skiers way!) and ventured off into some pristine powder. The is the backside of Mt. Shuksan, with Mt. Baker just off to the right, (or west of us.)

Below: Ron standing in front of the sign that points to Austin Pass and Blueberry Cat Track....this is where we departed from the regualar trail. We thought that we would be all by ourselves.....but it didn't take long for three other guys who were skiing, see us and decided to follow us. They were looking for a place to dig a cave and stay for the night. I think they were crazy to want to camp in 2 degree temps! By this time, we were getting a bit tired. Our water bottles were frozen solid, so we couldn't even take a drink of water.......hmmmmm.....we'll have to work on that before we go again.

Ron with his photo gear set up for taking panoramic pictures.

Everywhere you turned, it was just breathtakingly beautiful!

Ron framing up a shot.

Ron hiked up to the top of a ridge, and was able to get this panorama of Table Top, with the road in the foreground, and the tip of Mt. Baker just to the left of the trees.

Looking east at one of the ski runs.......you can see the tip of Mt. Shuksan in the distance. We kept pretty warm....except you have to take your gloves off to use the camera....so our fingertips were constantly getting cold.

This is my favorite shot that I took.......you can see some skiers on the hill and then the top of Mt. Shuksan in the background. I loved the snow covered trees.

I think that I need to put this photo on a calendar!

I took this photo just for my son in law Will....he loves to ski. The ski resort was flying skiers up to the top of this mountain in a helicopter and then they would ski down. If you look close, you can see where several skiers went straight down over the cliffs. Reminds me of a Warren Miller Ski Film. There were also a lot of skiers that were hiking up to the top of this mountain to ski down too......it was a LONG hike.

This is the same hill, as the above photo....just from the parking lot.....which by this time was totally full. There had to be several hundred cars there. When I say that everyone and their dog was there....I mean that literally.......it seemed like EVERYONE had a dog!

Me, with my snowshoes and camera.

We hiked out around 2:00 PM.....and wound our way out of the maze of cars in the parking lot. It was a gorgeous day, to say the least. But both Ron and I had some very sore muscles.

Then today, Friday, December 31, we decided to drive up to Lake Diablo on Highway 20. They close off the road during the winter here, but you can drive as far as the lookout over the lake. As we got out of the truck we noticed fresh bear tracks in the snow.....it looked like he was checking out the dumpsters at the lookout. (I was constantly checking for the bear!)

Ron climbed out over the railing to get this 180 degree shot of Lake Diablo. You have to turn your head from left to right to be able to see all of what this photo shows. Notice where the sun is hitting the water, the color of the water is emerald green and in the shade the lake reflects the color of the sky so it is blue. He only used a polarizer and neutral density filters for this shot. It was 14 degrees at the time (7:30 AM) and his feet were frozen.

Now we're checking the weather report for the next perfect day after a storm! It was a nice trip for New Year's Eve. Have a wonderful New Year!