Location and TH: Table Mtn circumnavigation via Austin picnic area below Artist Point
Weather: Sunny and 70s day, clear and 40's at night
Vertical: dunno, maybe 1600-2000' up and downs
Mileage: dunno, maybe 4-6 miles
Players: Mtn Man, a marmot, and lots of purty scenery
Warning: Only attempt this in low avie danger. I had to pass through many avie prone areas, therefore make sure the snow is super stable.
What a great, educational solo ski trip near Baker and Shuksan mtn. It started at the Austin Picnic Area halfway between Artist Point and the Heather Meadows parking lot. Due to the unseasonal late snowfall and cooler spring temps, the road to Artist point is still closed and will be for a week or more. Since I've camped at Artist and Huntoon point before, I decided to head farther into the wilderness this time. I ended up on the other side of Table mtn at the start of the Ptarmagin Ridge traverse, what a great scenic and quiet place. I circumnavigated Table mtn in the morning and had a few little adventures on the way down. All in all, a fun solo trip in the North Cascades!
Onto the picture parade. I'll try to narrow them down, there were a lot of good ones.
Table mtn from the Austin Picnic area. As usual, it was a mob scene. But most were in and out in 15 minutes.
The road to Artist point was closed, but road bikers were still making the trek to the end. There seemed to be some sort of bike race on Sat, they were everywhere. Here's where the road ended.
First ski down the backside of Table mtn bowl. Granted it's not much, but it was fun. Next pic is the contour to the ridge where I camped.....ah solitude......
The knoll had enough room for a mid sized tent, but all I had was my bivy. Only one other person traversed by the evening and the next morning. Great views of Baker and Shuksan from the bivy.
Don't worry, I didn't camp or tread on vegetation, build campfires, start any voodoo chants, etc. Rangers said I could be there, I checked ahead of time. Oh....and no fishing for you Monogram people :winksmile:
The next morning's route was up and to the left of Table. This proved harder than expected since it gets afternoon sun. The snow was fairly hard and the incline was 40-45deg with moats at the exposed rocks. Shoulda brought my ice axe and crampons for this, but I made due with kicking steps and ski poles.
At sunset, my camera was going off constantly. I won't show them all, but these were my favorites:
Cornices were still looming in areas, so give them a wide berth
There was a great looking tarn at the exit gulley.
I hit the first gulley, no problem. The second one was harder to find and I had to do a little chossy steep down climbing. Not the best ending, but I still had a blast and learned from the experiences. I saw a marmot on my chossy gulley experience, so that was a plus
Bugs were bad at dusk and dawn as usual. Only one other person passed by my site the entire time I was out there. Quite a weird thing only a few miles from the trailhead.
Lessons learned:
1) Bring a spoon
2) Bring an ice axe and crampons if I want to hit anything in the shady morning
3) Look at my camera to find the second gulley. I specifically took the shots the day before so I could scope my exit from above. I was dumb and in the moment.
4) Bivies get fairly wet inside, therefore don't store anything in there that you don't mind getting wet (ie. your camera) It didn't work for part of the morning.
5) Primus fuel cells only melt/boiled four quarts of snow and barely heated up my coffee in the morning before running out.
The rest of the artsy fartsy pics are here with more expanation of the route as well:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/578246152tBUcYE
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