Snowmobiles at Artist Point! WTF

Snowmobiling at Artist Point makes as much sense as snowmobiling at Paradise. Which is to say, no sense at all.

These are unique, entry-level winter zones that should be non-motorized in winter. It sounds like Artist Point is supposed to be off-limits to snowmobiles. I would not be shy about pointing this out if I encountered them there.

I run into sled tracks up there a couple of times every winter and most of the time it's from the ski patrol going out to rescue a snowshoer with a broken leg (really? How do you break a leg on snowshoes?) but sometimes the tracks seem very excessive for trying to rescue an injured BC traveller. In January there were tracks all over the switch back that's south of Martha's ladder, all over the AP parking lot and up onto the side of Table above the parking lot. I was surprised by it and a little grumpy but I got over it and continued on my way.

I'd still flag down anyone that I saw out there on a sled and question them on what they're doing there and who gave the ok. Chances are it would be a friend and I'd offer to lend a hand in helping out with whatever the situation is.

One more fleeting thought...maybe the ski area is scouting an expansion with a lift from the bottom of the Swift Creek area up to the Artist Point parking lot. It's really the next logical direction to expand and would open up more intermediate terrain. I haven't talked to anyone connected to the ski area, just pure wishful thinking on my part.

I'm not sure where the former Austin rope tow ended but it's somewhere outside of the current ski area
boundary so there is some historical precedence for lift access in that direction and it would open up Table Mountain as the "other Arm".

One more fleeting thought...maybe the ski area is scouting an expansion with a lift from the bottom of the Swift Creek area up to the Artist Point parking lot.  It's really the next logical direction to expand and would open up more intermediate terrain.  I haven't talked to anyone connected to the ski area, just pure wishful thinking on my part.

I'm not sure where the former Austin rope tow ended but it's somewhere outside of the current ski area
boundary so there is some historical precedence for lift access in that direction and it would open up Table Mountain as the "other Arm".

I'd like to know where it ended as well. I even rode the thing a couple times. It was very steep at the end. My first thought would be the switch back on the road but that would make no sense unless you dismantled the rope tow in the off season.
One hell of a powerful rope tow that lifted me off the ground. Some folks have said on here that it was powered by a chevy 350.

I'll pay attention this summer when the snow melts out but I vaguely remember a concrete pad near the S-turn that's just above where the out of bounds sign is in the winter. That could be the top of the old tow but I'm not sure where the bottom was.

I'm not sure where the former Austin rope tow ended but it's somewhere outside of the current ski area boundary so there is some historical precedence for lift access in that direction and it would open up Table Mountain as the "other Arm".

I haven't skied Mt Baker that much, but the only Austin rope tow I remember was located roughly where I've drawn the red line on the following topo map:



There was still a rope tow there in the 1980s at least. I don't remember how high it went. I don't think there has ever been a lift farther west than what I've drawn here.

If anybody knows different, I'll be eager to learn more.