May 24, 2008, Hurricane Ridge-CornandSaltwater
5/24/08
WA Olympics
3304
3
On Friday the weather forecast was dismal. We loaded the van with backcountry ski gear, but we were not optimistic. We drove to Stretch Island near Hood Canal to visit some relatives and woke Saturday morning to see the sun. Yahoo! We stopped at the Grapeview Volunteer Firemen's Pancake Breakfast Feed and loaded up with enough carbos and fat to last a week. We were originally planning to head for Paradise, but the sun and views of the Olympics were too enticing. "Don't leave sunshine in search of better weather." It took a couple of hours to drive to Hurricane Ridge, but it was worth it - mostly sunny with a few clouds. There is still plenty of snow at the Ridge. The parking lot was overrun with a photography group and we were the only skiers when we arrived. We were quite the novelty. Very similar to a weekend crowd of tourists at Sunrise when the road finally opens and the backcountry community arrives. We will be in numerous family albums, based on all of the shutters that went off as we passed through the parking area with our AT gear. We made numerous short runs of about 400-600vf. We met Jack and Amy from Port Angeles who provided great beta on the surrounding terrain. It was a wonderful day of sun and clouds and corn snow. Ski penetration was 1-2" which was pleasant. It is unique to stand atop a ridge and look over the nearby snow covered terrain and in the background see the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Victoria and the snowcapped mountains of Vancouver Island. We traveled 17 miles from sea level to a spring snow playground at 5200'. After 4 hours of touring, we drove down to Port Angeles where it was sunny and in the mid 70's. We went to the Coast Guard station on the spit and Jill skipped rocks and found beach treasures in the perfectly calm saltwater of the Straits. I enjoyed looking out over to the Olympics across the bay while sipping a cold Buzz Saw brown ale. Do we live in a great area or what! I think we're going to have to do this again tomorrow.
I was on the other side of the water, looking back at you from Victoria. My son, Gabe, got married under a beautiful sky. And while I wouldn't have minded being on top of a beautiful ski, it was a wonderful weekend from my side of the strait, too.
Congrats to both the new in-laws and the corn skiers! :).
We were up there too, on Sat and Sun. You probably heard our dog barking at some point. The Park Service would not allow him to ski, and he made sure to vocalize his dissatisfaction with the regulations. We had good turns in the Mt Angeles couloir, right down to the road, and that steep face off the north side of the ski area was great too. I think we hit it pretty soon after you did on Sunday. We went to Mt Townsend for some bushwhacking on Monday. Road was passable to within ~1.5 mi of the Little Quilcene TH, which we foolishly took to the summit and had to boot nearly the entire 3.7 mi way due to uneven and patchy cover. Ski down was good minus the last 500 vert of slide alder that nearly ended an otherwise functional relationship.
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