May 25, 2008, Hurricane Ridge-North Bowl

About 5am in Port Angeles I could hear light rainfall on the van so I just rolled over and thought "OK, forget skiing, we'll go walk along the beach."  At 8am we finally got up and the rain had stopped. There were clouds overhead, but the sky seemed to be getting brighter.  Jill was so jazzed about yesterday's skiing that we decided to drive the 17 miles back up to the Ridge. Yikes, another mainly sunny day with brief periods of clouds. We parked away from the tourist area back near the winter trailer and skinned up the rope tow area and headed north.  We reached the high point that provides descents in three different directions: 1) the slope we skied yesterday down to the road, 2) the steep slope that leads down to the poma and finally 3) an enormous north facing bowl, the real gem, with an entrance of 50 degrees and mellower descents along the ridge.  We decided the north bowl was just too enticing to pass up.  Rather than descend the steep 50 degree face with old avy debris, we hiked down along the ridge about 50 yards to a more friendly entrance.  There were 700vf of corn with 1-2" of ski penetration, and it was a delight.  The bowl has many varied exposures so that you could spend a day skiing open, treed and natural half pipes. The runs also descend further down a gulley which we did not ski.  We returned to the high point and descended the steep face which eventually rolls to the base of the poma.  Great corn.  I think we were barking and yelping the entire descent.  What a wonderful weekend, especially when the weather was so much better than expected. We've got to return in winter to experience the varied terrain in powder conditions.