December 11, 2003, Heather Ridge

Chris and I chose the familiar Heather Ridge for our first outing of the season. The trail to and past the first tower was completed groomed out by a small snow cat and on the climb we were passed by 4 snowmobiles* - a new experiences for HR.

Once off the road skinning was through 6-8" of filled in track. Looked like no one that been out for a day or 2.
It was very evident that is was an early season snow pack as terrain variation haven't been filled in, but skiing was very nice on 8"-12" inch of powder on a firm crust. No sign of instabilities.

Did one run down the 35 degree nw facing slope, then a couple from the opposite side of the valley. Two other skiers (Nick & Mike) were out enjoying the fine conditions as well.

With the short daylight hours, darkness caught us as went down to Skyline Lake. We weren't concerned because we could ski the wide packed trail down, but Chris wanted to try skiing the east slopes leading down to the parking lot with the glow of light from the ski area.



The ski down was suprisingly good on 3"-10" of good snow on the firm wind crust. All-in-all a fun day.

[* briefly spoke with one of the snowmobilers since we were concerned the area might be open to them. He said they were all working on the cell phone towers and would be done by Friday. Also relayed that by spring cell phone coverage for the pass area would be greatly enhanced.]