March 8, 2009, Stevens Pass - Heather Ridge

A couple inches of snow in Lake Stevens, and the winter storm warning had me worried about driving conditions. I was surprised at the clear streets and sky once I hit Hwy 9, but getting there was still epic. Eric and I got caught in the parking mess at the pass just as all the lots filled up. We were a hundred yards from the first lot when traffic ground to a halt as people from the upper lots came back to the first which still had a few places and cut across the west bound lanes stopping them. It then took over half an hour to make it through and down to Yodelin where we had a long wait for a shuttle bus back up. We kept debating whether to just go to Yodelin, or walk across the street and head up the crest trail. The bus got there before we decided so we stuck with the sure thing, figuring since we were now so late there would be a good track up the regular route.

We were surprised to find just a snowshoe track that looked to have been set by two people (thigh deep in places) and two other skiers heading up at the same time as we were (we only saw a few other people all day). We were also surprised at the sunny and calm conditions. We were dressed for blustery cold and stopped to shed layers. With all the new snow we decided to stick to safer routes through the trees down the SE slopes. We were disappointed that the snow had already gotten so heavy on the first lower angled slopes that it required walking down, but we managed to get in some turns and even a face shot on the lower shots. Some clouds, snow showers, and colder temps seemed to dry out the surface a bit for the second run, and on the third I found perfect powder in a protected little gully. Gotta love late winter in the NW!