April 4, 2009, Hurricane Ridge BC

Yes! Nice report, it was a stellar day, definitely one of my favorites. Its awesome that 5 separate groups of people (I can count at least 13 individuals throughout the day) dropped into North Bowl and all met at the bottom. The three of us (hot split-board chick + 2 mediocre looking dudes) ended up getting 4 decent runs in, fresh tracks every time. The best snow was on the NE aspects. Jan and Snow Bell definitely made me feel slow, cartwheeling up the slope while I huffed and puffed trying to have a winded conversation about women's sunglasses, my mixed feelings for split-boards, and whether or not we were in the beginning of the end, or just the latter part of the middle.

Our first run was NW, crusty for 100', powder the rest. On the second run we peaked to a NE aspect and found fluffy stuff, boot-top to knee deep...so good. From the hootin and hollerin just through the trees to the east of us, we knew RandoBro's crew found the same stuff. Third run was again into N Bowl, but just shy of the top of Bowling Alley. As RandoBro stated, 35ish degree entrance. We cut a cornice off, did a ski cut, and I also noted that a solo guy had been skiing a similar aspect across the bowl (across the bowl and similar aspect? it doesn't have to make sense) and hadn't set any slabs, so we figured it was good. Skier8484 dropped, repping the Baker scene, then split-board chick, then I. Running out of whiskey at the bottom, we figured it was time to drop down the bowling alley (very tracked up, relatively speaking) and hitch back to the car.

Not sure about the why's, but the snow quality and stability were much better than expected. Some pics for enjoyment:

skier8484:


s-b chick:


s-b chick in the bowling alley:

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Its also worth noting that the trio of s-b chick and the two dudes ventured back up on Sunday to a wet sloppy south face just below the lodge to shovel a big mound of snow. The rest of the day was spent hitting said mound with sufficient speed to briefly lose contact with the ground. Skier8484, in all his irish redheaded goodness, got the single best clothing-optional spread eagle picture i've ever seen, but I'll refrain from burning your eyes by posting that here.

spins:


flips:


crosses:


All in all, a good weekend. Thanks to all those I ran into for the pleasant company!

Definitely was a good day to be out in the Olys; and it was nice meeting some new people.  And I can personally second that the "clothing optional" spread eagle picture is epic. 

Nice job, gang---I'm sure we saw some of your tracks Sunday from Steeple.  2 days of lighter-than-expected conditions on Hurricane.

author=RandoBro link=topic=12939.msg53905#msg53905 date=1238996300]
Snow Bell and his Rando-coolness.

I've been trying to tell you guys that I was cool!

Thanks to the locals, Blain, Jan and Gary and co for sharing the goods.  It was a beautiful day to be on the ridge.  The views of the Straits, the Bailey Range, Olympus and the interior Olympics are amazing and worth the drive alone.  Adding in perfect weather, great snow and company proved an exceptional day to be a skier.
Stability proved to be sound although we were cognisant of it all day and approached slopes accordingly.  The expected warming was not at all sever and the northerly snow held perfectly.

author=RandoBro link=topic=12939.msg53905#msg53905 date=1238996300]
We toyed with N, NW and NE aspects on the hunt for steep pow 'til it all started to get soggy by 4:00.

I think that it may have been your legs that were feeling soggy.   ;)

We parted company with Skier8484 and crew once Blain, Jan and Gary split.  We climbed to the intersection of Sunrise Ridge and Hurricane Ridge and found a beautiful line:

We poked in just above the dogleg and could not tell if it "went" or not.  We toured around East to get a look and it goes but being late in the day we were concerned about the potential for slope failure and obvious terrain trap.  This line would have to go on the list for more stable conditions and we opted for a less sporty shot just down the ridge.  Brian (Rando Bro) cut us a track up to HR and we proceed to climb up the Bowling Alley and dropped South to the car.

Viva los Olympicos!

Great weather, great snow and great partners, what else do you need for a great day? As others have stated, the stability was better than expected. It was fun to ski with a group that made decisions based on safety rather than blue ski powder fever :D!

Jan and I went back up early on Sunday, more for the workout than expecting any good snow. We parked at Maggies, skinned up to the ridge and skied a northwest facing line. Much to our surprise, the upper few hundred feet were just as sweet as Saturday. When we started to encounter a crust layer, we decided to do a little exploring. We traversed around the west facing ridge that led into the drainage we all skied on our first run on Saturday. We came out high on the open face above our transition point. At this elevation we were in a breakable crust, so we continued our traverse to Saturday's skin track and climbed back to the ridge. By the time we arrived there, the sun had turned the south facing slope of Maggies into sweet early season corn. We picked a fun, but conservative line back to the car and were home by noon.

Gary and Jan