January 8, 2005, Heather Ridge

Coverage was pretty good on the E facing slopes we were favoring between Chalet du Cellular and the edges of Moonlight Bowl. With care, rock skis not needed (yay!) But out of force of habit I guess, I DID bring my rock skis for something like eighth consecutive trip. Never went to Skyline Lake or to the north facing glades beyond, just lapped those E slopes repeatedly with our largish party of 5 + 1. Snow here was typically deep, occasionally heavy, somewhat wind affected, but generally fun. Hard to trail break in but fortunately we recycled our up track many times. Wouldn't try dropping all the way to highway down this side yet too brushy low. In sections the fresh stuff would rapidly alternate between 2 inches and 4 feet in depth - the wind must have been playing tricks here, but did not see any evidence of any wind loading of slabs even in areas where I'd expected it such as just at crest of bowl. Everything seemed surprisingly stable, and little evidence noticed of the hoar as seen in many other areas in last week. Stevens ski area looking a bit feeble from across highway, just ribbons of snow amidst large areas of brush etc. but was well used nonetheless.