Home > Trip Reports > Dec 31, 2005, Heather Ridge

Dec 31, 2005, Heather Ridge

12/31/05
WA Stevens Pass
7244
6
Posted by wolfs on 1/1/06 12:07am
Antendees: androolus, AndreasS, Kasi.
Pulled in around 9, temp warmish with light snow (very small crystals/arms). Ski area not that crowded surprisingly and based on periodic looks over they never filled the lots. Took one run over N from the lake pass past the boulders, heavy snow but not impossibly so, which gave us the feel of what kind of line aggression it would take to make rewarding turns in this stuff. Returning to the ridge top we poached someone else's pit; the NWAC's multiple layers within the storm snow were readily evident, three of them each separated by about 8 inches per, and moved easily when isolated, sometimes stepping. But similar to what I saw 3 weeks ago at both Snoq and Stevens, the snow was heavy enough that it couldn't get out of its own way on any typical slope that didn't have a 3+ foot wall cut out of it, saw no natural slides, skicuts triggered nothing other than occasional tiny slabs when skiing near other deep tracks, no one else's poodletracks appeared to have moved anything on the N/NE slopes we were on.
Weather stayed very nice, near freezing, only occasional and brief snow showers, high overcast with some midlayer clouds, little wind. Coverage better than 3  weeks ago but only by a foot or so, but this stuff is so dense that it'll make a nice base in long run.

On way back down encountered numerous snomos carrying their boarding buddies up the road to the ridgetop. Lame. It's probably not illegal (nonwilderness) but this is obviously an area with extensive human powered precedence, one which no 'normal' snomo would be interested in because of its miniscule size. Snomo presence here is very annoying particularly with tons of people in all transport modes traveling both up and down the constraint of the narrow road. The only snomos I'd seen up here before were those that the tower maintenance folks ride. The nature of the terrain would make it hard for them but I sure hope this isn't the start of a trend where the snomos feel entitled to dropping over the ridge and running over to Tye Peak/Lake etc. I'd love to see Stevens discouraging them from parking the trailers in their lots, particularly when they are a plague overrunning the closed ski area in spring, but that's just dreamin'.
Snomos, hmm.  Today we saw a beautiful cherry red 1986 LMC 1500 snowcat on Heather Ridge road in perfect shape!  It was not transporting snow sliders, only headed up to do work on the cell towers.  Sure made breaking trail easy after it passed.  ;-)  

As for what should and should not be allowed in my back yard, I dunno what to say.  The back side of Stevens was really great when it was the domain of liftless hard work, but somehow we have survived the removal of that area from our private paradise.  I hear some self propelled folks have used it to access more remote spots that were previously tough to attain in a day.  Hopefully we will all be able retain our secret stashes, or maybe we will just have to find new ones?

Apologies if I am inciting a long discussion.

We didn't see any snomobiles up there yesterday, and only about six other people.  Maybe all the folks who can't muster the 1200 foot climb to the ridge were too hungover to get out in the fine New Year's Day snow.   ;)  Or maybe they don't like snow flurries.  I did see a snowmo-snowboard group there in November.  I agree that Skyline ridge is an inappropriate place for motorized access - due to tradition and, more importantly, safety for all the human-powered traffic on the cat track.

I also ran into the sled on my way up to ski some fantastic snow.  We had a brief discussion about how I thought mo's were not allowed there and how he vehemently disagreed.  He claims that the front side is in limits, but not the backside or moonlight.  I've skied many days up there and never seen a sled, thus my assumption that it was not allowed.  Anyone know the real deal on this?

And yeah, the skiing was good.  Close to 10" of new atop a firm base.  Got heavier towards the end of the day but was excellent skiing.  Happy NEw Year everyone!

That section is not USFS, unless there was some recent trade. I am unsure of the ownership, but remember hearing it was the City of Seattle at one time. Stevens Pass LLC does not control that property.

I have snowmobiled that road for skiing about 12 yrs ago, it is not really worth it. I have not known of prohibition of access by snowmobiles, nor do I know if such use is intended by the landowner- there is no signing against snowmobiles. There have seen rescues up that road with snowmobiles in winter, and in summer with a 4x4 ambulance to the lake.

The highway and operating ski area across the road transmit plenty of noise to that area, and the ski area lights will allow night skiing on that slope at night.

Snowmobiles are annoying when one wants a quiet hike, so I always go where thay cannot. I do not personally like to snomo yo-yo, although that is a growing subgroup in the mountains.



My finacee and I setup winter camp by the lake Saturday afternoon.  We stayed Saturday and Sunday night and toured during the days.  On Saturday we skinned up to the lake slowly due to all the weight on our backs, thus we spent a fair bit of time on the road.  There were some guys yo-yo-ing with a sled.  I thought it smelly, but not too offensive.  When we got to the lake we started talking about where we should setup camp, then two bilers came cruising up the skin/snowshoe trail right onto the edge of the lake.  They dismounted and started hiking around.  I felt like saying, "You lazy asses.  Couldn't you walk your butts over from the road.  What is it, about 75 yards?".  While on the road on our way down Monday morning we saw the same guys playing around on their machines and my finacee asked them to carry her pack down so she could enjoy the skiing more.  They were more than happy to do it for her....err, well, anyway, I think they should stay off the spur that leads to the lake.  What do you all think?  It was a wide, packed, boot-supporting snow shoe track that would have taken 3 minutes to walk.

can anyone offer clarification on the sled issue in this area?  maybe I will contact the USFS office in Skykomish.

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dec-31-2005-heather-ridge
wolfs
2006-01-01 08:07:51