Home > Trip Reports > August 13, 2017, Heliotrope Ridge

August 13, 2017, Heliotrope Ridge

8/13/17
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
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Posted by lordhedgie on 8/13/17 4:15am
Good news! I've moved back to Washington after five years on the East Coast, and I'm eager to restart my streak of skiing every month!

To celebrate my return, I decided to take a friend out to Heliotrope Ridge.

After five years without any real backcountry, I will say it kicked my butt a little, but we made it. Cravasses are pretty bad thanks to a hot summer, but the snow on the west side is still good. Some suncupping, but soft enough to ski through without bouncing around. The flies were far worse than I remember them, biting constantly from the trailhead until the snow.

On the whole it was a great day and well worth the hike. Climb the snow to the west to avoid crevasses, and you can get a good run in.

Sorry, no photos because I haven't set up my computer yet, so I can't resize them easily down to the site guidelines. But you can see a few of them on my
Hey Jimmy!  Welcome back.  Are you up in Bellingham?  Still brewing beer?
I'm thinking about heading up to Artist Point - Coleman Pinnacle - Sholes Glacier in another week.  I'll ping yah.
Don - aka Rusty knees

Don,

I'm over in Oak Harbor - sadly far from any mountains. But I have a car, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Def ping me - I always love a chance to ski. I don't have AT bindings on anything but fat pow skis, so until I fix that I'm bootpacking up snow. But that won't show me down much this time of year...

I remember when lordhedgie took a bunch of great photos of skiers in the Pinnacle Slush Cup around August 2008 or 2009, including several great ones of me!

Glad to have you back in Washington, and stoked that you got out to Heliotrope for August turns!!

Also, Rusty Knees, we need to ski together soon!

Great to hear you're back, Jimmy! Thanks for introducing me to Heliotrope way back when; it's one of my favorite slopes (nice wide ones fit my skiing ability best!)

I look forward to skiing with you in a few months. I had both knees R&R'ed, and they're not quite fully baked yet.

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august-13-2017-heliotrope-ridge
lordhedgie
2017-08-13 11:15:24