Home > Trip Reports > January 28, 2005, Heather Ridge

January 28, 2005, Heather Ridge

1/28/05
WA Stevens Pass
6157
5
Posted by JimD on 1/28/06 5:08pm
Deep and heavy. Had to walk/push down most of the run. Took half an hour to get out of the parking lot because so many people were getting stuck (I did too for a few minutes). Funky.
We headed up above the Surprise Lake TH just west of the pass... it was deep in the open (2.5ft - 3ft on top of the crust), but I sure wouldn't qualify it as heavy.  Only problem was in the trees (which is where we were 99% of the time), it was "deep dust" on irregular icy crust.

Would have been sweet if we'd found an open slope steep and safe enough..

Phil, what is the winter parking situation for the Surprise Lake trail? I've often thought about a ski trip up that valley but have been put off by not knowing if there is legal parking.

JimD - not to ignore your original report - were you on the "front side", eg the south facing slope above the pass? Thanks for the report.

(sorry for thread drift JimD :-) )
It seems like a "gravel pit" area for the DOT, I guess. I've never had any trouble parking there the few times I have, but I'm not sure if it's legal.  They plow out a very large space though.  Parents take their kids to sled on the pile of gravel.  Never seen the DOT hassle anyone...

For what it's worth, I talked to a DOT worker there today.  He told me our cars would be towed if we parked on the west side of the train tracks (gravel pit).
(We asked, because the lot of the east side of the tracks had not been plowed recently, and had a foot and half of snow in it.
I asked him about the east side of the tracks, and he said it was railroad property, and didn't know if it was legal to park there.

In the summer, you can see that the west side of the tracks is signed No Parking, but no such signage on East side. And in the summer, that East side sometimes quite parked up by overflow from Surprise Lake TH because the "official" lot is so pathetically small. The fact that it gets plowed on BNSF's dime might change the equation but I kinda doubt it.

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january-28-2005-heather-ridge
JimD
2006-01-29 01:08:12