Nov 18, 2006, Hurricane Hill,Olympic NP

Planned a trip with Overthehill Michael and Sidnie Ellis but they bailed due to home-moaner issues.  I took Mike's wise advice that the Olys and North would be snowier, and headed up Hurricane Ridge Road.  At the entrance booth I spied a tele binding on the roof rack in front of me, and it turned out to be Kevin of Bremerton and the PWC with some others.  Kevin, Tony and I tried the Toilet Bowl off the Ridge trail but it was meager and chunky, so we about-faced and skinned the edge of Hurricane Bowl to check out the north-side slopes. 
West of the summit was steep, little snow, and shot down into sizable boulders with lacking coverage, so we summited in a good wind and dropped off north just east of the top.  Variable snow, from firm crust to a few inches of fluff and up to 18" in the hollows made challenging turns but good coverage for about 800' vertical.  Very stable now, but a good sliding layer on the rain crust may be there a while, and very unconsolidated beneath.  The skin up to HH was fine until it got steep and crusty near the summit; we all ended up booting. 
Off the summit we hit the Hurricane Bowl just skier's left of the big rocks, and it was firm but very managable and consistent, with 2" of fluff, more in the hollows.  A couple dozen  turns in the mid-PM sun put us back onto our approach tracks and the road back to the visitor's center.
Coverage was just fine, and much more pleasantly soft than I had expected.  There is rain forecast tomorrow but then lowering snow levels and precip. through the week.  First tracks of the season on Hurricane Hill!