Nov 24, Heather Park
11/15/06
1926
0
Long time lurker finally coming out...
Was stoked to get in first turns at my usual haunt Hurricane Ridge, but was skunked after waiting till 9:00 AM to hear on the ONP message line that the road would not open. This happens far too frequently since their budget was slashed a few years ago. I guess that's the excuse. Plan B was to hike from Heart of the Hills to Heather Park, about 5 miles and 3000 ft. gain. A dusting at the base led to about four or five inches before Halfway Rock which was enough to start skinning. Good thing I had my cutting edge ultra light backcountry touring gear (aka my heavy duty telemark setup circa 1980! See, if you wait long enough your gear comes back in style!) Where the trees start opening around 4800 ft the depth picked up to about 5 ft. Just as the wallowing was getting too intense for my ealy season quads, Chris and Al showed up to take over trail breaking. Saviors! We made Heather Pass around 3:00. A good 6 ft or so of coverage in wind-protected areas yet plenty of trees anchors. Got in some nice turns from 5500 ft down to where the trail gets narrow and the trees get tight. From then on the ride reminds me of my younger days in Olde New Hampster. Met one snowshoer on the way down (at least she apologized for wrecking the track!). Other than that we had the place to ourselves. All in all a nice way to salvage the day.
They opened the road Saturday but I was a good dad and kept my commitment to take the kids sledding (Karma points).
BTW Any N Olympic Pennisula skiers on this list? I'm stranded with a bunch of mariners here in Port Townsend.
Jpeg: World-class athlete Chris setting the uptrack, Second Top in the background.
Was stoked to get in first turns at my usual haunt Hurricane Ridge, but was skunked after waiting till 9:00 AM to hear on the ONP message line that the road would not open. This happens far too frequently since their budget was slashed a few years ago. I guess that's the excuse. Plan B was to hike from Heart of the Hills to Heather Park, about 5 miles and 3000 ft. gain. A dusting at the base led to about four or five inches before Halfway Rock which was enough to start skinning. Good thing I had my cutting edge ultra light backcountry touring gear (aka my heavy duty telemark setup circa 1980! See, if you wait long enough your gear comes back in style!) Where the trees start opening around 4800 ft the depth picked up to about 5 ft. Just as the wallowing was getting too intense for my ealy season quads, Chris and Al showed up to take over trail breaking. Saviors! We made Heather Pass around 3:00. A good 6 ft or so of coverage in wind-protected areas yet plenty of trees anchors. Got in some nice turns from 5500 ft down to where the trail gets narrow and the trees get tight. From then on the ride reminds me of my younger days in Olde New Hampster. Met one snowshoer on the way down (at least she apologized for wrecking the track!). Other than that we had the place to ourselves. All in all a nice way to salvage the day.
They opened the road Saturday but I was a good dad and kept my commitment to take the kids sledding (Karma points).
BTW Any N Olympic Pennisula skiers on this list? I'm stranded with a bunch of mariners here in Port Townsend.
Jpeg: World-class athlete Chris setting the uptrack, Second Top in the background.
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