March 22-23, 2003, Hurricane Hill, ONP

After a late opening of the gate Saturday morning myself and 2 friends finally made it up to the ridge.  the report of 10" of new snow had us excited to get out to Hurricane Hill and set up camp fast to get some skiing in.  Well that 10" of new snow was like cement by the time we started heading out which made for some tough trail breaking since we were the first to head down the Hurricane Hill road.  with a quick stop for some turns on the north side of the summer parking area for H.H. in some heavy snow we continued on towards our destination.  after what seemed like forever we finally made it to the saddle at HH which we would call home for the night.  another couple of hours later our cave is done.  a couple of runs, one in the bowl and one on the S-SW face right from the saddle had everything from wind blown ice to cement to breakable crust not what we were hoping for. the snow kept falling all night which gave us hope for the next day. around 3am needing to relieve myself i noticed a big section  over our feet was sinking in with just enough room to slide by to the exit, upon my return attempting to get back onto the sleeping platform i barely touched the sinking roof causing it to collapse on me and my friends, half burrying them under a couple feet of snow.  not the best wake up to have.  now we had a great skylight to view the snow falling all morning.  around 7am we got up and headed into the bowl for a quick 500 vf run to get the blood flowing and warm up.  what a difference the night had made, the snow was perfect, about 6-8" of light and fluffy :D on top of a mostly firm base.  we packed up camp, stashed our packs and headed up to the top for some nice long runs down the S-SW, snow pack seemed very stable but to be on the safe side we kept it in the low 30 degree range.  we got 3 runs from the top averaging 900 vf by 10am in some of the best snow you could ask for ;D.  around 9:30 or so the sun started showing itself.  around 11am the lower slopes were starting to gain some weight and by noon or 1pm the rest of the slope was getting effected by the sun, it was still good just a bit heavier.  headed back to the car around 3 on a nice track made from snowshoers.  by 6:30 i was chowing down on a rotisserie chicken from albertsons at home.