January 3, 2007, Heather Ridge

After two days of being weathered out, my friend Harry and I decided to get out and see what kind of damage the last couple of days of freezing and regular rain did to the snowpack. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the new snow was piling up at Stevens. We skinned up to the cell tower on the east end of the ridge and rode down the trees back to the PCT. Above 4500 ft there were significant accumulations of very heavy snow. I am guessing 20 inches or so as it was hitting near my waist. There was no notice of the wet layer as it was buried under all of that snow. Below 4500 feet things got a little dicier as the wet layer had not started to re-freeze and we were setting off wet loose slides that included 8 inches or so of new snow plus large amounts of loose wet snow. We played it safe in the trees and wallowed down to the PCT and broke trail back to the pass. It was a fine afternoon.