Six (plus one dog) of us met across the highway from the main Stevens Pass ski area this morning at 9:00. Mike Palmer, who is an instructor and main coordinator for the Everett Mountaineers ski mountaineering course, offered to lead this jaunt.
Heather Ridge is a popular area among backcountry skiers and snow shoers. There was a fairly well-established track up the main trail. While we waited for two members of our party who kept falling back due to equipment problems, several parties of skiers passed us. That's always worrisome because they might get to the place we want to ski first and ski out the good lines before we get there. Not to worry. There's plenty of area to ski all over the place. Plus the weather was a little on the snowy and blowy side (okay, a lot on the the snowy and blowy side) so only the truly dedicated (er, crazy) skiers go out. Also, in these conditions, i.e. high avalanche danger conditions, backcountry skiers are forced to ski together in all the same safe places. On moderate days we can spread out more.
Anyway, we got to the ridge, the two who were having equipment problems opted to not continue with us, and surprisingly we were the only ones up there. Yippee! We'd have choice of the good lines down the backside. The four of us skied down one at a time, keeping an eye on each other. We skied through the trees and cautiously through narrow open areas. Very nice, fluffy snow. I was pushing powder up to my thighs. That causes uncontrollable grinning. I tried taking a picture of Randy disappearing into the fluff but I missed him and only got the fluff. Oh well…
By the time we got to the bottom of the run, we had skied about 1100'. Now was the tough part — breaking trail back up. That's the downside of having an entire run to ourselves: we have to break trail ourselves. To say that it was deep, was an understatement. We had to take turns frequently leading the way through knee-deep powder. We decided to only go part way up the run then ski down, ski up all the way then ski back part way. Good plan.
We skied back down about 500' or so. Again, uncontrollable grins as we pushed fresh powder on a new line. Then back up. Our track had filled in but it wasn't as bad as breaking new trail. Except when we got back to the spot we had stopped and skied back down. Then we had to take turns again all the way back to the ridge. By then the weather had moved in and we were setting off small avalanches. None of them were serious enough to hurt us but it did limit our terrain options. So we opted to ski down the front side the 1000' or so back to our cars.
The wind blew the snow sideways, temporarily blinding all of us. We quickly decided on a line and paired up. Randy lead the way, followed by me. Then Sean and Mike came down, with Amico the wonder snow dog! Occasional blizzards made seeing difficult but we found the road when Sean fell into it. Amico immediately tried to push snow onto him but licked his nose instead.
The rest of the ski was sort of a luge down a trench down the main trail. It went fast. Down at the parking lot, cars were stuck because it had snowed so much. My trusty Toyota wove around stuck cars and made it to the highway. Only to be stuck in traffic for a very long time. The pass was closed, at least eastbound. Blizzards made visibility, um, less than optimal. We coasted less than 1 mile per hour for a long time. We were glad we decided to not make another lap on the ski slopes because it turned out that we were kind near the front of the line of cars.
After a very long time we passed the line of cars that had been stopped by the State Patrol from going eastbound over the pass. After another very long time traffic started moving. It had taken at least 2 hours to get to Monroe — twice as long as normal. The rest of the drive went easily.
It was a fun ski, especially when we got to ski through the fresh powder but it was a lot of work coming back up. Usually the uptrack isn't difficult after it's been set so we can often take several more laps. But we had to break trail each time. Still, skiing the fresh powder makes it worth it. Here are the pictures.