Anna and I headed up to the ski hill today with our sights on Heather Ridge. The sky was clear and the wind calm, the sort of weather that makes a ridge skin a great choice.
After skiing up and through the resort we started skinning up towards Boulder Pass. Noticed a party of 2 heading up Ptarmigan Peak on the way. Once at the pass we left the well packed trail and went up the north east aspect of Heather Ridge until we reached the upper flat ridge area. We were thinking of going to the summit but also didn’t want to miss the last chair at the resort so we decided to turn around with little left to go, (it was warm and I’m sure the ski out would be wet and slow today!).
We skied the lower angle slopes down to the boulder field which we skinned up and found excellent snow all the way and very few rocks. The long low angled slope back to Ptarmigan Lake also skied very well and our uptrack helped finish the cruisy day back to Boulder Pass.
The summer trail had cooked to the point of having to skate downhill to catch speed but all-in-all access is still very good for the area and likely will be for some time.
Hey we are new in town, we are thinking of doing this route tomorrow but there have been so many reports of dangerous conditions and avalanches this weekend. Do you think it’s crazy to do this route (up to boulder pass – not necessarily the ridge) or do you think it’s fine and not through avalanche terrain? Thanks!
It’s pretty spicy currently for sure. The route does go through avalanche terrain, you should check in with one of the Info Centres for their thoughts and avalanche.ca for conditions reports.