Once we arrived in Bellingham we put on the skins at a lodge that I later saw on a trail map called Heather Meadows Base Area and started going up the ski run and through a backcountry gate at the top of a large cat track switch back. The weather was foggy and I could see (and hear) that the snow was breakable crust. After a few backtracks we eventually made out way to the top of a bowl that dropped down the back side of what we were skiing. After digging a put probably 6 or 7ft deep and finding nothing too serious we made the decision to give the bowl a ski. The bowl had not succumbed to the warming the other areas had due to the lack of sunlight that could reach it being surrounded by high peaks on all side so the snow was actually pretty good! I was apprehensive about dropping in at first but after my first 3 turns I new it was going to be good. I skied the bowl two times (binding iced up) and my uncle and 2 others skied it 3. The powder was probably a foot and a half deep but that was about as deep as it could have been because the pitch of the slope was 30 degrees the whole way. After enjoying the bowl for most of the day we dropped into the other side to make our way to the car which turned out to be survival skiing due to the breakable crust.
Overall I had a great day of skiing and can tell that spring is about to hit with force even though a few snowstorms are still blanketing the upper peaks.-Owen
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