[jenjen]

Well, I tried to get to Skyline Divide. There is a bridge that is completely gone about 4 miles from 542. Pedestrian access is possible only if rock-hopping white water rivers is your cup of tea. So the web site is correct, and the folks manning the Glacier ranger station are completely clueless. Actually, I'm not too surprised. The folks manning the ranger stations in general have absolutely no idea what things are like outside the front door it seems. So, on to Heliotrope Ridge. The road is in good shape right up to the bridge just before the trailhead. There's still a big slug of snow clogging the road so people (including me) are just parking along the road and walking the last 1/4 mile to the trailhead. The trail itself is about half melted out up to Kulshan Creek. After that point there are some bare spots, but its mostly just snow. I finally gave up even trying to follow the trail and kicked steps up to the ridge (I love snow, you get to just make your own trail). The snow consistency was just about perfect for step kicking - soft enough to get a good foot plant and firm enough to hold. I managed to get a good 150 foot glissade in - again, great snow for it. I got some glacier views before the clouds closed in and I decided to bail instead of getting rained on. It was about 6 miles round trip, took me just under 3 hours. There were 2 climbing parties ahead of me, otherwise I had the whole playground to myself. Met one party of hikers while I was on my way out. The clouds opened up shortly after I reached the car, I hope they didn't get too wet.

[Hiker Boy]

Cool, I was up on Heliotrope last Sunday. My Heliotrope TR