OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The bright snowcapped Olympic Mountains at Hurricane Ridge seeming to smile back Sunday at the many skiers dotting the icy landscape.
“It’s absolutely beautiful,” said a jovial Mark Cooke, of Hamilton, Scotland, who was visiting family members in Bellingham and decided to swing down to the Olympics after spending a couple nights on Discovery Bay.
Unlike many others at Hurricane Ridge, Hamilton was there to take in the scenery and a few family photos.
Winter rolled early into the Ridge with a bit of a hurricane Saturday — 60 mph gusts and an inch of horizontal snowfall.
Technically, winter didn’t arrive until less than an hour before midnight Sunday, but hundreds of skiers and snowboarders flocked to the popular snowplay area.
With a well-cleared Olympic National Park road all the way to the ridgetop, the Hurricane Ridge Public Development Authority launched operation of both rope tows at Hurricane Hill over the weekend — just in time to herald in the nippy season.
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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.
