It is very unfortunate that whoever decides when to open the Hurricane Ridge Road for access to winter recreation is afraid of a little bit of new snow.
Having restricted access to our local mountain when the conditions are good for skiing and snowboarding is heartbreaking.
What’s even more sad is that even when the road is open, not everyone who wants to winter recreate on the Ridge gets to.
Look at the NPS @HRWinterAccess Twitter feed to see the record of the weekend and holiday backup at the gate.
I understand there has been a lot of community effort in the past to try to get National Park Service to keep the road open more in the winter.
With the added pressure caused by COVID with less people carpooling and more people choosing to winter recreate locally, let’s make another push and simply request that for the next two months NPS keep the Ridge Road open until dark instead of 5 p.m. and that they open the gate on more weekdays when the road is already cleared.
This would take some of the pressure off weekend mornings as many of those not using the lift will have more options for when to go.
The relatively low cost of this measure would be offset by added entrance fee revenue, and it would certainly have a positive impact on the access to winter recreation for our community.
Nils Andermo
Port Angeles
