Group wants winter access at Ridge

PORT ANGELES — Remmi Lamarche, 13, has been skiing since she was able to walk, but she wasn’t old enough Saturday to drive the family’s flatbed pickup with a large “Keep the Hurricane Ridge Road Open This Winter” sign in the event she organized to raise awareness about winter access in Olympic National Park.

So, Remmi’s father, Julian Lamarche, got behind the wheel and, led by John “Jockey” Currie and his granddaughter, Maelyn Benedict, 12, in a 1970 Datsun 2000 convertible, they formed a convoy of 22 vehicles — and one horse — to make a loop through downtown Port Angeles, up Lincoln Street, over to Race Street and back.

It was a bright, sunny summer day, but they wanted to remind people about the snow-covered slopes of Hurricane Ridge and a winter sports season they worry may not happen.

“This isn’t a protest,” Remmi Larmarche said. “We just want people to know we care about it.”

While the park moved quickly to re-open Hurricane Ridge Road less than two months after a May 7 fire destroyed the day lodge undergoing renovation at the summit, it must wait until an investigation into its cause is completed before it can assess damage to the electrical, water and sewer systems that were knocked out.

Those who gathered in a parking lot south of Country Aire for Remmi Lamarche’s “awareness cruise” said they wanted Hurricane Ridge to be available for the many people who used it: downhill and cross-country skiers, snowboarders, hikers, campers and snowshoers.

Many were members of the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club, the nonprofit run by volunteers that manages the ski area. A club representative on Friday said that while it was not participating in the cruise, it supported efforts to keep the road open.

Celia Thompson said she has been skiing at Hurricane Ridge since 1986.

“I am super passionate about the Ridge,” said Thompson, who is also a member of the ski patrol. “This is an amazing ski area and it would be devastating not to operate it for a year. It’s hard enough to keep the area open as it is.”

Thompson said the park had already given the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club the go-ahead to operate this winter while the lodge was being renovated.

“Ridge rats,” as they call themselves, praise the ski area’s family-friendly and down-to-earth atmosphere. Long after the ski business became known as a rich-man’s sport with a glamorous vibe, Hurricane Ridge, with its two rope tows and Poma lift, is a throwback to a more authentic and affordable activity for everyday people, they say.

Julian Lamarche said because the ski area and the lodge ran independently on completely different power systems, the fire had no direct impact on its operations.

“The lifts use gasoline motors from the 1950s and we don’t use any infrastructure that runs the lodge,” Julian Lamarche said.

However, the ski area does rely on the park to provide one necessary amenity that anyone who visits looks for: restrooms.

The portable toilets the park installed and that allowed Hurricane Ridge Road to open for the summer won’t stand up to the freezing temperatures and bracing winds that pummel it in the winter.

“They don’t call it Hurricane Ridge for nothing,” Julian Lamarche said, adding, “We know the park has a challenge with facilities.”

Nonetheless, there are ski areas that use winterized restroom trailers that would work, he said.

Gabrielle Peppard accompanied the line of vehicles on her 11-year-old bay mustang gelding, Dodger, “so people will do a double-take,” she said.

Peppard carried a sign that read “Winter Depends on Hurricane Ridge” on one side and “Bathrooms for the Mountains!” on the other.

“It’s a tight-knit group of people to work with and it means a lot to me and everyone else,” said Peppard, who worked in ski operations for the first time last year. “It was the best job I’ve ever had.”

During ski season, Julian Lamarche said he and Remmi and others at the cruise were always first in line at Heart O’ the Hills, waiting for the gate to Hurricane Ridge Road to swing open.

If they could keep two rope tows from 1958 and a 50-year-old Poma lift operational, surely they could help find a solution for the 2023-24 season, he said.

“We want to let the park know we will do anything to help keep winter access,” Lamarche said. “We know it’s possible.”

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.