August 2, 2008 – Palmer Glacier
To get turns in for month 33, I met up with Todd early in the morning at the parking lot of Mt Hood’s Timberline ski area. The weather was sunny and nice, and we elected to spin laps on the Palmer snowfield. The snow was somewhat hard as usual in the early morning, but few people were around.
As the snow softened up, more folks ventured up the lifts, and the snowboard campers started up the mountain as well. We spent most of our time on the upper Palmer, riding down to the mid-station without going all the way down.
Around 11:00, we headed over to the eastern boundary of the ski area and ventured out onto the White River Glacier to eat some lunch. Looking up at the White River Snowfield, it actually looked to be in pretty good shape. The usual large crevasses on the glacier itself were completely open in the mid-summer sun….
After lunch, we made several more laps on the snowfield, with each one getting better and better. We thought about hiking above the ski area since the White River snowfield looked so good, but decide against that since most people were off the hill by noon and we had the place to ourselves.
Around 1:00, being pretty spent, we made the long run down to the parking lot, having skied over 20,000 vertical feet for the day. Down at Govy, we stopped in at the Ratskellar for an IPA and some grub, rounding out a near perfect day. Here’s a shot of the mountain from the parking lot…..
February 24, 2008, West Peak
Even though I’ve been making turns at the Pass for years, my first trip to West Peak didn’t occur until February of 2008. I wanted to stretch my legs on the splitboard a few days after we got back from a multi-day trip to Whistler, and Todd was game so we headed out. Instead of doing the traditional approach from inside the ski area, we decided to skin the cross country trails from the base of the Pass. The ski up was pretty straight forward, and we were treated to a few inches of fresh snow. We worked our way up the ridge, eventually making our way through the glades and to the summit. I remember being impressed by the steep trees lines on the west side of the peak. After hanging on top for awhile, we dug a pit and found stable conditions. With that, it was time to strap in and shred. We chose a line off the west face, and enjoyed decent snow down through the steeps, eventually working our way back to the cat track below. All in all it was a pretty good day. The picture below, taken from the top, is the only picture I have from the day (the rest perished in a computer crash shortly after the trip).
Website Homepage Photos
Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to have a few of the photos I’ve taken or been in land on the front page of different websites like splitboard.com, turns-all-year, Backcountry Magazine, or Telemark Tips. This type of thing doesn’t happen too often (especially since I haven’t submitted many photos) but it does have a special meaning to me. I’ve scanned the front page pictures into my picture albums and have included the ones I have below:
The first shot I had published was of Todd Singleton skiing Mt Scott’s east bowl on a trip to Crater Lake National Park in June of 2007. The shot made the front page of both backcountry magazine and telemark tips:
In July of 2007, a trip to Mt Hood’s Crater Rock area in search of summer turns yielded a nice corn harvest, and also resulted in the below shot of Todd that landed on the home page of Telemark Tips….
In 2010, an early October storm dumped two and a half feet of fresh snow in the Oregon Cascades. Todd and I were able to take advantage by leaving super early in the morning to get in a dawn patrol at Hoodoo, which resulted in some of the best early season powder of my life. The lighting was really nice, and the trip resulted in a shot of me taken by Todd that landed on the front page of Splitboard.com and Turns-All-Year.
An excellent trip to Garfield Peak in Crater Lake National Park over Memorial Weekend 2011 yielded some of the best late season powder I’ve ever ridden, and a trip that I’ll not soon forget. It also resulted in a shot of Todd ripping a pow turn that landed on the homepage of Telemark Tips…
A June 2012 trip to the South Sister produced excellent corn snow and memories that I’ll have with me forever. A shot I took of Todd on this trip making a nice tele-turn with Broken Top in the background landed on the homepage of Telemark Tips.
In May 2013, after submitting a few photos to the National Ski Patrol for a photo contest, I was surprised when I opened my mailbox and found the May issue of Ski Patrol Magazine with a photo I took of my friend Raleigh Taylor on the front cover. I was pretty stoked, and the photo ended up landing me a new Go Pro and backpack.
Month 51 – February 13, 2010 – Hoodoo
I had a weekend off from ski patrol and training, so Andy and I headed up to Hoodoo since we had a pair of lift tickets to use up. It had snowed some during the night, and there weren’t too many cars in the lot when we arrived. We spent most of the day riding off the east side of the mountain, making lap after lap in the fresh stuff. We found a few fun features to play on, and it was good to just get out and make turns with nobody around.
As usual, the wind sift kept the tracks filled in all day long, and each run was filled with light powder turns and face shots. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a day…..
