Category: Lift Served

September 3, 2012 – Zigzag Glacier

Four thousand five hundred….a number I’d be thinking about in my mind all week after an excellent September ski day on Mt Hood. My morning started early, meeting Dan at the park and ride at the Corvallis exit off Interstate 5 and carpooling north as the sun began to rise over the Oregon cascades. After a few stops, we pulled into the parking lot at Timberline near 8:30 am, shouldered our packs and set out up the Magic Mile canyon shortly after 9:00 am. As usual, the views of Timberline Lodge and south towards Mt Jefferson were spectacular.

Timberline Lodge & Mt Jefferson
Timberline Lodge & Mt Jefferson

Not wanting to hike under the ski lifts, we headed west towards the Little Zigzag Canyon, finding snow around an elevation of 6800 feet, though it was pretty badly cupped, most likely from previous skier’s whose tracks affected the melting snow. Continuing up the snowfield and onto the Zigzag Glacier, we made good time to Illumination Saddle, arriving at noon. The saddle is always a nice spot to take a lunch break and soak in the views to the west overlooking Illumination Rock and the Reid Glacier.

Dan enjoying lunch at Illumination Saddle
Dan enjoying lunch at Illumination Saddle

The Reid Glacier is always fairly exposed this time of year, making for some cool picture opportunities of the crevasses and cracks. One particular set of crevasses near the top of the glacier caught my eye on this trip….

Crevasses on the Reid Glacier
Crevasses on the Reid Glacier

After lunch, it appeared the snow was just starting to corn, so we strapped into our sliding gear with the intention of heading to the east side of the Zigzag, which appeared to hold the smoothest snow. To get there however, we had to descend from the saddle on pretty hideous suncups and cross an large area of snow with significant rockfall. Here’s a shot of Dan skiing from the saddle…

September turns off the Saddle
September turns off the Saddle

Once on the east side of the Zigzag, we found a nice line which was mostly free of suncups and bumps. Heading down, the turns were pretty nice – not quite as nice as August, but pretty nice nonetheless. I snapped a few photos of Dan as he headed down towards me with the mountain in the background…..

Skiing below Illumination Rock
Skiing below Illumination Rock
September turns on the Zigzag Glacier
September turns on the Zigzag Glacier

We continued down the Zigzag to the point where the snow started to become discontinuous a few hundred feet above the Mississippi Head Cliffs. Given the work and effort to get to this point, both Dan and I agreed it was time for a break to enjoy a frosty beverage in the sunshine…..

Enjoying a frosty Vitamin R
Enjoying a frosty Vitamin R

After enjoying a cold one, we had about a thousand feet of work to do before putting ourselves in a position to head back towards the car. Opting to climb instead of skin, we made quick time to the snow finger linking the west side of the Zigzag Glacier to the east side snowfield. At this point, the boards went back on our feet for some more fun…

September ski turns
September ski turns
Enjoying summer turns on the Zigzag snowfield
Enjoying summer turns on the Zigzag snowfield

Since the snow on the lower Zigzag snowfield looked iffy at best, we made the decision to descend only a few hundred feet, opting instead to traverse over and climb back up to the top of the Palmer snowfield inside the ski area, which proved to be an excellent decision. Arriving at the top of the Palmer around 3:30, the lifts had shut down for the day and we found ourselves staring down at at nearly 2500 vertical feet of perfect corn snow with not a soul in sight. Both Dan and I strapped in and started down on what proved to be the best snow of the day by far, hooping and hollering the whole way down. After several hundred feet, we felt the need to stop and rest our burning thighs.

Turns on the lower Palmer snowfield
Turns on the lower Palmer snowfield

Continuing down the Mile canyon and beyond, the snow was excellent the whole way down. Sweet turn after sweet turn, we able to descend to within a few hundred yards of the parking lot. Total vertical for the day was right around 4500 feet, by far the most I’ve ever made in September with the assistance of a lift. Sitting at home later that night and reflecting back on a perfect day, I know this trip will rate up there as one of my all time favorite September ski days! Here’s a parting shot from the Mile Canyon….

Cruising down the Mile Canyon
Cruising down the Mile Canyon

 

May 5, 2012 – Mt Bachelor

Free lift ticket, check. Free ride, check. Bluebird day, check. Fresh snow, check. All the signs pointed to a rare day of excellent lift served turns at Mt Bachelor. I left my house at 5:30 am and drove south where I met Andy at his house in Eugene and loaded my gear into his Jeep for the drive east to central Oregon. Andy had won a pair of lift tickets from a local promotion a few months back, and since I’d driven to the mountains the last couple of trips, he’d offered me a ticket and a ride as an exchange. After a brief stop at the Mickey D’s in Oakridge for some breakfast, we arrived in the Bachelor parking lot just after 9:00 in full sunshine. The temperature was around 25 degrees in the base area. We met Todd, who’d driven over the night prior for some camping, loaded the Pine Marten Express, and headed up. Our intentions were to head to the summit to check out the snow, which is what we did. Our first run off the Summit Express was on Cow’s Face, and there were pockets of wind sifted powder that were really nice. The snow was a bit variable however, so we decided to check out the Cirque Bowl from the summit proper on the next run. After a few minutes of hiking, we found what we were looking for…..

Andy ripping it on the shorty's
Andy ripping it on the shorty’s

The snow directly off the summit was prime – nice wind packed powder. The steep slopes of the top yielded face shots for me on each turn, and I’d mistakenly worn my sunglasses instead of goggles, so several times throughout the day I’d have to stop and clear the pow off the insides of my lenses.

Cruising in the upper Cirque Bowl
Cruising in the upper Cirque Bowl

For the next several runs, we repeated the hike to the summit and dropped off just to the riders left of the center pinnacle. Each run was as good as the last, and the snow stayed perfect on the northerly aspect all day long.

Todd getting after it
Todd getting after it
May pow turns

After several runs, Todd decided to call it a day. Andy and I continued to make turns, enjoying a few runs on the groomers of Skyliner on the lower mountain. The park was in good shape, with huge tables and rail features. It didn’t take long though until we found ourselves back on the Summit lift heading for the good snow on the upper mountain. The entire area around the summit was covered in the usual cascade volcano sastrugi, which always looks really cool and makes for a decent photo. Here’s a shot Andy took looking back at the top of the Summit Express lift…..

Bachelor's summit lift shack
Bachelor’s summit lift shack

More powder turns followed, and Andy continued to rip up the wind packed snow with his snow blades with the precision of a surgeon….

Slashing powder in the Cirque Bowl
Slashing powder in the Cirque Bowl

We skied until the lifts closed at 2:00, and made one of the last runs off the top. I was pretty tired at the end of the day from all the laps (when I checked Bachelor’s website the following day with my ticket number I saw we’d made over 23,000 vertical feet of turns – not too shabby considering we spent quite a bit of time hiking to the true summit for most of our runs). Down at the car, it felt nice to get out of our winter clothing and change into flip flops and shorts. Three hours later we were back in Eugene, and enjoying a cold beer after an awesome day of May powder! Days like these remind me I do enjoy riding at the resort and that it’s nice to find a balance between backcountry and lift accessed turns! Here’s a parting shot of Andy on the last run of the day….

Powder slash in the sun
Powder slash in the sun

 

January 20-23, 2009 – Whistler Blackcomb, BC

For the second time in as many years, a few friends and I, along with our families, made the trip north to Whistler Blackcomb for some winter time skiing and riding. We stayed in a ski in, ski out condo on Blackcomb, in close proximity to Whistler Village. The upper lifts on Whistler weren’t running due to the extreme avalanche conditions and depth hoar snowpack in the alpine. Not to worry, we found excellent riding on both mountains over the next several days, and the weather was gorgeous. Here’s a shot looking across the Blackcomb Glacier from the top of the t-bar…

Looking across the Blackcomb Glacier
Looking across the Blackcomb Glacier

We tested out the new Peak to Peak gondola, which had only been open for a month or so, and it sure makes getting from Blackcomb to Whistler a whole lot easier. What used to take an hour now only takes a few minutes. Here’s a shot of Andy, Todd, Kim and I heading from Blackcomb to Whistler…

The crew on the Peak to Peak Gondola
The crew on the Peak to Peak Gondola

The first couple of days were spent riding the groomers since the majority of the alpine was closed, but the sun and beautiful weather more than made up for it. Looking into the mountains surrounding Whistler, it appears the backcountry opportunities are endless. I imagine you could live up there for a few winters, ride the backcountry every day, and still not have explored it all….

Looking out into the Whistler backcountry
Looking out into the Whistler backcountry

On the third morning of our stay, the Harmony Express lift opened on Whistler Mountain, and we were able to find lots of untracked powder off of Harmony Ridge.  The ridge has lots of nice lines, including one area called KC Roll, where we spent quite a bit of time farming turns…

Matt dropping a small rock on Whistler Mountain
Matt dropping a small rock on Whistler Mountain

Andy was on his ski blades, and slashing quick turns this way and that. The funny thing about blades though, is that they’re a bit harder to control when the snow is deeper. I snapped the below photo just at the right time to catch him pre-wipeout…

Andy biffing it on Whistler Mountain
Andy biffing it on Whistler Mountain

On the last night of our stay, we all went out and had a few beers in the village prior to eating dinner at a nice restaurant (of which the name escapes me). The nightlife in the village is always happening, with plenty of things to do. My wife and I had a few beers at a couple of different pubs before taking the bus back to the condo, capping off another great year at Whistler. I’m already looking forward to a time when we make a return trip to the land of big mountains and good riding!  Here’s a parting shot of Todd and Kim on a stellar day from the top of the 7th Heaven Chairlift…

Todd and Kim at the top of 7th Heaven
Todd and Kim at the top of 7th Heaven

 

February 17, 2011 – Willamette Pass (epic pow)

Andy, Todd and I had watched the weather forecast all week with the intention of taking Thursday off to ride at Willamette Pass.  Things were shaping up to be awesome by Thursday morning when I met Andy and we headed up to the pass.  After a stop in Oakridge for some breakfast, we arrived at the Pass and it was deep.  The pass doesn’t operate on Monday-Wednesday, so the 35 inches or so of new snow that had fallen over the past three days was untracked and unconsolidated.  There was already a line of powder hounds forming at the bottom of the EPA lift, and we strapped in to join them.  We ended up being seven or eight chairs back from first chair, and made our first run down High Lead.  It was DEEP!  I couldn’t find the bottom on my K2 Gryator and the snow was very unconsolidated.  I ended up having to wait down at the flats for some others to break a trail so I wouldn’t get stuck.  After a few more runs of epic pow, we joined up with Todd who drove up separately.  Several patrolers were up playing hooky as well, and we spent the morning making runs with Dan on the frontside.  After a very quick hasty lunch, we headed back out for some more pow.  It took Patrol 4 awhile, and it was a lot of work, but they finally got the backside open around 12:30, just as things on the front were getting tracked out, which worked out perfectly.

Andy getting face shots on the backside!

As soon as the backside opened, the three of us hiked to the top of Peak 2 and dropped into Northern, which yielded excellent deep powder and more face shots.  After suffering through a long dry January, this was the kind of relief we were in need of.  On the next run, we headed over to June’s, and snapped a few pictures of the action.

Andy on June's w/Todd in the background

We ended up making several thousand vertical for the day, all in over your head powder!  As the backside started to get a bit tracked, we made three or four laps on Destiny, which for some reason, wasn’t getting pounded too hard.  Destiny yielded nice turns and face shots on the steeper pitch, but I had to straight line it at the bottom to not get stuck.

Matt riding on Destiny

After a few more runs, Todd headed back to the front to get ready to leave.  Andy and I made some more runs on the back, finding some nice untracked powder near the cliff.  For our final run, we headed back through SDS directly off the top of the Peak 2 chair.  By the time we made it down Swoosh on the front side and were back to the car, my legs were feeling pretty worked.  The drive back was uneventful, and we made it home around the same time as people were getting off work.  It was an excellent way to spend a day, and when the powder’s fresh and deep, you do what it takes to get to the slopes!  here’s a parting shot of Todd riding on the backside…..

Todd tele-ing in the deep stuff

 

 

August 8, 2009, Palmer Glacier

I was looking forward to August turns as I headed up to Mt Hood’s Palmer Glacier, where I met Todd to make some lift-served riding.  I had been up the week before practicing glacier travel and crevasse rescue on the White River Glacier and wished I’d had my board for the ride down.  The weather was sunny and nice and the snow on the Palmer looked good as we loaded the Mile lift.  We spun several laps on the snowfield and conditions were good.  As usual, there were a few race courses set up with Olympic caliber skiers practicing their skills, and lots of campers down below at the ski and snowboard camps.  There weren’t too many people just out enjoying the riding on the snowfield though.

For lunch, we headed all the way down riding deep into the Mile canyon, having to hike the last bit to the parking lot. The afternoon consisted of more turns, and after several thousand vertical, we called it a day and headed down to Govy for our usual standard of a beer and burger at the Ratskellar.  Summer turns on Mt Hood are always lots of fun!  Here’s a shot from the day…

August 2009 – Palmer Snowfield