Category: Posts

I was wanting to get a second day in during December, which seemed pretty dismal considering during a normal December I’d have 7 or 8 days of skiing, but given this year a second day was a nice treat. Conditions were looking good up at Mt Hood, so Joe and I made plans to head up and see what we could find. We met early at the Cop Shop in Albany, and after piling gear into Joe’s truck, we headed up the freeway, making it to the mountain in time to see the sunrise over the hills to the east.

There were quite a few folks already gearing up, given both that it was winter break and that the sun was out after a bit of fresh snow. We geared up quickly, and hit the skin track with the masses, working our way up towards the top of the Mile and then on to the Palmer.

I got a text from Rich, who I’d ridden with a few weeks earlier, that he was about 20 minutes behind us, so we stopped at the top of the Palmer to enjoy the views and eat a snack while he worked his way up. A few minutes later, Rich showed up, and we headed on up since the snow conditions were conducive. I donned ski crampons above the Palmer, which made for smooth traveling. Joe had the wrong bindings for his crampons, but made do without too much issue.

The traveling above the Palmer was smooth, with the snow being somewhat smooth and wind buffed. The weather was gorgeous, and I snapped several shots as we worked our way up, including several below. The rime on the steel cliffs was particularly beautiful…

A few hundred feet below the White River headwall and the Devil’s Kitchen area, the snow surface became icy, and we switched to booting with crampons. Joe had an issue transitioning in a difficult spot from skins (without ski crampons) to crampons, so we lost a bit of time. Rich continued on, and we caught up with him later at the Devil’s Kitchen area…

At the Devil’s Kitchen, the fumaroles were puffing out sulfur as usual, and we enjoyed a quick break in the warm sun. The temps were quite warm for mid-December (an omen of the warm winter to come, unfortunately), and I stripped down to just my base-layer before we headed up towards the Hogsback ridge.

After our quick rest, I headed up to the Hogsback with Rich, and enjoyed the views while waiting for Joe. Rich was keen to tag the summit, so he headed on up, while I chilled with a view to the south as well as of the upper fumarole and waited for Joe to arrive. 

Joe arrived 20 minutes later or so, and after some discussion, I decided to forgo a summit climb and instead enjoy a beer at 10,500 feet along with the excellent views. My beer of choice for the day was a smooth drinking and aptly named White Mountain Porter from the Big Island Brewhaus that I’d picked up while vacationing in early November with the family on the Big Island. It hit the spot, and it felt good to enjoy the tasty beverage in the warm sun with the good views. 

A bit later, we readied to enjoy some quality December turns. Before heading down, Joe snapped a shot of me on the Hogsback, and then it was time to step into bindings and get our ski on. I dropped in first, and enjoyed some quality wind buff down towards the Kitchen, and then stopped at a suitable spot to shoot a few shots of Joe as he dropped in.

The turns were fun, and we worked our way through a couple of spicy spots and then headed out towards the White River Headwall, traversing hard right to ski the Zigzag side, which held fairly smooth snow.

Once we worked our way into the Vietnam couloir, Joe grabbed the camera and fired off several shots of me enjoying the turns, including the four shots below…

We continued on down, and I captured some pics of Joe enjoying the smooth snow in the late December sunshine. Once we made it to the top of the Palmer, we took a quick break to catch our breath and contemplate our best path down.

It looked like about 500 people had been up to the top of the Palmer judging by the number of tracks on the snowfield, and it wasn’t surprising given the weather and winter break time frame. That said, skier’s left looked to be mostly untracked with smooth snow, so we clicked into our bindings and headed down. Indeed, the turns were creamy and smooth.

We continued left, and were rewarded with good quality turns. As we scoped things out further, it appeared that the Salmon River canyon was untracked and filled in enough to link turns all the way down. Score! We headed in and made some of the best turns of the day. I snapped a bunch of photos of Joe on the way down, and we milked the turns right down to the Climber’s Lot.

At the lot, both of us were stoked on the day and really happy to get an additional, and quality, day in December. We hung out for a few minutes after de-booting, and then it was time to hit the road. Unfortunately, the traffic in Govy was absolute shit, and it took over an hour to go a couple of miles with all the people out and about. Eventually, we made it out of the traffic jam, and the rest of the drive home was smooth sailing. All in all, it was another good day on the mountain, and one I won’t soon forget.

After thoroughly enjoying a two week vacation with the family in the Hawaiian islands, I was eager to get November turns in the books, which would mark a milestone Turns-All-Year month for me at 240. Joe was game to ski as well, so we made plans to head to Mt Hood to get get what little snow there was on the mountain. We met early at the cop shop and made the drive up I5, arriving at the climber’s lot to find the mountain pretty bare but plenty skiable.

We started off in trail shoes given the lack of snow down low, and before we departed the climbers lot I snapped a photo of my truck beer for later in the day – a smooth tasting Xplorado IPA from Xicha Brewing. A few minutes later, we shouldered packs and headed up the road towards Silcox.

A few minutes and a thousand feet later, we were up at Silcox and enjoying a quick break along with the view before we continued up towards the Palmer. The firm snow made for easy traveling, and our hopes were that it would turn to corn a few hours later.

The coverage became a bit better as we worked our way up to the top of the Palmer, and from there we made the decision to head up to the White River to check out the snowfield, which held the smoothest looking snow that we could see on the mountain.

As we worked our way up towards Beer Rock, something didn’t look quite right with the snowfield. The snowfield looked more like a valley rather than the traditional level field of snow we were accustomed to, and it was then we realized just how much residual snow had melted over the previous summer.

At any rate, we skinned almost to Beer Rock, and then switched to booting for the final section where we decided we’d climbed high enough for the day and would call it. The snow higher up looked more wind effected and firm, so we enjoyed the views and a beverage while removing skins and getting ready to ride. My beer of choice for the ski was a easy drinking Living Daylights IPA from Scuttlebutt Brewing that I’d picked up back in late summer while in Everett, WA to attend the pacific northwest ski patrol convention. It hit the spot and after finishing our beers we were ready to ride.

As we readied to drop in, Joe offered to take the camera and shoot some pictures of me as we descended, which was awesome, so I handed it over and once he was a few hundred yards down slope I started down while he fired off some shots, including the three pictures below…

I skied down to him, enjoying some really excellent November snow, and headed further down slope before stopping. The turns were great, and by the time Joe made it down to me we were both pretty stoked on the conditions. From there, we continued on down the snowfield, enjoying the nearly perfect snow and taking some more pictures along the way.

We enjoyed every skiable foot of the White River snowfield before traversing over and liking up with the Palmer for some more skiing. The upper Palmer was holding in quite nicely, and although not as smooth as the White River, still afforded some quality turns. 

We worked our way down into the Palmer Canyon, and continued enjoying the smooth turns until we ended up back at Silcox. From there, we elected to ski the Mile Canyon. Conditions in the Mile weren’t the best, but it beat walking and we were able to slide to within a few hundred vertical feet of the lodge before running out of snow.

Once the snow ran out, it was time to throw the skis on the packs and head for the truck. While packing up, we met Lucas and Mallory who had also been up skiing. Turns out Lucas knew a few friends of mine from Bend, and we enjoyed some chitchat on the hike back to the parking lot together. A few minutes later, we were back at the truck, and it felt good to get out of ski and snowboard boots, and into some more comfortable clothes. Neither Joe nor I were in the mood for brats (even though we packed ’em), so decided to get a jump start on the drive home and hit the road. All things considered, it was a pretty great day on the mountain, and I was more than happy to have my November turns and my 240th month in the books. Below are a couple of parting shots from the day.

The dog days of summer we experienced in July and August were finally over, and that meant it was time for some September turns. Dan, Joe and I made plans to head out on Labor Day to Mt Hood, and check-in on the snow conditions since they were rapidly deteriorating, at least from what we could see on the Timberline webcam. I met Dan early as usual at the Harrisburg exit on I-5, and we carpooled up to the cop shop and picked up Joe in Albany. After a brief stop in Sandy to charge, we pulled into the Climber’s Lot a little after 8:00 am.

The mountain was looking pretty, and the Palmer was looking small, but there were turns to be had, so we got our gear together, shouldered packs, and headed out. Instead of heading up the road to Silcox, we headed over to the Mile Canyon to walk up that way. Joe had skied the canyon a few weeks prior, and was able to ski down quite low. Unfortunately, given the recent warm temps, the snow had melted quite a ways up and we were stuck in approach shoes for quite a ways.

A little over halfway up the Mile Canyon, we were able to get on snow and start skinning. As we donned skins, we met a few other skiers, including one who looked familiar. Turns out it was Silas Wild of Turns-All-Year fame. We chatted for a bit about TAY streaks and the good-old days of TAY past, and then continued on. Once we made our way to Silcox and the top of the Mile, it was a short hike on dirt and then back to skinning in the Palmer Canyon. The Palmer Canyon was also quite melted out on the top third prior to the mid-station, and then it was a longer than normal walk from the mid-station to where the snow remaining on the Palmer was waiting.

At the bottom of the Palmer, we donned skins once more and headed up. As we made our way about halfway up the Palmer, a bunch of other folks emerged below and it looked like, and sure enough was, the same crew out of Washington that we saw last year in September. It didn’t take long, and we were at the top of the snow on the Palmer, about 50-100 feet below the actual top station. The first order of business was to get the beer on ice, which I did promptly. A few minutes later, it was cold, and the Good Vibes Only hazy IPA from Baerlic Brewing hit the spot. 

After a few sips of beer, we took the skins off the sticks and enjoyed a sandwich before getting ready to drop in. Our friends from Washington headed down first, and we watched as they slid down the Palmer, enjoying some nice turns.

I headed down first after most of the Washington crew disappeared below, and enjoyed some nice corn snow before setting up to shoot some shots of Joe and Dan as they dropped in. Both of them made perfect turns, thoroughly enjoying a perfect September corn harvest.

At the bottom of the snow, we regrouped and donned skins to head back up for another lap. As we were getting ready to head up, a group of three skiers and riders came down, and one of the skiers was Naoto, a friend of Joe and Dan’s and former patroller from Willamette from many years back. We hung out and chatted with him and his buddies for awhile, and it seemed like the perfect time to snap a picture of my second beer I’d brought up the hill. It was a refreshing Johnny Utah Pale Ale from Georgetown Brewing Co. After capturing the picture, I put it back on ice to enjoy later when we were done with the Palmer.

A bit later, we bit Naoto farewell and headed back up the Palmer for a second lap. At the top, the other half of my hazy IPA was waiting, and it was nice to be able to enjoy it along with a good view. Before we dropped in, we had to get the “sponsor” shot from the top, which was somewhat ironic given that I was riding a homemade split with no sponsor gear whatsoever. Nevertheless, the name “sponsor” shot has a good ring to it.

Eventually, it was time to drop in. Dan took the camera and headed down, and then snapped off a bunch of photos of me enjoying our second lap, including the four-shot sequence below.

About halfway down, we regrouped and I grabbed the camera, and slid down to shoot a few shots of Joe and Dan as they came down. I managed to capture a few shots with both of them in the frame that turned out pretty well…

The skiing was really good on the second lap, and not wanting to be quite done, we decided to ditch the skins and packs and head back up for a half lap to the mid-section of the snowfield where the snow was skiing the best.

We did just that, and after about 15 minutes or so of booting, were in position to make turns once again. I slid down first, enjoying several nice turns, and snapped a few more pictures.

We made our way back to our packs and gear, and after a brief break, enjoyed a few turns on a small but skiable strip of snow. 

From the end of the snow, it was a longer than normal hike back to the mid-station. It was a bit depressing how much snow had melted since August, and it was beginning to look like getting October turns on the Palmer might be quite a challenge. Below is a picture of Dan looking quite small as we made our way over to the Palmer Canyon.

Once we made it to the Palmer Canyon, it was a short hike down to the snow below, and soon we were back to sliding. The turns were decent all the way down, and we had to pull the skis a few hundred above the Silcox and then walk down to the last patch of snow in the Mile Canyon.

The Mile held good snow for a few hundred yards, and we were able to link patches down and ski a bit more than we initially thought. Dan grabbed the camera and snapped several photos of me, including the pics below…

About halfway down, we saw another skier heading up and it was a familiar face – fellow turns-all-year enthusiast Amar Andalkar. We stopped and caught up with Amar for a few minutes, and chatted about our last outing when we skied together on the Avalanche Glacier Headwall on Mt Adams. After awhile, we continued on down while Amar continued on up, and made our way down to the final patches of snow before the turns were completely through.

The hike down to the Climber’s Lot went quickly, and soon we had brats on the grill and were enjoying some chips with fresh tomatillo dip. Both offerings absolutely hit the spot, and it felt great to hang out in shorts and flip flops after a great day of turns. 

Before long, with the food gone and the hour growing late, it was time to pack up and hit the road. All in all, it was a great day of September turns on the mountain. Here’s a parthing shot of Dan and Joe on the Palmer enjoying some more of that great corn.