Month: January 2011

January 23, 2011 – Patrol

After a week of mid-winter rain, I headed up to the Pass for a day of patrolling with the forecast calling for sunny skies. Arriving around 7:45 am to partly cloudy conditions, I could tell the snowpack had taken a beating from the previous rainfall. After the morning meeting, we ventured out onto the lifts to open the mountain. The morning was calm and beautiful.

Carolyn, Todd and Craig at the top of EPA
Todd & Carolyn with Odell Lake

The snow was pretty hard for the morning runs from the freeze the night before. After making a few runs on the backside, I ventured over to check out the sled training. I saw the red coats down below, and rode up to find Andy and Joe instructing the candidates.

Andy Bechdolt surveying the training
Odell Lake from Good Time

The candidates were working on running loaded 100’s, and switching out with time in both the handles and the tail rope. I snapped a few pictures of the work, including the shots below….

Matthew in the handles
Heading down with a loaded sled

I met up with Andy who was up for the day, and we headed to the backside for some runs on June’s and through the trees. The snow softened up just enough to make it playful. On the frontside, the snow softened up quite nicely and we were able to make lots of runs on Eagle’s Flight and others.

Andy and Odell Lake
Matt on Good Time

We made a few more runs off the front side, and I sat bump on EPA for an hour. After bump, we made a few runs with some of the local telemarkers and then worked to close Peak 2. Since I ran sweep, I stayed up top while the others closed the runs. After I put away the bamboo and signs, I snapped a few photos.

A whole slew of telemarkers
A random shot looking into SDN

After getting everything put away, I waited for the rest of the patrol to arrive back at the top, and while doing so noticed the light on the ramp was really nice. A few moments later, I captured a few shots of patrol as they unloaded the Peak 2 chair….

Todd and Steve unloading Peak 2
Carolyn and Shirine unloading after sweep

Once the backside was closed, I headed over to the front to begin closing the rest of the hill. The sun was starting to head down in the sky, and I was able to catch this picture of Carolyn standing at the top of the EPA…..

Carolyn at closing

I helped close Timburr, then headed over to the Twilight lift and helped close Swoosh. The run down Swoosh is always fun, and probably my favorite Twilight run. Between closing calls, I was able to snap the below photo of the sun setting w/Diamond Peak in the background……

Last call on Swoosh

After the mountain was closed, everyone headed into the patrol room for the evening debrief before parting ways and heading home. Today was another good day at the Pass, but it needs to snow again soon in a bad way. Here’s a parting shot of some sled training from the day…

Matthew in the handles and Val as ballast

January 2, 2010 – Mt Hood Ski Bowl

I headed to Mt Hood Ski Bowl with Andy since I knew the majority of the month would be spent on ski patrol training at Willamette Pass. My wife, son and I headed to Gresham to visit family on Friday night, and Andy picked me up the next morning. We arrived at Ski Bowl just before opening, and there weren’t too many people there. We rode the two chairs to the top and spent most of the day riding the runs off the summit. The snow was pretty good, about five to six inches over a crust. We did venture out to the Outback Bowl,which was closed and we found out why for good reason. After riding down the mountain, there wasn’t enough snow to cover the run out back to the ski area and we were forced to walk out the road which took about an extra half an hour. Overall it was a good day, but I’m looking forward to getting back into the backcountry. Here’s the only shot I have from the day…

Matt riding upper Ski Bowl

 

August 9, 2009 – White River Glacier, Crevasse Rescue Practice

A unique training opportunity presented itself to practice glacier travel and crevasse rescue skills on Mt Hood’s White River Glacier with the Santiam Alpine Club and I was happy to take advantage of the practice. I didn’t bring my board along for the trip, but wished I would have after seeing the lower glacier, where there was ample room to make turns. Crevasse rescue skills are valuable to know and essential to practice, but I hope to avoid having to use them in real life. A group of about 8 of us set out from the climbers lot at Timberline Lodge around 7:30am in the morning and started hiking along the dirt trail leading up the mountain to the White River Glacier.

Packs loaded and ready for climbing
When we reached the edge of the White River Canyon, we encountered snow (at about 7200 feet) and roped up for the practice. We continued along and up the glacier’s edge, then out onto the middle of the glacier, finding a large crevasse suitable for practicing skills near 8000 feet. After a quick break, We broke into two teams of 4, each setting up 3:1 pulley system. Placing the pickets in the snow required a bit of work, but after digging with the ice axes and covering the pickets with snow, they were set. The rope was attached to the anchor, then we took turns rappelling down into the crevasse. Here’s a shot of me in the bottom after rappelling…..

Matt at the bottom of a large White River crevasse
The 3:1 pulley system worked well, but required two to three people to haul one person out of the hole. It was bit easier once we set up a 5:1 system. Here’s a few shots of the action….

Rappelling into the crevasse
Not a bad spot to hang out
The shot below was taken from the bottom of the crevasse, at least the bottom from where we were at (it appeared to be pure ice below the dirt and rock at the bottom).

The view from the hole

After spending most of the day practicing the systems, we unroped and hiked across the glacier to take in the views and relax. The east side of the glacier was relatively flat, and in one spot there was quite a bit of meltwater running down the surface in a cool little channel.

Meltwater on the White River Glacier

From our spot on the east side of the glacier, we had a good view back across to the crevasse we were practicing on. You can see the gear we left by the lip in the below picture…

Our practice crevasse

After taking some photos, we hiked back to our gear and decided to load up and head back to the parking lot. On the way down, I watched numerous boulders tumble from the ridge as we were hiking (not being kicked loose by our party) and rocket down into the canyon. They would have easily killed a person if they struck them had anyone been down there – a good reminder to pick a safe route and always be wary of rockfall. Once back at the parking lot around 4:30pm or so, we loaded up and drove down to Government Camp, stopping at the Ice Ax Grill for some micro-brews. It was the perfect ending to a long but worthwhile day!

The gang at the Ice Axe Grill

October 18, 2008 – Palmer Glacier

I was looking to get some October turn in, so when my wife, son and I headed to Gresham to visit family, I threw in my board anticipating some Fall snowboarding. I awoke early on Saturday morning and headed up to Timberline, after a stop at Safeway in Sandy. I had driven through a bit of rain lower down along the highway, but when I arrived int he parking lot the whole mountian was visible (and fairly devoid of snow as compared to the week before on the webcam). I met my buddy Todd and we opted to ride the lifts as opposed to climbing based on conditions (guess I shouldn’t have waited until now to get my October turns in……

Icy October turns on the Palmer Snowfield…

I made a run before Todd got there, and the Palmer was nice and icy as expected. I rode down all the way to within about 300 yards of the lodge, met Todd, and we worked our way back up to the top of the Palmer. The snow didn’t really soften above 7500 feet all day, but was nice below that. I love unloading on the Palmer Chair when it’s pure ice, however, the view from up top is worth it. I did notice throughout the day however that several people had some good wrecks due to the conditions. Here’s a shot of Todd riding below the mid-station on the Palmer….

Tele turns below the Palmer mid-station

We spun laps on the Palmer until about 1:00 and had the place nearly to ourselves by the end of the day. I didn’t keep track, but we got several thousand vertical in for the day. After the long ride back down to the car, we loaded our gear and headed down to Govy for a stop at the Rat for the obligatory Ice Axe IPA and some college football. All in all, it was another excellent Fall day to make turns in Oregon and it won’t be long until the snow flies and another Winter season starts in earnest!

Here’s a parting shot from the day……

Tele turn…..

October 3, 2009 – Palmer Glacier, Mt Hood

About the only viable option for turns this October was Mt Hood. I left the Southern Willamette Valley around 5 am with plans to meet up with Todd and hike/ski the Palmer Glacier. We arrived at Timberline around 7:30 am to partly sunny skies and a bit of fresh snow. Today marked my 47th consecutive month of snowboarding at least once a month. Here’s the view that greeted us upon pulling into the parking lot…..

Mt Hood Southside, October 2009

Even with the fresh snow, it’s disturbing how little residual snow remains on the Palmer “snowfield” seen in the middle of the above photo. Still though, it was refreshing to see the fresh stuff and go from dreaming about new snow to actually riding on it.  Today I was testing my homemade Burton Custom split, and it didn’t disappoint. We started skinning above the base of the Mile Canyon and the board performed flawlessly. I didn’t miss the metal edge which was an initial concern, though we didn’t encounter anything too steep.

Matt skinning up the Mile Canyon – October 3, 2009

Skinning up, the snow got a bit crusty upon reaching the base of the Palmer lift. I was amazed by the lack of snow on the Palmer snowfield, and the Mile Canyon extended quite a ways up the actual snowfield. We were able to skin to about 150 vf below the top of the Palmer chair, essentially to where it had melted out. Staying all the way to skiers right yielded the best snow. At the top, we lingered for a bit taking in the view, then strapped in for the ride down. Here’s a shot of Todd……

Todd making October turns….

The sunny skies that we had on the way up gave way to clouds for the ride down, so getting any good action shots was difficult at best. We did manage a few though. My board rode really well in ride mode, and performed as well as any other split I’ve ridden in the past. In fact, I’m really happy with the overall performance given the challenging snow conditions.

Matt riding the Palmer Snowfield

The ride down the rest of the Palmer and Mile Canyon was fun. There were pockets of fresh snow a few inches deep deposited by the wind, but also spots of fairly firm residual snow. Riding the Mile Canyon when it’s mostly devoid of snow if actually pretty fun. Down at the bottom of the canyon, the T-Line cats were parked and ready, waiting for more snow to start the grooming, probably in a few more weeks if it keeps snowing.

Homemade splitter and Timberline snowcat….

At the bottom of the snow, we packed our gear and hiked down to the cars in the parking lot. We were able to make it to Government Camp in time for lunch, and the cold beer tasted really good. College football was on the big screen and the burgers hit the spot. I love this time of year – it won’t be long now until winter is here in full force! Let it snow!