The whole mountain was open for the first time in two seasons, with the exception of one meager weekend last February, and I was looking forward to a great day of turns and my first day as hill chief on Patrol 2. I met up with Craig and Ed in Pleasant Hill, and we made the drive up Highway 58 to the Pass, arriving a bit before 7:30 am. I got my gear on quickly, grabbed a radio, and headed out to test fire a few shots with my new Canon 8-15 mm Fisheye lens. I was pretty stoked on the lens, and snapped a few photos around the base area, including the shot below in the early morning light…
After shooting a few pics and leading the morning meeting, we headed out to open the mountain. The snow conditions were fast with a few inches of fresh snow over the previous day’s groomers. I opened RTS, and was stoked to make turns down the run after all the work we’d put in earlier in the year cutting. It skied great, and the little tree island we left was clearly visible.
Around 10:00 am, several of us met up on Peak 2 for sled checkoffs. I ended up in the handles on the first run of the day with Joe loaded in the sled, and headed down June’s Run with Todd on the tail rope. Halfway down the run we switched positions and then ran the sled down to the bottom of Peak 2. We kept running laps on the backside with the sleds, and I pulled out my camera and snapped a few photos along the way…
Around noon, I headed in for a quick lunch, supplied by the social committee. EPA was having some technical difficulties, but I chanced it after lunch and made another trip down RTS, and it was just as good as in the morning. I worked my way back over to Peak 2, and we continued sled training into the early afternoon.
Given that none of the patrol had run sleds in a couple of year’s, it was nice to knock the rust off and get folks back in the handles again. I snapped a few photos of the afternoon action, including the shots below….
Before long 3:30 pm rolled around, and it was time to sweep the backside, something I’d been looking forward to for the past two years. The quiet of sweep after everyone else has left for the day is quite surreal.
Once Peak 2 sweep was complete, it was time for upper mountain sweep. I stayed up top with Jodie while the rest of the patrol swept runs, and once everything was clear, we vacated via RTS. Twilight sweep was next, and then it was time for a quick evening meeting followed by beers from Oakshire and chips and salsa. Hanging out with the rest of the patrol, after signing duty cards and clearing the area with management, I was pretty stoked the season was now in full swing, and looking forward to more patrol days to come!
