After celebrating Easter with the family a day early, I headed up to the Pass for a day with Patrol 2 on Easter Sunday. The weather was looking to be quite nice, with clear skies and warm temps forecast for the day. We’d planned an Easter brunch as well, and I was looking forward to some good potluck style food. After our morning meeting, we headed out to open the hill. At the top of EPA, I snapped a bunch of pics of patrollers getting ready for the day, including the two pics below.
Ian grabbed a few pictures as well, and even got me in one of them. He was nice enough to send it my way….
After spinning a lap on the front and getting the mountain open, I headed to the back and put in a bit of work there. At the top, I grabbed a few pictures of Emily and Andy before setting off for opening another run.
After getting the back open, I headed back down to the patrol room to tidy up the avalanche gear for the season and take care of a few other tasks. By the time I was done with that, it was getting close to lunch time, so I headed out to the car for a quick minute and snapped a couple of pics before coming back to enjoy the potluck.
On my way back to the patrol room I found Zach tending to some food on the grill, and when I entered the patrol room, the potluck was in full swing! I loaded my plate with some Easter ham, some salad, and a few other items, and wolfed it down before heading back out on the hill.
I rode up to the top of EPA to sit bump for an hour, and brought my telephoto lens along with me to shoot a few pictures of the peaks to the south of the Pass, including Diamond, Redtop and Lakeview.
I also snapped a few photos of my beer I was hoping to enjoy later in the evening – a tasty PFriem lager from PFriem Beer. After situating the can in some grass down below the top terminal, I found a composition that showcased the golden can.
A bit later, I heard some traffic on the radio and it sounded like Ian and Mark were going to be giving our dispatcher Kris a sled ride so she could experience the “ride down” that a patient experiences while in a sled. 10 minutes later or so, Ian and Kris arrived at the top of EPA and Ian began rigging the sled to take here down.
It was about time for my bump to be over, and before I headed down to shoot a few pics of Ian, Kris and Mark, James offered to take a quick shot of me and Diamond Peak. I returned the favor and snapped a picture of him and Emily, before getting a shot of all of us reflecting in the EPA camera.
A few more pics of the Easter crew followed — like I mentioned, it was beautiful weather and a beautiful day for taking pictures.
Eventually, I strapped into my bindings and slid down the toothpaste tube and caught up with Ian and Mark running Kris down in the sled. I snapped several photos as they headed down KP, including the three below.
Down at the base, we put the sled contents back in the sled, and returned the sled back to the top of EPA. I took a stroll through the patrol room to see if any patrollers were in need of assistance with their patients, and surprisingly the aid room was empty, so I headed up to the deck to get a view of the mountain. The below shot, while not seeming to be anything special, is pretty cool, since this spring marked the first time the outdoor deck had been open in many, many years (I can’t remember it being open in the last 15-20 years)!
The rest of my afternoon was spent spinning a few laps on EPA and riding RTS, which had corned nicely in the afternoon sun, as well as shooting some photos of a bald eagle at the top of EPA. There was actually a pair of eagles hanging out up top, but by the time I got up there only one remained for the photo op.
After walking down the toothpaste tube a short ways to get the optimal angle to shoot pics of the eagle, I headed back up and grabbed a picture of Michael, Craig and Ken hanging out up top, before heading down for a final lap on RTS before Peak 2 sweep.
I made to the top of Peak 2 in time for our afternoon sweep, and just before we began sweep we orchestrated a quick group shot of our Easter crew.
Sweep went quickly, and we actually had time to get one last lap in before upper mountain sweep began. James, Emily and I headed down across the James Bond trail and skied down Eagle’s, which was pretty soft in the afternoon sun, but still quite fun.
We made it back to to the top with ample time to spare, and a few minutes later the call came across the radio and upper mountain sweep was on. We had extra bodies at the top, so I doubled up with Zach and we swept Success, which is my second favorite run to sweep next to RTS.
Both upper and lower mountain sweep went smoothly, and soon the crew was down in the patrol room, happy to have another good day on the mountain come to a close. A few beverages and snacks after the evening meeting capped off the day, and eventually we threw the gear in the car and headed down the highway with another fun day of patrolling at the Pass in the books!
