Finally, after a rather long wait, there was enough snow at the Pass to get the upper mountain open! Patrol 4 took care of tower pads and gear at EPA on Friday, and Patrol 2 was up for Saturday, and it was looking like it was going to be a great day, with sunshine and blue skies in the forecast. After getting gear ready the night before, I set out with Carson early on Saturday morning and made the drive up highway 58 to the Pass.
Arriving at the mountain, it was great to see the Patrol 2 crew. Everyone was stoked and ready to hit the hill, and spirits were high at the morning meeting. After taking care of the usual business, we headed out and waited a few minutes for EPA to spin a whole revolution before loading the chair for our first ride to the top of the season.
I rode the chair up with Amber and Hayley, and captured a couple of shots of them as we neared the top. We closed RTS on the advice of Patrol 4 from the day before, but wanted to have someone ski it to make sure, so I gladly volunteered. The top section was spicy with lots of rocks and stumps poking out, but the lower section was really nice and well preserved powder.
Having skied RTS, I made my way to the top of Twilight and checked equipment and the snow stake. Oddly enough, the mountain decided not to run Twilight, but was running Midway instead, so I had the top of Twilight to myself.
After checking gear and the stake, I headed down via Swoosh, enjoying some fun turns back down to the base before loading and heading back to the top of EPA. At the top of EPA I helped setup a closure of RTS, and after we had it finished I convinced Zach to take a run with me just to check out the conditions once more. I tagged a rock up top, and it was a good call to keep it closed, but man the lower half was awesome as demonstrated by the three shot sequence of Zach ripping below…
From there, we went about the rest of the patrol day as usual, and did various tasks like setting fencing around some downed trees on Charlie and tending to a few walk-ins at the aid room. Before long, it was time for lunch, and after grabbing a quick bite, I snagged Carson and set out to make a couple of runs with him.
We rode up EPA, and since it was Carson’s first day on SPY, it was a great opportunity to get a couple of pictures at the top of me and him with him wearing his SPY coat. Shaun, who had come up with us for the day and was skiing mostly with Scarlett, even stopped by so we were able to get a picture of all three of us!
We spun a couple of laps on Eagle’s and Rosary, and then I checked in on the OEC crew, who were up practicing on-hill scenarios after a full class in-town this fall. Hannah and Matthew were leading the group through various drills, and I captured a couple of photos while visiting briefly with Hannah.
A bit later, Carson and I skied a few runs on the Midway lift. The twilight area was skiing nicely, and we hiked to the top of the Twilight lift to take advantage of some untracked grooming off of Duck Soup.
Around 3:00 pm, I finally got word that the lift crew was ready for us to haul gear up to the top of Peak 2 – something I’d been waiting for all morning long after checking with management and hoping to get Peak 2 ready to go for Sunday. A few of us helped Michael transport gear on the back of the snowmobile, and Joe and I made a couple of laps up schlepping gear. On the way back down, I captured the below pic of Michael and driving down Southbound with Diamond in the distance. It was probably my favorite shot of the day.
By the time I’d helped get medical equipment and toboggans stocked to the top of Peak 2, it was time for upper mountain sweep. I arrived a few minutes early and found patrollers ready to go and stoked on the fun day!
I grabbed Carson and Stone and snapped a couple of photos of them as the sun sank lower in the sky to the south, and a couple turned out well, including the two shots below.
A few minutes later, James called upper mountain sweep on, and I took a group shot of everyone and also one of the SPY just before we shoved off. Little did I know, but this would be the only group shot that I’d get at the top of the Pass this season. It turned out well, and so did sweep as we shoved off and swept the runs clean one by one. Since a bunch of folks were skiing RTS during the day (despite the closure) by coming in through the trees, we decided to sweep it and I gladly volunteered to do so, getting to enjoy my third run down for the day.
Lower mountain sweep also went smoothly, and soon we were back it the patrol room for our evening meeting. A few minutes later, it was time for “Matt’s famous bean dip” as James calls it, along with the cold beverages to enjoy with a great crew. My beer of choice for the day was a tasty Ola IPA from Ola Brewing on the Big Island of Hawaii that I’d picked up in November while vacationing with the family. It hit the spot, as did the bean dip and various other salsas. There’s nothing quite like enjoying the good company of other patrollers on a Saturday evening at the Pass after a great day of patrolling – and it’s really one of the reasons I keep doing this!
Eventually, it was time to hit the road, so we gathered our gear and I grabbed Carson and Shaun, and we headed off, happy with a great day of turns and patrolling. Here’s a parting shot of Carson from the top of EPA!
