Matt – Page 24 – Splitboard Oregon

January 29, 2022 – Peak 2 Opener

It was another sunny Saturday in January, which meant continued unrelenting high pressure. I was on duty with Patrol 3, subbing for Toby who was going to cover for me a little later in the season. Shaun was game to join me again, and this time he brought his friend Henry along as well, which was great since they could ski together while I was patrolling. We got to the hill early like usual, and after getting my gear together and securing a ticket for Henry, it was time for the morning meeting. Stoke was in the air, because even though the weather wasn’t the best, Peak 2 was going to be spinning for the first time all season!

The morning meeting went quickly, and we headed out to open the hill. I headed up EPA, and being assigned Peak 2 opening duties, the first order of business was to get the closure up at the saddle and then open a run on the front side before spinning back up to head over to Peak 2. While riding the chair, I caught a couple pictures of patrollers on both of my first two lift rides. Pictured below is Sarah and Richard in the first picture, and Dan and Hannah in the second.

By the time I was back on top of Peak 2, I recruited Dan and we headed over to the back side with sleds in tow. Dan grabbed one from the top of EPA, and I snagged the sled from the saddle tube and we headed back. Dropping under the closure and heading down to Peak 2 felt great. Dan skied down Escalator to open it, and I headed down Boundary. At the bottom, I loaded him with the sled and he headed up.

Heading to Peak 2 for the season opening

Hanging down at the bottom of Peak 2 felt great, and a few minutes later Ian made his way down and loaded me with my sled to take up to the top. Once up top, we stowed the sleds away, and then proceeded to make a few runs on the back. The snow was remarkably good, and we did laps on Northern, June’s and Waldo. Back up top, I caught up with several patrollers, and everyone was stoked on the back side being open!

I hung back on Peak 2 for a few more runs with Dan, and we skied Destiny and then ended up back on Northern. As we dropped in for our second run down Northern, I heard Shaun yell from the lift. Looking up, he and Henry were riding the chair, and appeared pretty stoked on Peak 2 being open as well.

With several runs on Peak 2 in the bag, I headed back to the front around 10:00 am. As Dan and I were riding back up the chair on EPA, we noticed a female skier stuck next to a tree near the top of Success. After calling out to her and confirming she was ok, we went back about our business. I snapped a few shots of the OEC candidates working near the bump shack on various scenarios, then did one lap back to Peak 2.

As I unloaded EPA, I heard a call come in over the radio for a female skier that needed assistance on Timburr. It sounded like it was the same person Dan and I had seen earlier on Success, and Dan responded with me as backup. As it turns out, it was the same skier, and fortunately everything was ok, but she did request a courtesy ride back down to the base. I ended up bringing the sled down Timburr (which was still quite icy), and then Dan and I hauled her down to the base. The below picture (taken with permission) shows Dan prepping the sled.

The sled ride down was really warm, and both Dan and I were sweating pretty good as the temperature started to rise. We ended up doing another run down Timburr because Dan left his helmet at the scene, and then it was time for a well deserved lunch break. While enjoying my lunch, I wandered around the parking lot for a few minutes with my fisheye lens on the camera, and snapped a few shots, including the one below…

After lunch, it was time to head back out on the hill. I put my 50mm portrait lens on the camera, and found Matt and Ian sitting up top. It was nice to see Matt, who’s been out on injury most of the season, up top and and enjoying the sun…

I skied a few more laps as the afternoon wore on, and then it was time to head over to Peak two for sweep. Just before we were getting ready, Shaun and Henry climbed up to the top and wanted to help as well. They headed down Waldo with Shannon, and the rest of us headed out as well. A few minutes later, we loaded up at the base of Peak 2 and headed out to complete the first Peak 2 sweep of the year.

After sweeping Peak 2, upper mountain sweep on EPA went off without a hitch, and I worked my way over to Twilight to start lower mountain sweep. They had plenty of people, so I snapped a few photos and then headed down to the base. The evening light on the mountain was really nice, and even though I wished it was snowing it was still a pretty scene.

Ian led the evening meeting, and then it was time for a well deserved beer. My beer of choice for the day was a tasty Amber Ale from Oakshire Brewing. The pic below was taken earlier in the day around lunch.

It was really nice to hang out with fellow patrollers at the base and enjoy a cold beer after a fun day of patrolling, and evenings like these are a main reason I get so much enjoyment out of patrolling. The parking lot crowd was also enjoying themselves, and I spent a few minutes visiting with them as well before it was time to hit the road.

Patrollers enjoying post skiing activities after sweep

And with that, as quickly as it had started, January at the Pass was over. I loaded up our gear, and Shaun, Henry and I hit the road, thankful for a great month of skiing, and hopeful for a return to winter weather soon!

January 24, 2022 – Mt St Helens

After a great day of turns on patrol the day before, I woke early with my alarm at 2:30 am. Since all my gear was ready to go the night before, I dressed quickly and was able to hit the road by 2:45 am and head north. The drive up the freeway through the thick fog went smoothly, and I was stoked to be heading out to visit a volcano I hadn’t been to in 9 years (could it really have been that long?). I pulled into the snowpark a few minutes before 6:00 am, and found Joe’s truck in the lot. We got our gear organized, took care of filling out the required permits, and shouldered our packs a little before 7:00 am. Skinning right from the snowpark was definitely a plus, and we worked our way through the trees. After a hour or so we got our first views of the mountain.

Coverage on the upper mountain was looking pretty good, and we skinned on under the firm snow as the sun rose above the horizon and created an orange glow. Looking back at Joe as we worked our way up the low angle slopes, I was definitely pretty happy about our choice to come here on this day…

A bit later, we caught up with a couple of guys who were on foot ahead of us. After some small chit-chat, we headed on and the slope steepened. We were able to skin for a ways, but a couple of steep pitches caused us to switch over to booting to keep away from an unwanted slide.

Soon, it was time to enjoy a deserved break, and we refueled with a bit of food and water. As we were sitting there enjoying our food and the views, a lone raven decided to pay us a visit to see if he could mooch any food off of us. I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of him, and then once he realized we didn’t have anything for him, he headed out.

With our break done, we headed on, and it proved to be easier to continue to boot for the time being. As we worked our way higher, the views became better and better, and I snapped a few pictures of Joe with Mt Hood in the background. A short time later, we were able to get back on the skins and get the skis off our backs…

As we continued skinning, the views continued to improve, and we started to get good views of Mt Adams to the east. We kept skinning for as long as we could until the snow conditions became icy, and then it was time to switch to crampons for the final thousand feet or so. A few solo skiers were ahead of us and kept their skins on, but it was quite a struggle, and we quickly passed one of them.

One of the things about climbing St Helens is that it always seems like the top is just within reach, but it’s kind of like a mirage on the horizon —- always just a bit out of reach and a bit further out there. Finally, after working our way through some wind blown sastrugi near the summit ridge, we made our way to the top and were greeted with one of my favorite views in the cascades. Looking down onto Spirit Lake with Mt Rainier in the background is always such a visual treat…

We made the top somewhere a bit before 12:30 pm, making for an overall approach time of just under 5 hours and 30 minutes. I pulled out the fisheye lens and snapped several photos, taking extra caution not to get too close to the edge of the cornices overhanging the caldera. In the below photo, Joe is visible hanging out at the rim on the far right…

After snapping several photos with the fisheye, it was time to get my beer out and put it on ice, and we sat around and enjoyed the views for a bit. Joe offered to snap a picture of me in my usual pose with my board, and I returned the favor by shooting a pic of him on the rim as well….

We hung out on top for about an hour, enjoying the views, waiting for the snow below to hopefully soften some and turn to creamy corn, and enjoying the beautiful weather. Eventually, we figured it was time to make turns, and it was also time to pull out our beers and enjoy them before our long run down. My beer of choice for the day was an excellent Overland Amber Ale from Yachats Brewing. It definitely hit the spot, and by the time I had downed it I was ready to shred.

Taking off the crampons and putting on the board and skis was the crux of the trip, and once we had our sliding gear on we felt quite a bit better. I shoved off from the crater rim first, and the turns were a bit spicy for the first 800 feet or so through the sastrugi wind polished ice/snow mix. I caught a few pics of Joe coming down, and we were able to work slope for some pretty decent turns.

Once we were through the marginal snow, conditions improved significantly, and we headed over to the line Joe, Ron and I skied several years ago. Our timing was perfect, and we were stoked to be in for a really nice corn harvest!

Continuing down, we worked the slope for hundreds of turns. Joe grabbed the camera and fired off a sequence of shots of me harvesting the corn, including the ones below….

Heading down the south side of St Helens

The benefit of climbing over 5500 feet on the approach meant that it would be a big run on the down, and we were definitely in the middle of it and it wasn’t disappointing. Above the worm flows, we spotted some good snow on skiers left, and worked our way over to ride it. Joe kept the camera, and snapped some photos as I rode through the lunar landscape…

More turns followed, and eventually we had to stop to rest our legs from all the action. Needless to say, both Joe and I were pretty stoked to score such nice corn in January.

As we continued down, we started to run out of real estate and eventually had to drop into the canyon below. After scouting the ridge line, we found a spot that looked like it would go and it did…

The ski out of the canyon was fun, and the snow stayed nice. We worked the natural quarter pipe down to the flats below, and retraced our uptrack from the morning back towards the treeline.

Once at treeline, we were able to cruise out the trail on the mostly flat slope really easily. The gliding was fast, and we needed to stop a couple of times to rest tired legs. I was able to ride the whole trail with poles out, and it was a remarkably easy glide right back to the pavement’s edge, where the first order of business was to get out of the ski boots and get the brats on the grill. While waiting for the brats to cook, we enjoyed one of Joe’s Sierra Nevada IPA’s along with the exhilaration that comes with an awesome day in the mountains.

Within a few minutes, the brats were done, and as usual they hit the spot after a great day of turns. It didn’t take long to scarf them down, and they were gone in no time. We hung out for a bit discussing Joe’s plans for the next few days, and then it was time for me to head out for the long drive home. I bid Joe farewell and headed down the road, but had to stop after a couple of miles to shoot one more shot of the mountain bathing in the afternoon sunshine.

The drive home went super smoothly, and I made it through Portland without a hitch in rush hour traffic, which is unheard of. All in all, it was an excellent day of January corn, and completely worth the early morning start and long day. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but really hope a return to winter comes soon. Winter corn great, but I’m definitely ready for some more pow turns! Until then, here’s a parting shot from the day…

January 23, 2022 – Never ending sunshine

Sunday was coming up fast, and with no change in the forecast, it looked like it would be another sunny day at the Pass. As usual, I headed out early, with Shaun in tow, and we pulled into the parking lot around 7:30 am. I headed to the patrol room while Shaun hung out in the car, and pretty soon more patrollers were gathering around the base. After a quick morning meeting, with a debrief on ambulance and helicopter protocols, we headed out to open the hill. As usual the light was pretty nice, and I snapped a few photos up top…

After opening the frontside, I headed down and got Shaun ready to go so he could head out and meet one of his friends who was coming up for the day. Then I headed back out to join Joe, Ian and the sled candidates to do a little sled work with the Cascadde 100’s.

The sled training crew ready to head out

I caught up with the crew at the top of EPA in time to catch their second lap down Eagle’s, and snapped a few photos of Anna as she headed down with the unloaded 100 towards the run.

At the top of Eagle’s, Ben got in the sled as ballast, while Anna worked the handles and Patrick took up the tail rope. Both Anna and Patrick killed it, and looked good working their way down Eagle’s.

We worked our way down the run, with Ian and Joe providing feedback, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed with this year’s sled candidates. I snapped a few more pics as we headed down, and then put the camera bag in the bag to enjoy the turns down Eagle’s….

After the sled run, I headed back up top to work with the SPY on what happens during an incident with respect to how to safely mark the scene, ask important questions if they happen to ski upon an incident, and how we load patients into a sled. Once we went through a scenario and loaded up a patient, I headed back up to chat with Devin about a couple of issues.

A few minutes later, with our business out of the way, I rejoined the sled candidates and busted out the camera for several more shots on another run down Eagle’s. This time Patrick was in the handles, with Anna riding as ballast and Ben on the tail rope.

We finished our run down just in time to grab a quick lunch at the base before heading back out on the hill for the afternoon. Down in the parking lot, I enjoyed a well-earned break and applied another layer of sunscreen.

Once lunch was over, I headed back up on the hill, and the snow was definitely starting to corn. It was hot up top, and I found Tyler hanging out on bump. It ended up getting so warm that I stripped down to a base layer and nothing more, and was still plenty warm. After hanging out up top a bit, I met up with Shaun to take a few runs since his friend Tanner was heading home for the day.

We spent the last hour or so taking laps down High Lead, Timburr and Success, and I snapped a few photos of Shaun along the way. It’s fun watching his skiing start to progress over this season so far…

A few minutes before 4:00 pm, we headed up EPA one last time, and joined up with the other patrollers up top to get ready for sweep. Shaun ended up sweeping High Lead with John, while I headed down early to review the run reports and get the patrol room tidied up so we could get make a quick get-away after the evening meeting, in order to get a super early start the next morning for plans to make turns on Mt St Helens.

A short time later, the patrol started rolling in, and Shaun was the last one to the patrol room — I’m learning he really likes being the last one on the hill, something he shares with his dad! We held a brief evening meeting to recap the day, and then it was time to cap the day off with a well earned cold beverage. I had got a half case of Jubeale from Deschutes earlier in the week for just this occasion, and busted it out for those who were thirsty. It definitely hit the spot, and capped off another really nice day of patrolling at the Pass.

A tasty Jubelale after a long day on the slope

January 15, 2022 – High Pressure & Helicopters

After over a week of high pressure, I headed up to the Pass for what I was hoping would be a fun day of patrolling in the sun. As usual, I left the house early, and arrived in the parking lot around 7:20 am, in hopes of snapping a few photos with my fisheye lens prior to taking care of the morning activities. I snapped the below shot of the base area, and then headed to find Tim to discuss plans for the day.

A bit later, it was time for the morning meeting, and after discussing the day’s activities, Laurie led a discussion on the medical minute, which included a discussion on assessments, as well as seizures. Having Laurie take over the discussion for a few minutes allowed me to step back and shoot a few pictures, including the one below…

After the morning meeting, we headed out to open the hill, and a number of us (including the OEC candidates who were up to train) made our way to the top of EPA to open the upper mountain. Before we headed out to open runs, Jim England was nice enough to grab my camera and shoot a picture of us at the summit.

I opened Timburr, which wasn’t really friendly right out of the gate, but then headed over to Eagle’s with Anna to ski some better snow for a second lap…

After spinning a couple of laps off EPA, I decided to check in on the OEC training. Laurie, Hannah and Matthew were leading the OEC candidates just off the top of EPA where we typically do avalanche training, and it looked like they were starting out with lower extremity injuries.

Jenn working through a lower extremity OEC scenario

After the OEC check-in, I headed back to the top of EPA, and noticed Dan, Doug and Tyler working on a sled and getting some of our signage from the base up to the top shack, so I snapped a photo of them as well…

The morning was going quite well, so I took another lap, enjoying the snow which was just starting to soften up on the south facing runs. Once back up to the top, I pulled out the camera for a few more pics, including the one below of Anna and Jon.

By this point, the temperature was really starting to warm up, and as I poked my head back over to see what the OEC group was doing, I had to laugh (and snap a picture) when I noticed Matthew with just his vest on and no shirt!

Next up, it was time for a couple laps on RTS before heading to the car for lunch, and although the snow wasn’t soft, it wasn’t too hard either, and it was nice to get some technical turns in on the steepest run on the hill.

Hannah & Laurie enjoying a break before lunch

Back at the base, I enjoyed a well-earned lunch at the car, and headed back out on the hill for what would become a somewhat tumultuous afternoon. At the base before I loaded the lift, we got a call from dispatch of an potential injured snowboarder on Peekaboo. I deployed Anna, who was in the area to check it out, and then worked my way to EPA to load. A few minutes later she replied that she needed a sled, backboard, a BLS pack, and three additional patrollers, and I knew it didn’t sound good.

Laurie watching the approaching helicopter

Tim surveying the chopper coming in to land

With other patrollers behind me on the chair, I responded as backup, and requested 3 others for additional assistance. I headed down RTS to the top of Twilight, got the sled and equipment, and headed out. Without getting into detail, we ended up making the call for a helicopter, and readied the landing zone at Sleepy. SPY, hosts and candidates did an awesome job of clearing patrons from the lift and bunny hill, and a short time later, we had the patient to the base area, at which time another incident occurred that required an ambulance ride. With shit getting real in a hurry, I was super happy to see the Life Flight helicopter as it arrived.

The paramedics headed over to our aid room to care for the patient, and ultimately transport them to a higher level of care. I headed back out to run the hill, and worked my way back up to the top of EPA.

Ultimately, the helicopter crew got the patient loaded and off the hill, with the assistance of several patrollers, and things settled down for the rest of the afternoon. The candidates went back to training, and beyond a wild goose chase trying to locate a set of keys for a car that belonged to the family of a patient in the aid room, the rest of the day went smoothly.

When it was time to close the hill for the day, nobody was happier than I was to be done. Just before everyone headed out to sweep the upper mountain runs, I snapped the below pic of Kerstin and Joe basking in the evening light….

Dan was running sweep, and I stayed up top with him while patrol called in the runs one by one. I always get a kick out of staying up top to end the day, and it reminds me a lot of spring missions to the Pass after they are closed — with the only thing missing being the beer!

Once upper mountain sweep was over, we swept Twilight without a hitch, and then headed down for a lengthy debrief of the day’s incidents and activities. Finally, it was time for some well deserved beers, and I pulled out a Pray for Pow stout from 10 Barrel Brewing, which I was hoping might help turn the tide against the stubborn high pressure ridge that seems to be planted firmly in place off the west coast.

Unfortunately, my Pray for Pow beer didn’t bring any pow back to us (as I’d learn in the coming several weeks), but it sure did hit the spot, and made for really nice ending to an otherwise stressful day. Drinking a good beer in the company of my ski patrol family at the end of the day reminded me of what I really enjoy most about patrolling, and soon the stress of the day was washed away with the laughter of the parking lot crowd hanging out by the campfire. All in all, I’d have to say it was a pretty good day on the mountain.

January 2, 2022 – First Patrol Day of 2022

After a pretty fun day of turns the day before, I headed up to the Pass with Shaun in tow for my first patrol day of 2022. The forecast was calling for mostly sunny skies, and the snow looked to be in decent shape after several feet had fallen over the prior several days. We pulled into the parking lot and I geared up, and then headed over to the patrol room to get ready for the day…

The lodge and patrol room in the early morning

Patrollers gathering ready for the morning meeting

Around 8 am, we started the morning meeting and discussed plans for the day, which included sled check-offs for existing alpine patrollers. We also had a quick conversation about assessments and upper extremity injuries, and then it was time to head out and open the mountain. After making a run, I headed back to the car and got Shaun, and we headed back out on the hill.

We made some good runs on the front, and enjoyed the snow on Good Time and High Lead. After a couple of runs, we headed down at 10:00 am so I could spend some time with the Spy to get them lined out for the day. While Anna and I were working with the Spy, Shaun headed back out on the hill to make some more turns.

After working with the Spy on various activities around the base, I headed back up top to EPA to get ready for sled-checks. Both Joe and Ian were up and set to lead the sled running, and we determined High Lead would be a good run for the check-offs.

Bringing an unloaded sled down the top of High Lead

I ended up running the sled with Tyler, and brought it down to the top of High Lead unloaded. Laurie then hopped in, and with me in the handles and Tyler on the tail rope we headed out.

The run was a bit on the icy side, and it took me a minute to remember that instead of trying to muscle the sled it was better to push down on the handles and engage the break to make the sled do the work, and then feather the handles as needed for navigation. Once Laurie reminded me of that, it was smooth sailing down the run. Halfway down, Tyler and I switched, and he took over the handles while I grabbed the tail rope. The check went smoothly, and soon we were back out on the hill ready for another run.

I linked back up with Shaun at the top of EPA, and we made a couple more runs together, and then I wanted to check out RTS with Dan while Shaun skied one of the front side runs and would meet us at the base.

RTS was in pretty good shape — it was definitely skier cut, but the packed powder skied well and we enjoyed turns down to the bottom.

As the afternoon wore on, we made a few more runs on the front side, finishing up with a couple on Timburr, after receiving clearance from the area to do a little chain saw work and cut up a couple of trees that had fallen on the run —- one that had fallen a few days prior and one that had just fallen the night before.

We made our way down to the base after checking on John and Dave who were working with the saw, and then headed up for another lap. There was an empty Cascade 100 that needed to go up, so I grabbed it and headed up. At the top, Laurie was waiting to greet me, and I snapped a pic of here getting ready to take one of the OEC training sleds back down to the base….

It looked like we had plenty of time for another run down Timburr, and I wanted to stop and give John and Dave a hand with the tree work. By the time we got there, they had cut the log from the new tree up into large chunks, and Calvin and I helped them with rolling/pushing them off the run and out of the ski path.

After our work, we made it to the base just in time to catch the last chair for sweep. Shaun rode up with me and was happy to be able to help with sweep.

While we were waiting for sweep to begin, I pulled out the camera and snapped a few pictures of the sun setting over Diamond Peak, with Shaun in the first one and Anna and Tyler in the second.

Closing began a few minutes later, and we swept the hill clean without incident. At the base, we held a quick evening meeting, and then it was time to enjoy some tasty Red Chair beers from Deschutes Brewery that I had brought up for everyone. The cold beer hit the spot after a long day, and it was a great day to end my first patrol day of 2022.

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Author: Matt

January 29, 2022 – Peak 2 Opener

January 24, 2022 – Mt St Helens

January 23, 2022 – Never ending sunshine

January 15, 2022 – High Pressure & Helicopters

January 2, 2022 – First Patrol Day of 2022