Author: Matt

The last day of April seemed like a great day for another evening dusk patrol at the Pass, so Dan and I made plans to head up and meet Joe for some after work turns. I left work in the mid-afternoon and made my way to Dan’s, and we made good time up Highway 58, stopping to gear up at the Gold Lake snowpark.

We made the short drive to the Pass, parked the car, and headed across the parking lot to skin up. The snow was going fast on the front, so we elected to head up KP and try skinning up Eagle’s to meet Joe, who had been up already for a couple of hours making turns on the backside.

We made good time up to Eagle’s, and were both pretty surprised when we saw the run — it was melting really fast. It looked like there was one line that would go, and upon closer inspection, it indeed went through.

We linked back up with KP, and soon were lounging around up top with Joe. The first order of business as usual was to get the beer on ice, then dry skins and get the board into ride mode. About 7 minutes later, the beers were cold, and I pulled out my offering for the day, an Imperial Hazy IPA from Elysian Brewing Company https://www.elysianbrewing.com/.

Before we headed down, I pulled out the tripod, and snapped a shot of the three of us on top, a few moments before dropping in on RTS.

We shoved off, making turns in the soft snow, and headed towards RTS. Dan grabbed the camera, and snapped a few photos of me enjoying the turns heading down with beer in hand. The snow was in really good condition, and we worked down to the bottom, with obvious intentions of heading up for another lap.

Once at the bottom, we ditched packs and Joe and I set the bootpack back up. We arrived at the top about 20-25 minutes later, and I captured a shot of Dan topping out just past the steep headwall.

At the top of the Success Patch, we geared back up and headed down for a second lap. This time, I snapped some pictures of Joe and Dan as they skied down. Joe came ripping by me, and a couple of the below shots show him harvesting some pretty nice evening snow on the last day of April.

I headed down, then stopped just above the fallen tree that came to define our 2020-2021 season, and took a shot looking down at the skiers below. Dan’s just finishing making turns in the pic below, and Joe is waiting at the packs. Then, it was time to put the camera away and enjoy some more really nice turns down to the bottom.

At the bottom, we checked our watched, and decided another run was definitely in order, and it was nice to re-utilize the bootpack again. This time, we headed back up to the top of EPA for a run from the very top, stopping to admire the views at the top of Success looking out over Odell Lake and Diamond Peak.

We hung out on top for 15 minutes or so, and then dropped in for our third and final run of the afternoon. The clouds were starting to roll in as we shoved off, but the snow was getting better on each lap. I shot a few more photos, including the two below of Dan, and then we milked turns back down to the bottom of the run.

I came down last again, after the skiers, and enjoyed each and every turn right to the packs. Looking back at the run, it was looking pretty fine with our 9 tracks right down the middle of it.

From the bottom of RTS, we headed out via Lois Lane, and then worked our way over to Swoosh, which was starting to melt out quite rapidly. It skied really nicely though, and we were able to ski most of the way back down to the bottom.

Near the base, we skied down the haul road to where the snow patched out. Joe continued walking/skiing across, but Dan went down trying to get his ski off, and I wasted little time pulling out the camera:)

We milked the last few patches down to the base, and then made the short hike out to the cars parked out front. Looking back, it was a bit sad seeing the snow melt so fast on the front, and it really hit home that winter was definitely over.

We didn’t hang around the highway for too long, and headed back down to the snowpark for some cold drinks and grilling activities. The brats definitely hit the spot, and capped off another excellent day of dusk patrol turns at the Pass. Until next time….

 

For a variety of reasons I’d missed the window to make some weekend turns, but Monday afternoon was beginning to hold some promise for a dusk patrol mission to the Pass to test out my latest DIY split. I text Jack, who was in town, and we made plans to meet at the area around 4:00 pm. I stopped off at Gold Lake on my way up to gear up, and when I pulled up to the gate at the Pass Jack was ready to go. We headed out almost as soon as I locked up my car, and started skinning up George.

The sun had been working the snow over pretty good since I’d last been up, and the surface was quite a bit bumpier than we were expecting, at least on the front side. The skin up KP and then to Eagles went quickly, and soon we were up top enjoying the view…

My first order of business was to get my beer on ice. The offering for today was a tasty, albeit stiff, Beaker Breaker IPA from Pelican Brewing Company. Seven minutes later when it was cold, I had my first drink and it definitely was refreshing. A few minutes after that, Jack and I stepped into bindings and slid off towards RTS to make a few turns.

The snow was in pretty good shape on RTS, and much more smooth than what we encountered on the south side runs skinning up. We skied it down to the bottom, took a few pictures along the way, and then started setting a boot pack for the trip back up.

A short time later, we were back at the top of the run, and decided to head to the top of EPA again for a second lap from the summit. I captured a few photos of Jack booting up the snow, as well as the dry ground, along the way…

Back on top, I drank the rest of my beer, and we wasted little time dropping in for lap number two. The turns down the second time around were better than the first, and I had a feeling they would get better as the afternoon turned to evening.

We made turns back down to the bottom of our bootpack, and proceeded to head up again for a third lap, this time stopping at the top of the run 50 or 75 feet below the top of EPA. On our way down for the third run, Jack decided to do his best Dan impression, and skied while drinking a beer. I gotta say, he’s basically got it nailed!

I continued shooting photos as we headed down, and captured several of Jack enjoying the steep slope. At the bottom, we checked our watches and decided we had enough time for one more, so we reused our boot pack for a third time.

For our final lap, we headed back to the top of EPA to milk the turns from the summit. Dropping in, the snow just kept getting better and better. I have no doubt that if we would have done a fifth and sixth lap, they would have been the best of the day.

At the bottom, we decided to head out via Lois Lane, and then skirt over to Rough Cut to check out the conditions. Lois skied quite nicely, but as we started down Rough Cut the snow became really choppy and bumpy. A little bit of that and we decided to traverse over to Swoosh, which proved to be a better choice.

We skied the dirty, albeit relatively smooth snow down Swoosh right to the parking lot, and made the short hike over to the cars. Jack had a couple of beers on ice from Montana, and I was more than happy when he pulled them out and offered me one…

The ice cold Cold Smoke’s from Kettlehouse Brewing Co. hit the spot, and were super tasty. I can see now why Jack is always raving about them. If I can ever find these here in Oregon, I’ll be purchasing a 4-pack.

As we were sitting there enjoying our beers and reflecting on the evening of skiing, an ODOT crew pulled up and cleaned off the Snow Zone sign that I always like to take a picture of. I’d always wondered, and now I know what the wooden 2 x 4’s in front of the sign are used for….

A short time later, with our beers finished, it was time to head home. I bid Jack farewell, and headed down the road, satisfied with another great evening of turns at the Pass. Here’s a parting shot from the day…