Category: Ski Patrol

Saturday looked to be a pretty good day on Patrol, with a load of new snow coming in overnight along with strong winds. I left my house early, and arrived in the patrol lot around 7:30. There were several campers there from the night before, and people were already pulling into the main lot, so I knew it was going to be a busy day.

It snowed pretty hard all morning, and by 8:15 am the rest of the patrol was gathered at the base and we started our morning meeting. I grabbed the avy gear and rope, knowing we’d need to head out on the avy route before we could get Peak 2 open. After the morning announcements, we headed out to open the hill.

We had to hang at the base of EPA for a little while, since the lift had some icing issues from the night before, but once it spun a full revolution, we headed up. Dan, Jon, Brian and I headed over to Peak 2 for the avy work, and Buz went up to get equipment taken care of.

At the top, we did a quick beacon check and then headed out. Dan and I noticed right away that we were able to get shooting cracks while doing ski cuts along the top of the ridge between Northern and June’s, and figured we’d find some interesting results in the meadow.

We worked our way out towards the Nose, then Brian and Dan headed back to setup for the lower route. Jon and I continued on, and roped up once we got to the nose. I donned the harness, and cut some cornices on the Nose that produced some pretty large snow releases. Next, it was time to ski cut the ridge to the west of the Nose. I was glad to be doing so while on belay, since this was one of those days where the whole slope propagated on my first ski cut. It’s always impressive to see the snow run several hundred feet below, and the approximately 18 inch crown and resulting slab that went would have definitely ruined someone’s day.

We skied down through the meadow after controlling the rest of the ridge, and then regrouped with Brian and Dan after making a few nice turns. At the bottom of the meadow, I called the route clear, and the patroller at the top of the hill lifted the saddle closure. We made it down to the bottom and were just able to load the chair when the public started showing up at the base.

Dan and I hung around for a few runs on the back, enjoying the fruits of our labor from the morning avy work, and got a couple of good runs in on June’s and Northern before heading back to drop off our gear. On the way back, we needed to give a courtesy ride to a guest that was having difficulty on Twilight.

Once back at the base, we took the sled back to the top of Twilight, and finally made our way to the car for a quick bite to eat. It continued to snow, so lunch was short due to the weather, and the fact that we were having a pretty busy day with incidents on the hill.

I headed back out on the hill after about a 15 minute break, and made my way back to Peak 2. Upon riding the chair back to the top, I need to backup Patrick for a knee laceration injury at the base of Boundary. It ended up being a pretty deep laceration, so I headed down with the sled, ultimately getting pulled around the haul road by Rick and the snowmobile. I was pretty stoked to be riding my Amplid Dada for the haul. Later in the day, we had several more incidents, ultimately ending with 11 incidents and 3 courtesy rides, making for a 14 sled day. Needless to say, all of us were happy when the hill closed, and after a quick evening meeting, it was definitely time for a cold one.

My beer of choice for the evening was a tasty Hazy Trail, from 10 Barrel Brewing. It definitely hit the spot as I relaxed by the fire and enjoyed it with some of the motor home crowd. Eventually, it was time to head home, but given it was a long weekend, I was looking forward to coming back with my son on Monday.

Shaun and I arrived around 8:30 on Monday, and helped open Twilight. After opening, we headed up to spin a few laps on EPA, and then went to Peak 2 after lunch. Shaun was having fun, and wanted to try some harder runs, so we hit Escalator, Destiny and then Northern.

It was his first time ever down Northern, and it was great to see him excel. After spending some time on Peak 2, we headed back over to Twilight to finish off our day with a few runs on the front, before heading out around 2:45. All in all, it was an excellent weekend on patrol at the Pass, with good snow as well.

 

Sun was in the forecast and it looked to be a fun day at the Pass. After our morning meeting, we headed out to open the hill, which went smoothly. A short time later, I found myself helping with the sled training crew on the frontside. The goal for the day was to get some work in with both the 100 and the 350. I split my time between shooting photos and riding in the sled as ballast for Raleigh, Amber, Val and Norm.

We spun a couple of laps with the 100 on the frontside, and then it was time to bust out the 350. Amber and Raleigh were rocking it, and made it look easy…

Before long it was time for lunch, and then some more training. We continued to work the frontside, and it was Val’s turn to spend a little time in the handles of the 350.

Before long, the hours of the afternoon wore on, and it was time to put the sleds away and get ready to close the mountain. Sweep went smoothly, and soon we were down at the base for the evening meeting before calling it a day. All in all, it was another great day at the Pass. Here’s a couple of additional shots from the day.

The final day of January turned out to be a pretty good one at the Pass. Patrol 2 was on the schedule, and I was hill chiefing for the day, so I arrived at the hill early to take care of business prior to opening. The forecast was calling for 1-2 inches during the day, and I wasn’t expecting much. It looked like about an inch had fallen overnight, and it was still coming down as we conducted our morning meeting and headed out to open the hill.

It didn’t take long to get the frontside open, and Peak 2 was open a few minutes after that. It continued snowing, and conditions were pretty good on the back, even though the day before had seen the biggest crowd of the season at the hill. I snapped a few pictures of patrol gearing up to open the mountain, and then headed over to Peak 2.

After a lap on the backside, I hung out up top for a few minutes, hoping to run into Andy who was coming up for the day. After about a 5 minute wait, I spotted him on the chair and we were able to get a few runs together. We headed down through Obvious Choice, which rode really nicely, and then decided to check out Lighthouse. Surprisingly, nobody had skied the headwall the day before, so we dropped in for some really nice turns…

A couple of calls came in over the radio that I had to dispatch, and then it was time for a second lap, this time heading over towards Dragon’s to check out the terrain in the glades. It turned out to be a good call, and we were able to enjoy some good turns there as well. All the while it continued to dump really hard…

Back up top, I convinced one of my fellow patrollers to snap a picture of Andy and I, and even though I had my patrol coat on, it reminded me of the days gone by of some good lift-accessed ski turns we used to make all over the state over 10-15 years ago at places like Mt Hood Meadows, Timberline, Mt Bachelor, Hoodoo, and the Pass.

We made three or four more runs back on Peak 2, and around 1:00 headed down for lunch. I bid Andy farewell, knowing he was leaving in an hour or so and that there was additional work to do on the frontside. It was snowing hard at base when I got down, and after a hasty lunch, I headed back out on the hill.

It continued to snow for the rest of the day, and we had a couple more incidents and courtesy rides, but overall it was a really good day. Peak 2 sweep commenced at 3:40 per usual, and even though it was the end of January, it was only the second time during the season that I was able participate as an actual sweeper and make it to the bottom.

After Peak 2 sweep, we headed over to EPA to close the upper mountain, and pushed off a few minutes after 4 in the thick clouds and snow. I stayed up top while the sweepers headed down, which is always a nice treat to be the last person up there, then vacated via RTS to help Anna on Twilight. Since we were pretty short staffed, we had to get help from the area to sweep all but one run on Twilight, and then it was off to do some fencing work before ending the day.

The day ended with our evening meeting, and a picture of Patrol 2 and the flexers that I took while everyone did their best to maintain social distancing. Overall, it was a really nice day that exceeded expectations, and by the day’s end there was 8 inches of new snow up top.

After putting the radios away, checking the incident report forms, and wiping down the aid room, it was time to head out. The drive down highway 58 went smoothly, and soon I was home by the fire enjoying a “free” beer courtesy of Oakshire Brewing that had been donated to the patrol. This offering was an old favorite — a smooth tasting Watershed IPA that definitely hit the spot.

With a snowier than forecast day over and another patrol day in the books, the final day of January was definitely one to remember, and hopefully a precursor for things to come later this season.

January 2nd was the first Patrol 2 day of 2021, and while it was hard to believe 2020 was over, I wasn’t necessarily sad to see it leave and usher in a new year. I arrived at the Pass early, well ahead of the rest of the patrol, and set about gearing up for the day. Heading over to the patrol room, I snapped a few pics of the hill in the early morning light with my fisheye lens…

Once in the patrol room, I filled out the whiteboard with the daily assignments, and then headed out to EPA to talk with Tim about the day. Bennet was at the bottom of EPA with the groomer, and with my fisheye lens still on the camera, I was able to get some pretty cool shots, including the one below…

After talking with Tim, and confirming it had been windy the night before, I headed back to the patrol room to get ready for the morning. Soon after, the rest of patrol arrived, and we had a quick morning meeting and loaded EPA by 8:20. Given the windy conditions the night before, I sent Jon, Dan and Anna out to check the avy route, and the rest of us worked to get the frontside open.

A half hour later or so, with avy work complete, we opened Peak 2, and I met Dan up top to take a few laps, before we headed back down to the base.

Down at base, we got a quick bite to eat, and then met Tim outside the patrol room to talk business. After some discussion, we agreed a little saw work was in order on a few downed trees on Down Under and RTS that had fallen during a previous wind event. Dan and I headed out with a saw and shovel in tow, and worked our way over to Peak 2.

Skiing with the saw was pretty fun, since usually we’re having to pack them around on foot earlier in the year, but the cutting work was a bit more tedious than in the fall. Clearing the branches required quite a bit of digging, as well as wallowing in the snow, but soon we had our work complete on Down Under and worked our way over to RTS…

On RTS, we got half of the tree cleaned up before getting the call from 20 about an incident at the top of Twilight. With Patrol 2 being pretty thin this year, and some of my other resources already on other calls, I dispatched myself to the scene, with Dan as my backup. The incident turned out to be a routine wrist injury, and after a quick sled ride to the base, it was time to head back up to Peak 2 for sweep. On this afternoon, I stayed up top to put the equipment away, as well as to snap a few pictures of the patrol coming back up on the last chairs.

With Peak 2 sweep complete, we headed over as a group for upper mountain sweep off of EPA, and Dan and I stayed up top since we had enough coverage for the runs with mountain hosts and SPY. Sitting at the top after everyone had pushed off, it reminded me of evening dusk patrols from years past. The only thing missing was a cold beer, and perhaps a little cold pow!

After snapping a few pics and when the runs were swept clean, we headed down to Twilight via RTS. By the time we got to the bottom, lower mountain sweep was already on, so we picked up the saw, which was stashed in the Twilight lift shack, and headed down.

We headed down Swoosh, enjoying good turns, and then worked our way down to the base. Once everyone was in, we had a brief evening meeting, and then Dan and I took care of a few things that needed tending to in the patrol room, including laundry. Given a flurry of late in the day incidents, there was quite a bit of laundry to do, and we ended up working until 7:00 pm. The one good thing was we had a few beers to keep us company, and it was actually kind of fun to just chill in the aid room, looking at pictures of old patrollers as well as the different awards from season’s gone by.

My beer of choice for the evening was an excellent tasting Bulldog Stout from McKenzie Brewing, which Dan went with his standard Prisimatic from Ninkasi. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, our beers were gone, and it was time to pull the last load of blankets from the washer and put them in the dryer. With that chore accomplished, it was time to head out. All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to start 2021, and I’m definitely looking forward to more powder turns this winter. Hopefully 2021 can deliver!

Word came on Thursday morning that opening day at the Pass would be on Saturday, and since Patrol 2 was on the schedule, I was eager to head up. Since I was hill chiefing for the day, I left the valley early to get a head start on the day’s activities, which would also be challenged by the new protocols in place to deal with COVID-19 precautions. I pulled into the parking lot around 7:30 am and soon after a few others pulled in as well.

After booting up at the car, a change from year’s past where we were able to gear up in the warm patrol room, I talked with Hutch about the needs for the day, and then headed over to chat with Tim about his thoughts for the day. As it turns out, he was hoping to have all the lifts spinning as soon as possible, so we had some work cut out for us. P4 had been up earlier in the week and taken care of most of the lower mountain, so that left us to take care of gear and tower pads on EPA and Peak 2.

The morning was a frenzy of loading tower pads, sleds and medical gear onto EPA and taking it to the top. We got the runs off EPA open, and the coverage on the hill was looking great. A short time later, we deployed a crew back to Peak 2 to get it setup, and help get tower pads on. I pulled out the camera to take a few shots of Dan and Joe checking out the new bump shack at the top of EPA, placed there so we wouldn’t have to bump in the actual lift shack with the lifties, as well as Joe and Anna demonstrating the proper space for social distancing…

I took a few runs off of EPA while some of the crew worked behind the scenes on Peak 2, and spent quite a bit of time setting up fencing as well as being on the radio directing traffic.

Sometime around 11:30 am, the crew on Peak 2 was ready to go, and it opened to the public. I was at the top of EPA at the time, so I decided it was worth a hike up to the top instead of riding down and then taking an 8 minute chair ride up. At the top, I arrived about the same time that Dan was getting off the chair. Looking down the lift line, I could quite a few public loaded on the chairs, ready to tear it up. Dan and I wasted little time at the top, and headed over to make some turns down June’s Run, which was covered with about 8-10 inches of fresh, dry snow.

June’s was awesome, and we ripped turns down to the bottom, and skied the roomer out under the lift to the base of Peak 2. As will be the norm for this season on patrol, we rode the chair individually on the way back up, and were soon ready for another lap.

After a couple of more runs on Peak 2, we headed back over to the front to set up the last of the fencing at the Sleepy headwall, and since it was nearing 2:00 pm and I was getting hungry, we took a break for lunch.

Lunch breezed by, and I headed back on the hill for some more work. All of the runs except RTS and Success were open, but some of the public was poaching into Success, so we needed to get the last few tower pads put on the upper towers. I had a blast making turns down Success with the heavy pad that acted like a sail, and after that final bit of work, it was time to head back to Peak 2 for closing.

Peak 2 sweep went off without a hitch, and then it was time to head over to EPA for closing. Dan was running upper mountain sweep, and since we had enough folks, I stayed up with him at the top. My intentions were obvious — I wanted to exit via RTS — and being hill chief has it’s privileges. Plus, I wanted to check out a couple of large trees that had fallen across the run a few weeks earlier, and see what level of effort might be needed with the saw to take care of them. Once all of the upper mountain runs were called in clear, we stepped into our bindings and headed down…

RTS skied really well, and we enjoyed turns down the steep slope. The two large fallen trees were still well out of the snow, or rather at least their branches were, and I made a note to pass that info along to Patrol 4 for some possible saw work later the next week. We skied out the rest of the run in the waning light, and it reminded me of good times from dusk patrols in seasons gone by. At the bottom, we skied out Louis Lane, and then down Swoosh to the base. A quick evening meeting outside the patrol room ensued, and then it was time to call it a day.

At the car, after changing out of my boots, I joined Dan for a beer at the fire ring with a few of the motor home crowd. It was nice to shoot the breeze after a fun day of work and turns, and I thoroughly enjoyed my Fresh Haze IPA from Deschutes Brewery. Since it was dark, I did the logical thing and snapped a photo of the can during my lunch break earlier in the day, although I suppose I could have resorted to a tripod and flash, but that seemed like too much work:)

After a half hour of enjoying the company around the fire, it was time to hit the road and head for home. I was pretty stoked on the day, happy to be riding lifts again, and looking forward to another good season of patrolling at the Pass. Until the next time, here’s a parting shot from the day…