Category: Trip Reports

Cold smoke in October isn’t very common, especially on the lesser peaks in the cascade range. This year however, an unusually wet and cold storm had been moving through the mountains, and I’d been watching the snow pile up on the Hoodoo webcams for the past several days. A perfect weather window looked to present itself for Wednesday morning, with sunshine and cold temps forecast, and that was all the persuading Todd and I needed to head to the hill for an early season dawn patrol. Driving up Highway 126 well before the crack of dawn, we arrived in the parking lot shortly before sunrise, and were greeted by roughly 25-30 inches of fresh snow. After putting on the skins and loading the packs, we started skinning and I knew it would be good when my boards hit the snow. Looking back to the east, the view of the morning sunrise over Black Butte was stunning….

Continuing up, it felt odd to be skinning through such deep snow in October, and the lure of pristine powder turns after a long fall and summer brought us to the top in relatively short order. The early morning light across the highway to the north on Three Fingered Jack made for a nice photo…..

The snow was deep enough that we elected to head right as we neared the summit and skin up the east face to avoid the last few hundred yards of harder skinning. As we rounded the last corner and crested the top, I took this shot of Todd with Mt. Washington in the background….

Once on top, we ripped skins quickly and strapped in. The first run down was excellent , with each turn yielding some of the lightest snow a person will ever find in the Oregon cascades, and face shots aplenty.

Heading down the NE facing aspect, I dropped a little cornice, and eventually headed into the main bowl, and was surprised to not hit any rocks or trees. Todd grabbed my camera from me and snapped a few photos, including the one below which made the cover page of both turns-all-year and splitboard.com

Todd pulled his hamstring at the bottom of our first run, so I headed back up solo with my Burton Custom DIY split, and run number two was equally as good as number one. This time I dropped directly down the main bowl, and was rewarded with several more face shots.

Back at the car, it was hard to leave such good conditions, and looking back on it, next time I’ll probably tell work to pound sand, but since both Todd and I had obligations back at work, we headed out. The drive home passed quickly, both of us high on early season powder turns, and we pulled into the office by 11:00 am. Overall, conditions couldn’t have been any better for late October. Unfortunately, the snow isn’t going to last, as warmer temps are forecast to return along with rain showers. It was pure bliss while it lasted though, and something I hope to repeat soon when the timing again is right!

On the last day of May, Todd and I headed out to Hoodoo to get turns in. It was the last chance for Todd to continue his turns-all-year streak, after suffering a hamstring injury earlier in the month in a softball game:). I had been out the weekend before with Andy at Mt. Bachelor, so I just tagged along for the fun of it. Given that access to the higher peaks was just starting to open up and that the Cascades Lakes Highway was still closed and that Todd wasn’t sure how much skinning/riding he could do, Hoodoo seemed like a good choice. 2008 has been an excellent snow year, and when we pulled into the parking lot at Hoodoo we could tell there was still tons of snow left. The weather was very nice and nobody was around. We made it to the top in short order, and Todd’s leg seemed to be doing good. We made a couple of runs in the main bowl and skinned back up to the top. We didn’t take any pics today, but did take some video, from which I pulled some still pictures from. Here’s a shot of me coming down the main bowl on run number one…..

Todd spent most of the day riding without his t-shirt since it was humid and warm. He did pay for it later though, since the sunscreen didn’t really work to well once it sweated off. We made a run down the east face, which was slightly steeper and still held good snow most of the way to the bottom. Here’s a shot of Todd on that pitch….

We climbed back to the top once more and soaked up the views in the sun. It was pretty amazing being able to get such good snow at such low elevation on the last day in May. The snow will likely be good well into June! Strapping into the bindings once more, it was time to make one more run all the way down to the car. Here’s a shot of me heading down….our previous tracks are barely visible up top. I can’t believe there was still a cornice guarding the top of the slope…..

Back at the car, we cracked a few beers and admired our tracks on the mountain. Todd felt like he was back in commission, and we were both ready for bigger and better pursuits in the coming months. It was quite peaceful in the parking lot around 1:00 with nobody around, and we enjoyed the warm weather and suds. Todd commented that it would be nice just to just have a camp right there and catch a few Z’s in the tent before doing it all again. I couldn’t agree more……

After 3 days of relaxing with family and friends in Sunriver, riding Mt. Bachelor and exploring Bend, Todd, Andrew and I headed out to Tam McArthur Rim to test out the new yurts run by Three Sisters Backcountry Inc., which are in the first year of operation. These guys offer fully guided trips, but we chose just to be shuttled into the yurt, dropped off and do it ourselves. The place lived up to expectations.  We left Sunriver early in the morning, and after a brief stop in Sisters, met Shane at the trailhead. We quickly loaded our gear in the sled and trailer, and headed out for the 6 mile snowmobile ride into Three Creeks Lake. The lake sits at the line of the Three Sisters Wilderness, so access up the relatively flat 6 miles of road is by snomo or skins, but the Rim area is all accessed by skins.  It wasn’t long before we started gaining some elevation, and the terrain of the rim opened up before us.

The riding possibilities looked endless, with steeps, cornices, and big lines everywhere. We unloaded our gear when we arrived at the yurt, checked the place out, and were out touring by 10 am. We were blessed with bluebird skies for the whole trip, and great powder on the north facing aspects. Since it hadn’t snowed in several days,the avalanche danger was low, making the steep stuff accessible. By noon, we had skinned to the top of the rim and toured out to the high point near 7800 feet. The views to the south and west of Broken Top and the Sisters were amazing. The below photo shows a panoramic view with Broken Top, South Sister, and North Sister…

After enjoying the view for a bit, I skinned over to join Todd on the overlook point. I snapped this photo of Andrew still admiring the Oregon cascades in their late winter splendor……

This shot shows Todd skinning out to the overlook, with Black Butte in the background to the left….

The lines out towards Broken Hand (center left) and Broken Top looked tasty……a couple of the steep couloirs on Broken Top had a few tracks that were probably 4 or 5 days old, and were most likely Shane’s from Three Sisters Backcountry, as he said he’d hit the north face a few days earlier…..

We dropped in on the east facing line off the high point of the ridge after digging a pit that revealed no instabilities. The turns were decent wind packed powder, but we were in search of something a little better. We skinned back up to the top of the ridge to an area called the Playground, and proceeded to make a couple more laps before heading down to the yurt to get settled in for the evening. That night we had a good freeze dried dinner, but will definitely be packing a bit different next year as the kitchen is fully stocked with cooking gear. The yurt was super cozy, and we kept the fire going most of the night. The next morning dawned clear and cold, so we toured out towards the main bowl in the rim.

Upon reaching the top, we dropped the same east facing line as the day before, but only for about 300 feet before traversing west and into the main bowl. The views to the north west while traversing were really nice, and we could Jefferson as well as the North Sister peeking through the clouds…

We rode down the east part of the bowl and then switched to skins to put in a track and hit the goods on the west/middle section. Here’s Andrew riding down just before the traverse began….

The powder was epic, due to the fact that all the moisture had been sucked out of the snow from temps in the single digits the night before. Again, we dug a pit near the top after skinning through some small trees. It revealed a weak layer 80 cm down or so (an old crust), but there were no results with an extended column test or compression test. The first run down the bowl was amazing. Here’s Todd ripping some fresh stuff in one of the main bowls……..

Andrew then dropped in and took a few photos of us riding with my camera. Here’s a shot of me riding the goods…..

We skinned back up for more laps, since the vertical we were getting was around 1000 feet per run. A slight upwind had partially filled in our skin track near the top of the bowl….

Dropping in for the second run, the snow was just as good as the first…….

The snow was so good we continued back up our well laid skin track for more. The shot below shows the massive cornices above us that protect the rim. You wouldn’t want to be under one of those when they break off in the Spring. The wind was whipping a bit and you can see the snow blowing off the top of the cornice. We shot a bit of video of the wind and blowing snow, and it turned out pretty well.

After a bit more riding, we toured back to the east, made a couple of laps in the Playground, then rode down through the trees to the yurt. After a few beers and some food, I took the tripod out and took a few photos of the scenery. As the sun set behind the top point on the rim, I was able to take this shot…

Waiting a bit longer in the cold while drinking my beer paid off, and I was able to snap the below shot of the evening glow over Three Creeks Lake….

That night, we made sure to stoke the fire well, and also paid a visit to the sauna. I brought out the tripod and Andrew and I messed around taking night time photos. This shot of the Raven yurt with a 30 second exposure turned out really nice….

The third morning dawned crystal clear and cold at 3 degrees F, and there had been some pretty strong winds at night. The three of us headed out west along the lake and made it back into one of the many bowls. The snow wasn’t quite as good as yesterday, the powder being packed down a bit. We still made several laps in the untracked, and also noticed that our tracks from the day before were covered. I hit a nice little rock drop that Andrew had found the day before and Andrew got this shot……

We toured back to the yurt around 10:30 and started to pack stuff up in preparation for a 2:00 departure. After some lunch, the three of us enjoyed a few games of Scrabble and got quite a kick out of some of the “words” we made. Andrew snapped this shot of Todd with the top of the yurt reflecting in his sunglasses….

Since the trip was almost over, we decided it was a good time to crack a few beers (when is not a good time to crack some beers?) and enjoy the warmth of the fire……….

Todd and I went back out for one more run and Andrew stayed in the yurt. We toured to the top of the rim, and headed east instead of west. We dropped into the Playground area, made nice big sweeping powder turns, then entered the trees lower down and rode our way out to the yurt. Shane was back at the yurt with the sleds, so we packed our gear and loaded up for the 6 mile pull out to the trucks. Here’s a parting shot heading down the access road….

This was a great trip, with ample area to play and ride. Our reservations are already in the books for next year!!!