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!