Splitboard Oregon

12/22/18 – All mountain opening weekend at the Pass

The whole mountain was open for the first time in two seasons, with the exception of one meager weekend last February, and I was looking forward to a great day of turns and my first day as hill chief on Patrol 2. I met up with Craig and Ed in Pleasant Hill, and we made the drive up Highway 58 to the Pass, arriving a bit before 7:30 am. I got my gear on quickly, grabbed a radio, and headed out to test fire a few shots with my new Canon 8-15 mm Fisheye lens. I was pretty stoked on the lens, and snapped a few photos around the base area, including the shot below in the early morning light…

After shooting a few pics and leading the morning meeting, we headed out to open the mountain. The snow conditions were fast with a few inches of fresh snow over the previous day’s groomers. I opened RTS, and was stoked to make turns down the run after all the work we’d put in earlier in the year cutting. It skied great, and the little tree island we left was clearly visible.

Around 10:00 am, several of us met up on Peak 2 for sled checkoffs. I ended up in the handles on the first run of the day with Joe loaded in the sled, and headed down June’s Run with Todd on the tail rope. Halfway down the run we switched positions and then ran the sled down to the bottom of Peak 2. We kept running laps on the backside with the sleds, and I pulled out my camera and snapped a few photos along the way…

Jody and Todd hauling Kerstin down Waldo

Around noon, I headed in for a quick lunch, supplied by the social committee. EPA was having some technical difficulties, but I chanced it after lunch and made another trip down RTS, and it was just as good as in the morning. I worked my way back over to Peak 2, and we continued sled training into the early afternoon.

Given that none of the patrol had run sleds in a couple of year’s, it was nice to knock the rust off and get folks back in the handles again. I snapped a few photos of the afternoon action, including the shots below….

Before long 3:30 pm rolled around, and it was time to sweep the backside, something I’d been looking forward to for the past two years. The quiet of sweep after everyone else has left for the day is quite surreal.

Once Peak 2 sweep was complete, it was time for upper mountain sweep. I stayed up top with Jodie while the rest of the patrol swept runs, and once everything was clear, we vacated via RTS. Twilight sweep was next, and then it was time for a quick evening meeting followed by beers from Oakshire and chips and salsa. Hanging out with the rest of the patrol, after signing duty cards and clearing the area with management, I was pretty stoked the season was now in full swing, and looking forward to more patrol days to come!

December 8, 2018 – Opening day at the Pass

The previous week’s storm and subsequent cold weather was enough to get the Pass open for the 2018-2019 season, and the stoke was high among the patrol after a non-existent season the winter before. Even though it was only the lower mountain that would be opening, I was pretty stoked to be able to get in some lift-served turns. I made plans to head up with Dan on Saturday and patrol with P1, given a conflict with my regularly scheduled P2 day on Sunday. We arrived in the parking lot to a base of about 12 inches, and set about getting ready for the day.

Dan, Quin & Jody outside the patrol room

After the morning meeting, we headed out to spin a few laps on the lift. My first few runs on Timbur Glades were pretty nice — the snow was dry powder and the run only had a few tracks on it. A little later, Dan and I decided it was worth it to hike over to High Lead glades and ski that run, too. I snapped a few photos on the way with my new Canon 5D Mark V, including the shots below…

After our runs, we headed in for some lunch, courtesy of the social committee.The brats and vege chili hit the spot, and I devoured it quickly. When lunch was over, Dan headed out with skins to check out the conditions on Peak 2, while I was tasked with some training for the make-up refresher. A few patrollers who weren’t able to make the regular refresher, along with the mountain hosts, needed to do chairlift evac, so we spent some time on EPA practicing skills.

Around 3:00 pm or so, our work was complete, and I made a couple of final runs before it was time for sweep. Brian and I hiked over to the upper portion of Lower Timbur Glades and found some decent conditions. Sweep commenced at 4:00 pm, and we were treated to a spectacular view of the sun setting into the fog…

After sweep, we gathered in the patrol room for a quick evening debrief, and then it was time for some beers courtesy of Oakshire. Hanging out in the patrol room catching up on the bs at the start of the season is one of the things I look forward to most about patrolling. Hopefully there’s many more days ahead, with a long and powder filled season!

November 9 & 17, 2019 – Cleanup and cutting at the Pass

It’s always amazing how quickly November rolls around after the summer ends, and this year we were back at the Pass again for the annual patrol room cleanup on the 9th of November. In what has become somewhat of an annual tradition, we were prepared to either ski or cut after our morning work of cleaning up the patrol room and checking avalanche and evacuation gear. This year the weather was warm and nice, so it would be cutting and not skiing. Dan, John, Greg and I set out around 11:45 am and drove up the haul road to the top of Twilight, eventually working our way up to the top of Amber’s Way.

Our goal for the afternoon was to make some more progress on the remaining trees on RTS. We’d spent several days last fall and made major progress on the run, clearing about 80% of it. The trees we left were a little over halfway up on skier’s right, and it took a bit of time to hike up there with the saws. We spent a couple of hours on the run, and cleared about half of what was left, leaving the rest for another day.

For the remaining couple of hours, we worked up and down the sides of the run, picking off trees we didn’t get the year before. Around 3:30 pm or so we were growing weary, and decided to call it and head down to the truck for a well deserved beer.

At the bottom of the run, we paused to look back up at our work, and it was pretty awesome to see the brown from last season’s work contrasting with the green of this season’s work. Sitting back at the truck, enjoying the last of the season’s garden fresh salsa and a cold beer, we agreed it would be good if we could get one more day of cutting in prior to the start of the season. As luck would have it, John, Dan and I were back at the Pass the following weekend, and this time Joe joined us for the fun.

Our target was to do some brushing on the lower mountain, in hopes of making the slopes more conducive to skiing in low snow depths. We spent several hours roaming the mountain, trimming the small bushy trees that have sprung up in the past several years making the skiing more difficult. We took a break for lunch, but other than that worked hard until about 2:30 pm on what turned out to be a rather warm day.

At the end of the day, we worked our way back to the car, changed out of our saw gear, and took a well deserved break to enjoy a cold one and some fresh pepperoni made from the Trout Creek buck I got a month and a half earlier in southeastern Oregon.

With the refresher, ski swap, and saw work all complete, all that remains now is for the snow to fly. Whatever the season the brings, we’ll definitely be ready!

Protected: December 6, 2018 – North Sister, Villard Glacier

December 1, 2018 – Willamette Pass

After a super dry spring, summer and fall, snow falling in the mountains was a welcome sight. The forecast was calling for around 12 inches of fresh, so Dan, Joe and I made plans to head to the Pass on the first day of December and check out the conditions. I met Dan at his house, and we headed up the highway to meet Joe, who had spent the night near the pass in his pickup truck. After a quick pit stop at the snowpark, we pulled into the Pass to take care of a few patrol related items.

After we got our patrol obligations taken care of, it was time to head out. There was about a foot of fresh snow at the base, and it felt good to have the skis and skins on the feet and to be breaking trail again. By the time we headed up Timber Glades and made it to the base of High Lead, there was about 18 inches of snow for a base – definitely more than we were expecting given the way the recent storms have fizzled in comparison to the predicted forecasts.

We worked our way up to the top of High Lead, and decided the snow was so good that we’d run laps on the frontside for a little bit. Our first turns took us right back down High Lead, and then we skinned back up and checked out Charlie’s. Both runs were awesome, and skied really well.

Dan enjoying December turns on High Lead

With two laps in the bag, we decided it was worth the investment to make one more lap on the front of the mountain before heading over and checking out the backside. As an added bonus, we were able to reuse our skin track for a fourth time. The third time down the front was equally as good as the first two…

I was surfing the snow on my homemade Jamie Lynn 160 Lib Tech split, which I really like in corn or a few inches of fresh snow. It definitely doesn’t have the float of my powder splits, and was a bit more work to keep afloat on, but as the pics below show, it didn’t hold me back too much…

With four runs in the bag on the front, it was time to head over to Peak 2 and check things out. We stopped at the top of EPA and chatted with Quinn (a fellow patroller and friend) who had come up with a friend and was getting ready to drop into Timburr. We all agreed the area was looking good and were cautiously optimistic they may be able to get open soon if the weather cooperated.

We made the short skin up and over to Peak 2, and the snow stake was showing 30 inches. To our amazement, the couple we had talked to in the snowpark earlier and who we had watched skin over to Peak 2 while we were lapping the front hadn’t skied Northern. We pulled out a couple of beers to celebrate….

The coverage on Northern looked really good, and the nuisance trees that were there a few weeks ago had been cut by the area, so the lower half of the run was baby butt smooth. We set up to take a few pictures, and dropped in.

Joe enjoying turns on the first day of December

There was probably 18-20 inches of fresh snow on top of the residual, and although it was slightly wind affected, it was pretty sweet. At the bottom, it began to snow again, and we set to work punching in a track back to the top of the hill for one more lap on the back.

The second lap was just as fine as the first, and Dan snapped a few pictures of me near the bottom with his cell phone. I tried pulling a wheelie at the bottom, and to my surprise the shot actually turned out. Meow.

With 5 runs in the bag, we were starting to get a bit tired, and agreed it was time to head over to the front for a ski out to the truck. We skinned up and over Peak 2, and staged at the top of EPA for a final run on the front. We chatted with the area owner, who was track packing down some of the snow (a good sign for a future opening), and then set off down Success, which looked good.

After we each hit a couple of rocks, we nixed that idea and worked our way through the trees to Timburr, and enjoyed a rock-free run from there. We finished the day off by exiting the lower mountain on By George, making powder turns right down the the truck and patrol room.

Sitting in the patrol room after skiing 5000 feet, while drinking a beer and enjoying some chips and salsa was a welcome treat. As we loaded up our gear in the truck and got ready to hit the road, we all agreed it really looked like the area could open in the next wee. After last year’s miserable season, that was a welcome sight!