Recent Posts
October 3, 2025 – Mt Bachelor Patches
The long awaited month of October was finally here. Why long awaited? Well, it meant 30 years of TAY for Dan (and 21 for Joe). The trouble was, there wasn’t nearly a lick of snow to be found anywhere in the PNW. The Palmer patch on Mt Hood was looking pretty anemic, but I had a suspicion that the patches on Mt Bachelor were holding, so we decided to head east in search of some elusive early fall turns.
We met early at Dan’s house, and loaded into the Tesla to drive over on electric power, making good time up highway 58 and then up the Cascades Lakes highway. Pulling off the highway and onto the access road to the mountain, I could see some patches up high and we were in business. After plugging in and shouldering our packs, we started off on the trail leading the way up the hill.
After a short bit on the trail, we exited stage left and headed up one of the steep runs to take a more direct line to the mid-mountain. Along the way, I found an old ski pole basket that was probably 75 years old or more. Of course, I had to take a picture…
We made good time up the hill on the crisp fall morning, and before long we were hiking the road/trail that led to the Cirque bowl patch. South Sister was looming in the distance and had a coat of white above 8,000 feet.
Eventually, we walked by the north patch and then the rope tow patch, both of which looked decent and would provide some nice turns if we chose to ski them on the way back. I stopped to snap a couple pictures, including the shots below of Dan looking on as well as one of just the patch itself…
As we made our way up to the Rope Tow, I was pretty stoked to see how good the Cirque patch was looking. It was quite full, and reminded me of my first October turns here back in 2015. We wasted little time, and switched over to ski boots, hiked the patch, and dropped in for a first lap!
Dan was a little behind us, so Joe and I started hiking back up while Dan was getting his ski boots on, and we waited for him at the top of the patch on our second lap.
The skies lightened up a bit for our second lap, and I dropped in first and ripped some really nice corn about halfway down the patch, and then stopped to get a few pictures of Dan earning his 360th month of consecutive turns.
We stopped briefly on the way back up to grab a snack, and it was also time to crack open my beer that had been sitting on ice. My beverage of choice for the day was a tasty 3-Way IPA, from Fort George Brewing, in partnership with Sunriver Brewing and Mirage Brewing. It definitely satisfied my taste buds, and I enjoyed each drink.
After our quick snack, we headed back up to get some more turns in. The quality of the snow was really good, and was helped by the fact that an inch or two of fresh snow from a few days ago smoothed out the patch considerably. Smooth snow makes for fun turns, as Joe demonstrates below…
As we made our way back up to the top of the patch for another lap, we were surprised to run into another skier. In all the years of making summer/fall turns on the patch, we hadn’t seen another skier as dumb as we were. We chatted for a bit, and then I recognized it was Bart from the Mt Bachelor ski patrol. I recognized him from a senior clinic we held at Willamette Pass earlier in the year. We chatted for a bit, and then all of us dropped in for a run.
Dan snapped some photos of me on the way down, and I returned the favor on the following lap by shooting several photos of him as he skied down. The sun was out again while I snapped photos of Dan, and as usual he made some showy turns for the camera.
At the bottom, we invited Bart to head back up and make a few more laps with us, and he obliged. The snow was good and we were enjoying chatting, so it didn’t take much arm twisting
On the next run, I dropped in and setup to shoot some shots of Bart as he came down (which I later emailed to him), and then took a few shots of Joe and Dan as well. The following six shots were from the same lap…
More turns and more pictures followed, and I’m running out of words to describe it so I’ll let the following pictures describe it…
We headed back up for a 10th and final lap (I’d been keeping track by stacking rocks in a row), and decided that we’d head down after earning about 1,500 feet of vertical (Dan’s standard), with some insurance turns waiting on the north side patches. On the final lap, Dan shot some more pictures of me enjoying some late summer/early fall snowboarding, and we wrapped up our turns on the Cirque patch.
We picked up our packs, finished our beers, and headed over to the northside patch, passing by the Rope Tow on the way. As usual, we had to hike down a bit over the rocks to get onto the snow, but it definitely wasn’t a big deal.
We ended up only making one run on the north patch – the snow was decent, but not nearly as smooth as the Cirque patch. It didn’t receive the small amount of fresh snow earlier in the week that the Cirque patch did, and that made quite a bit of difference. Nevertheless, I snapped a few pictures of the skiers as they headed down, and we still enjoyed the slope.
Once at the bottom of the north patch, the ski boots came off and the approach shoes went on, and it was a relatively easy hike back to mid-mountain.
Once at mid-mountain, we bid Bart farewell since he was parked over at the Sunrise lot, and we headed down as the clouds rolled in. Eventually, we worked our way to the base, hopped on the trail, and made our way back to the car.
At the car, we decided to load up the gear and head over to the nearby horse camp to do some grilling and celebrate the day. As we pulled in, we found one truck and horse trailer, but otherwise the place was empty. It also was an appropriate time for Joe to pull out a special custom made 30-year Turns All Year sticker for Dan, to commemorate his accomplishment. I snapped a few pictures of Dan, and we was all smiles…
A few minutes later the brats were ready on the grill, and it was time to enjoy another beverage. This time I opted for a River Refresher No-Mo IPA from the Crux Fermentation Project, and it wasn’t too bad, and paired nicely with a bratwurst!
We hung out for a bit, enjoying the brats, and chatting with the two old boys associated with the horse trailer who were planning to head up the following morning to do some deer hunting on the west side of the South Sister. The conversation and the food were both good, but soon the hour started to get late, and it was time to hit the road. All things considered, it was pretty much a perfect early October day in the mountains!
September 1, 2025 – Mt Hood, Palmer Patch
The dog days of summer we experienced in July and August were finally over, and that meant it was time for some September turns. Dan, Joe and I made plans to head out on Labor Day to Mt Hood, and check-in on the snow conditions since they were rapidly deteriorating, at least from what we could see on the Timberline webcam. I met Dan early as usual at the Harrisburg exit on I-5, and we carpooled up to the cop shop and picked up Joe in Albany. After a brief stop in Sandy to charge, we pulled into the Climber’s Lot a little after 8:00 am.
The mountain was looking pretty, and the Palmer was looking small, but there were turns to be had, so we got our gear together, shouldered packs, and headed out. Instead of heading up the road to Silcox, we headed over to the Mile Canyon to walk up that way. Joe had skied the canyon a few weeks prior, and was able to ski down quite low. Unfortunately, given the recent warm temps, the snow had melted quite a ways up and we were stuck in approach shoes for quite a ways.
A little over halfway up the Mile Canyon, we were able to get on snow and start skinning. As we donned skins, we met a few other skiers, including one who looked familiar. Turns out it was Silas Wild of Turns-All-Year fame. We chatted for a bit about TAY streaks and the good-old days of TAY past, and then continued on. Once we made our way to Silcox and the top of the Mile, it was a short hike on dirt and then back to skinning in the Palmer Canyon. The Palmer Canyon was also quite melted out on the top third prior to the mid-station, and then it was a longer than normal walk from the mid-station to where the snow remaining on the Palmer was waiting.
At the bottom of the Palmer, we donned skins once more and headed up. As we made our way about halfway up the Palmer, a bunch of other folks emerged below and it looked like, and sure enough was, the same crew out of Washington that we saw last year in September. It didn’t take long, and we were at the top of the snow on the Palmer, about 50-100 feet below the actual top station. The first order of business was to get the beer on ice, which I did promptly. A few minutes later, it was cold, and the Good Vibes Only hazy IPA from Baerlic Brewing hit the spot.
After a few sips of beer, we took the skins off the sticks and enjoyed a sandwich before getting ready to drop in. Our friends from Washington headed down first, and we watched as they slid down the Palmer, enjoying some nice turns.
I headed down first after most of the Washington crew disappeared below, and enjoyed some nice corn snow before setting up to shoot some shots of Joe and Dan as they dropped in. Both of them made perfect turns, thoroughly enjoying a perfect September corn harvest.
At the bottom of the snow, we regrouped and donned skins to head back up for another lap. As we were getting ready to head up, a group of three skiers and riders came down, and one of the skiers was Naoto, a friend of Joe and Dan’s and former patroller from Willamette from many years back. We hung out and chatted with him and his buddies for awhile, and it seemed like the perfect time to snap a picture of my second beer I’d brought up the hill. It was a refreshing Johnny Utah Pale Ale from Georgetown Brewing Co. After capturing the picture, I put it back on ice to enjoy later when we were done with the Palmer.
A bit later, we bit Naoto farewell and headed back up the Palmer for a second lap. At the top, the other half of my hazy IPA was waiting, and it was nice to be able to enjoy it along with a good view. Before we dropped in, we had to get the “sponsor” shot from the top, which was somewhat ironic given that I was riding a homemade split with no sponsor gear whatsoever. Nevertheless, the name “sponsor” shot has a good ring to it.
Eventually, it was time to drop in. Dan took the camera and headed down, and then snapped off a bunch of photos of me enjoying our second lap, including the four-shot sequence below.
About halfway down, we regrouped and I grabbed the camera, and slid down to shoot a few shots of Joe and Dan as they came down. I managed to capture a few shots with both of them in the frame that turned out pretty well…
The skiing was really good on the second lap, and not wanting to be quite done, we decided to ditch the skins and packs and head back up for a half lap to the mid-section of the snowfield where the snow was skiing the best.
We did just that, and after about 15 minutes or so of booting, were in position to make turns once again. I slid down first, enjoying several nice turns, and snapped a few more pictures.
We made our way back to our packs and gear, and after a brief break, enjoyed a few turns on a small but skiable strip of snow.
From the end of the snow, it was a longer than normal hike back to the mid-station. It was a bit depressing how much snow had melted since August, and it was beginning to look like getting October turns on the Palmer might be quite a challenge. Below is a picture of Dan looking quite small as we made our way over to the Palmer Canyon.
Once we made it to the Palmer Canyon, it was a short hike down to the snow below, and soon we were back to sliding. The turns were decent all the way down, and we had to pull the skis a few hundred above the Silcox and then walk down to the last patch of snow in the Mile Canyon.
The Mile held good snow for a few hundred yards, and we were able to link patches down and ski a bit more than we initially thought. Dan grabbed the camera and snapped several photos of me, including the pics below…
About halfway down, we saw another skier heading up and it was a familiar face – fellow turns-all-year enthusiast Amar Andalkar. We stopped and caught up with Amar for a few minutes, and chatted about our last outing when we skied together on the Avalanche Glacier Headwall on Mt Adams. After awhile, we continued on down while Amar continued on up, and made our way down to the final patches of snow before the turns were completely through.
The hike down to the Climber’s Lot went quickly, and soon we had brats on the grill and were enjoying some chips with fresh tomatillo dip. Both offerings absolutely hit the spot, and it felt great to hang out in shorts and flip flops after a great day of turns.
Before long, with the food gone and the hour growing late, it was time to pack up and hit the road. All in all, it was a great day of September turns on the mountain. Here’s a parthing shot of Dan and Joe on the Palmer enjoying some more of that great corn.
August 3, 2025 – Mt Hood, Southside
August turns were on the menu and Joe, Dan and I were ready to make them, so we made plans to head to Mt Hood early in the month and ride the snowfields above the Palmer. As usual, my wife dropped me off early at the Harrisburg exit on I5 where I met Dan, and we cruised up the freeway to Albany to pick up Joe at the cop shop before continuing on. After a short charging session in Sandy, we pulled into the climber’s lot a little before 8:00 am and found the mountain looking pretty.
After gearing up and loading my pack, I headed up to the usual spot to snap a few photos of the mountain ass well as the berries and flowers that were quite colorful and in mid-summer form.
A few minutes later, we headed out and began the hike up the road towards Silcox. As we made our way to the overlook into the Mile canyon, we were pretty happy to see the snow extended way down towards the lodge, which meant the return trip would be a lot of fun!
A bit later, we made our way to Silcox and enjoyed a quick break, and took a few minutes to get some water and a snack. We contemplated heading up towards the middle of the Palmer, and decided that would be the best course of action. Once the dirt path gave way to snow around the mid-station elevation, we worked our way to the east side of the snowfield and made a quick skin to the top, before continuing on up towards the White River triangle.
Dan was dragging behind a bit, so Joe and I continued up, making our way to Beer Rock. After a brief break, I called Dan and informed him of our plan to head up higher above the White River headwall and possibly descend via the Vietnam Couloir.
As we climbed higher, the mountain became inundated with California Tortoiseshell butterflies. There were so many the air was thick with them, and it reminded me of the big migration from several years back on the Middle Sister at the end of July/early August.
Eventually we worked our way above the headwall and up to the ridge separating the White River and Zigzag snowfields. As we approached the top of the Vietnam Couloir, I was happy to see the snow was smooth. We found a suitable place to access the snow, and settled in for a few minutes to soak in the views and get ready to ride.
Our vantage point also presented a good spot to snap a couple of pictures of my beer of choice for the day, which was a NW Nights IPA from Barhop Brewing that I’d picked up a few weeks earlier while vacationing on the Olympic Peninsula with my family. After firing off a few shots, I stashed the beer back in my pack in order to enjoy it later before dropping in on the Palmer lower down.
Before we dropped in, Joe snapped a few photos of me in the usual “sponsor” shot pose, and then we spent a few more minutes enjoying the millions of butterflies before stepping into skis and board to harvest some August corn.
I dropped in first, and weaved my way through the butterflies before stopping at a suitable point to pull the camera out to shoot a few pics of Joe as he came down. After verifying the camera was in shutter priority mode with autofocus turned on, I fired several shots as Joe skied down by me. Below are six shots of Joe enjoying the couloir.
About halfway down, Joe took the camera and returned the favor, shooting a few shots of me enjoying the near-perfect corn. It was near-perfect only because the surface was just slightly bumpy, but the quality was outstanding!
Towards the bottom of the couloir, we discussed heading down further onto the Zigzag, but elected to ski down to the usual spot where we cross back to the Palmer to meet up with Dan who skied the White River triangle. The final turns in the couloir were nice, and then it was a quick traverse back to the Palmer, where we arrived just a few minutes ahead of Dan.
At the top of the Palmer, we got the beers on ice and enjoyed the views. The lift had closed down a few minutes earlier, and within 10 minutes or so there was nobody around except for a few patrollers, who we chatted with for a few minutes. After that, we enjoyed the beers once they were cold, and then it was time to drop in.
As usual, the turns on the Palmer were excellent, and we all had big smiles on our faces by the time we reached the mid-station. I snapped several pics of both Joe and Dan that captured the action on the descent.
From the mid-station, we dropped into the Palmer canyon and enjoyed more perfect corn on our way down to the top of the Mile.
The Palmer canyon gave way to the Mile canyon, and we continued on down, enjoying turn after turn in the afternoon sun. Eventually we skied down to the cats at the bottom of the Mile and then kept going to the end of the snow, which was just a few hundred yards above the lodge!
From the end of the snow, it was a short hike down the canyon and across a short trail back to the climber’s lot, where the car and some more cold beverages were waiting.
After our fun but long day, it felt great to get out of ski and snowboard boots, and I was really looking forward to the fresh garden salads I’d made the day before, along with a Patagonia Provisions organic lager from Deschutes Brewing that tasted just right.
The salads and beer hit the spot, and soon they were gone and it was time to hit the road, so we loaded the gear back into Dan’s Tesla and pulled out, satisfied with another excellent day of August turns on Mt Hood.
July 14, 2025 – Mt Hood, Snowdome
I was pretty amped to head up to Mt Hood and traipse around the north side of the mountain in July for the second year in a row, as were both Joe and Dan, so we firmed up plans a couple of days earlier. I headed out on Sunday with my gear and family in tow, and we headed up to Sherwood to visit my uncle. It was a warm morning, so we enjoyed hanging out in the backyard for a couple of hours before heading out to lunch in town. A couple of hours later, Julie dropped me off at a Starbucks in Wilsonville and headed out, and a few minutes later Joe arrived and picked me up. We met up with Dan in Sandy, who had the hair-brained idea to see if he could bring his Tesla up the Cloud Cap road, and headed out.
The drive up highway 26 and then around and up to Cloud Cap was uneventful. Dan drove the Tesla up the road with precise skill, and even managed to make it all the way up without touching a rock. We found a nice campsite adjacent to the road, and after parking the rigs proceeded to setup camp for the evening. As usual, it wasn’t long before it was time to head up to the Inn and enjoy the views.
To our surprise, the Inn was open since one of the Crag Rats was camping there for the night with his family. He offered to show us around, which was an awesome experience. Even though all of us had been up to Cloud Cap on multiple occasions, this was the first time we got were able to see it up close from the inside. I couldn’t help but think about the experiences of the guests enjoying the inn during the late 1800’s and how much effort it took just to get there!
We were quite amazed at how large it was and how many different rooms/areas there were. From the outside, it looks pretty cool, but getting a first hand tour of Inn was definitely amazing. The photos on the wall showed some of the history of the mountain and the Crag Rats, as well as the much bigger Eliot glacier that, although greatly reduced in size, is still Oregon’s largest.
We hung out in the inn for a half hour or so, enjoying the views, enjoying the opportunity, and taking it all in. On the back deck (or front deck I guess since it was opposite the mountain and what you see as you first approach the inn), I had to get a few photos of my Cloud Cap Amber Ale from the Mt Hood Brewing Company while hanging out at the namesake for the beer :). I’d picked the beer up a month earlier in Govy while attending the annual Nuts & Bolts patrol function at Timberline.
After snapping some pics of the beer, we enjoyed the views off the deck of the north side of Mt Hood before heading back down to camp to eat dinner and get ready for the following day.
Dinner for me was a tasty Pad Thai freeze dried meal, which hit the spot. Unfortunately however, I spent too much time preparing it and organizing my gear and I missed heading back up to the ridge to shoot some pictures of the sunset by about 1o minutes. Nevertheless, it was a super successful Sunday spent visiting family, getting to the mountain and enjoying good company inside the confines of Cloud Cap. Not long after the sun went down, we hit the sack in anticipation of making some fun turns on Monday.
The morning dawned early, and like the year before, I enjoyed the view looking down towards the Columbia and beyond while brewing my coffee. It didn’t get very cold overnight, so we made breakfast early, loaded our packs and were on the trail by a few minutes after 7:00 am.
It wasn’t long before we gained the ridge and followed the climber’s trail up towards the Eliot Glacier. The wind was quite blustery, and was blowing a lot of dust across the Eliot canyon. I had my doubts about how high we’d be able to make it on the ‘Dome, but was hoping conditions would calm down a bit as the morning wore on.
Soon, we made our way to the high point on the ridge and dropped down onto the Eliot. The wind died down a bit by the time we worked our way down into the bottom of the canyon, and after working our way across the scree and rocks covering the glacial bed, we found our patch of snow on the far side of the canyon and donned crampons to work our way up.
After working our way above the first steep section, we did an end run around a few large crevasses and then headed out onto the Eliot proper. From there, it was a short hike over to a section of snow that provided access up to the snowfields below the Snowdome.
We continued up the snow fields to the base of the Snowdome, and then set a boot track directly up the ‘Dome. Magically, by the time we headed up the ‘Dome, the wind died down, and the weather and snow conditions were quite nice. The three of us were pretty stoked on the conditions, knowing we would likely get some good corn on the descent. Topping out around 9,400 feet, I snapped several pictures of the surrounding beauty, including some of the glacial features on the Eliot and Coe glaciers.
Traversing over to peer off directly into the Eliot, I took care not to fall in any holes. The view down onto the Eliot was impressive as usual, and I couldn’t help but think what it must have looked like 150 years ago when the Langille brothers were leading guests up the mountain from Cloud Cap Inn far below.
A few minutes later, Joe arrived at the top, followed by Dan, and we enjoyed the view together. I got my Cloud Cap Amber ale on ice, and we started reminiscing about last year, so we put on some Bob Marley and listened to “We Jamming.”
After drinking our beers and hanging out up top for a half hour or so, it was time to drop in and do what we came to do – enjoy some high-quality corn turns! We stepped into bindings, and I dropped in first, making some of my best turns of the summer down a few hundred feet to where I set up to shoot pics of Dan and Joe as they came down.
Dan dropped in first, and carved up the slope while I fired off several shots, and then Joe dropped after Dan. Dan skied down to my left, affording some nice pics of the Eliot while Joe headed to my right, and I got some good pics of him skiing above the Coe drainage.
We skied the smooth snow down to the base of the “Dome, and it was so good we ditched some of our gear (Dan ditched his whole pack), and headed back up for another lap. The views climbing back up the ‘Dome were superb, and looking north, Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier and Mt Adams were clearly visible.
Once back to the top of the Dome, we headed down again to score some bonus corn, and Dan grabbed the camera and fired off a bunch of shots of me coming down. Below is a 5-shot sequence of some pretty glorious mid-July turns on the Snowdome…
We skied back down to the bottom of the ‘Dome, then collected our gear and headed out for the rest of the ski back down to the Eliot.
This section of snow below the Snowdome didn’t look as smooth as the Snowdome itself on the ascent, but it actually skied really nice, and we enjoyed a bunch of quality corn on the way down to the Eliot.
We worked our way all the way down to the rock crossing above the Eliot, and then carefully crossed the rocks to the snow below, before ultimately making our way back down to the glacier for the final turns of the day.
The lower sections of the Eliot served up ample doses of good corn, and after crisscrossing around a few crevasses and jumping over a few others, we milked the final finger of snow to the bottom.
Back at our shoes, the ski boots came off and went on the packs with the skis, and we worked our way across the jumbled boulder field over to the ridge. Climbing back up to the ridge went without incident (I always worry about a loose rock taking someone out), and soon we were staring back at the northside and admiring our work!
The hike back down the trail to Cloud Cap went without incident, and we fired up the grill and enjoyed a round of Cloud Cap Amber Ales and some brats with the campground manager who was more than happy to chat us up and eat the extra brat we had. We weren’t parked in a suitable place for me to take out the tripod, and I was being kind of lazy, so no shots of the apres’ ski were taken on this day, but below is parting shot of Dan and I from Sunday evening at Cloud Cap! At any rate, once the brats and beers were gone, we loaded up our gear and headed down the road, stoked on another awesome trip to Mt Hood’s north side!
