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A day after eating too much turkey at Thanksgiving dinner, and two days removed from a sweet powder day on Redtop, I was stoked to be heading up to the Pass for a day of patrolling before heading on to Mt Thielsen to get some backcountry turns on Saturday. With my truck loaded down with gear, I headed out and made good time up the highway to the Pass, pulling into the parking area under clear skies. A few minutes later, I was gearing up with members of Patrol 4, along with Dan, Shannon and Brian who were also up for the day.

I knew that Patrol 4 needed some help, and with this being the first day that EPA was spinning for the public and with Peak 2 planned to open the following day, there were plenty of tasks that needed attention. The first order of business was getting gear up the lift that needed to go to Peak 2, so we dragged out several sleds, the evacuation gear, and various other equipment to the base of EPA. While we waited for the lift to spin a complete rotation, I snapped a few photos of our crew…

A few minutes later, we loaded the chair and headed up to the top under bright sunshine and beautiful blue skies. Brian and I had the first official EPA chair of the season, and took up the evacuation gear along with some carabiner boo.

At the top, we unloaded gear and readied to open the mountain. I wasn’t unhappy at all when I drew the assignment of opening RTS, and with the other runs covered, Dan joined me which afforded the opportunity to snap a few pictures as we skied down.

We skied the top safely, making a couple of ski cuts, and then I headed down to setup to snap a few photos of Dan. The conditions were excellent, and the both the snow quality and the coverage were excellent. It was hard to believe how good it was, especially considering it was still November!

After we opened RTS, we stopped at Twilight and did a gear inventory for opening before heading down to the base to get a role of duct tape that was needed back up top. That led to one more run on RTS before heading to the lodge to pull out a bunch of tower pads that needed to go to Peak 2.

We lugged all the pads to the base of EPA, and then recruited some additional patrollers to get them to the top of the lift where we staged them for mountain crew to take them to the top of EPA via snowmobile. Once we had all the pads up top, Brian, Dave and I headed over to Peak 2 to run the first avalanche route of the season.

At the top, we checked in with the lift ops and decided to each grab a tower pad and get 4 pads on the top towers prior to running the route. After stashing our packs up top, we headed down and started the work…

The snow was surprisingly good, and after getting the pads on the top towers, we enjoyed some sweet turns down the lift line to the bottom. Turns out getting a lap in before working the avalanche route was a good choice.

At the base of Peak 2, we had to wait a few minutes while one of the lift ops retrieved a couple of seats via snowmobile from the top of Peak 2, and then we enjoyed a slow chair to the top where our avalanche gear was waiting.

We quickly donned the packs, did a beacon check, and headed out on Waldo, regrouping on the ridge above June’s Run. We spent a little time showing Dave the ropes, literally, since he hadn’t run the route before, and after cutting a few cornices on the ridge, we set up the belay on the Nose. Brian belayed Dan while I snapped a few photos…

For the second belay, we had Dave on the sharp end of the rope, and he worked all the way to the end of the meadow without getting anything to go. After that, Brian and I headed down to continue working on tower pads, while Dan and Dave headed down after us to go back up and run the lower route to be sure it was controlled. At the bottom, we had to wait a few more minutes until our chair with a seat spun back around, and then we loaded the chair and headed back up.

The rest of the afternoon (about an hour and a half) was spent getting tower pads on the remaining towers, and right about 3:30 we got the last one on. Riding up the final Peak 2 chair of the afternoon, it felt good to get a significant amount of work done while at the same time enjoying some good snow with the backside all to ourselves.

As we arrived at the top of Peak 2, Brian really wanted to drop into SDN and enjoy an out of the area run back to the base, and thought we could do so in time to catch the last chair up EPA to help with upper mountain sweep. Since we were on Peak 2 with no one around, we stashed our patrol coats in our packs, climbed up to the top of the ridge, and dropped in. The upper turns on SDN were fun, the down in the trees there was a pretty good crust, and by the time we got to the bottom we were all second guessing our decision. After getting stuck and having to hike a short bit since there wasn’t an out track yet, we finally made it to the bottom of RTS and then down to the base just in time to catch the lift to head up for sweep.

Once sweep began, I decided to take advantage of the setting sun and shoot a picture of the beer I planned on enjoying a little later after we were done for the day, which was a tasty Crux Stout from the Crux Fermentation Project. Additionally, it was just Joey and I remaining up top, so I asked him for a favor and he obliged, and took a shot of me with the sun setting over Diamond Peak from the top of EPA. It turned out great….

After the quick photo shoot, I headed down Success and cleared the run, and then down By George when lower mountain sweep started. While waiting to meet up with the crew coming down KP, I snapped one more picture of my beer.

A few minutes later, it felt great to get out of snowboard and ski boots and enjoy a cold beverage in the company of fellow patrollers. I hung around for a half hour or so, and then headed out. At the exit, I was stoked to be turning left instead of right as normal, and made my way towards Mt Thielsen in anticipation of a great day of turns the following morning. All in all, this was a great day at the Pass, and by far my best ever patrol day in November! Here’s a parting shot from the day of our crew in the morning.

 

Early and heavy snowfall throughout the first half November led to the earliest opening weekend at the Pass in 21 years, and I was excited to be able to head to the mountain on Saturday to experience the stoke. After some shuffling and juggling related to patrol duties, we worked out a solution where I would be hill chief on Saturday with a small crew of patrollers while the rest of the patrol attended our in-town OEC refresher. After attending our instructor refresher on Wednesday evening, I was ready to go on Saturday and met Jan, Richard and Atticus a few minutes after 6:00 am at LCC. We made the drive up highway 58 without incident and arrived to a beautiful snowy scene at the Pass.

There were a total of about 6-7 of us for the day, with 2 alpine patrollers, 2 patrollers, 2 hosts and 1 SPY. After a quick morning meeting, we headed out to open runs and greet the public. The plan for the weekend was to run Twilight only, with the rest of the mountain likely opening the following weekend. We headed out, and I was stoked to try out my new board, the Amplid Singular, both on the groom and in the fresh snow. A few minutes later, after a short walk and lift ride, we were ready to open runs at the top of Twilight.

 Opening went smoothly, and after a couple of runs I made a brief stop at the patrol room before heading back up. At the top, I found Richard and Jenn hanging out, and snapped a few photos of them including the shot below.

We hung out up top for awhile, with at least one patroller staying up top all the time. For whatever reason, folks were having a difficult time with the ramp at the top of Twilight, with approximately 50% of the people flat out wrecking as they unloaded. The temperature was hovering right around 32 degrees F, which caused the snow to be quite slick, contributing to the overall carnage. Hoping to improve the conditions, I worked with one of the lifties and mountain hosts Michael and Jan for over an hour and we improved conditions on the ramp considerably. The temperature dropped as well which also served as in improvement.

After the ramp work, I headed to the patrol room to check the RTS rope and get it ready for deployment for the season, before getting a call for a courtesy ride for 3 skiers at the top of Twilight that couldn’t ski down safely. I dispatched Jenn to survey the scene, and made my way to the lift to join her. We ended up putting all three in the sled, for a combined weight that must have been somewhere around 300 pounds, but it worked out well and we skied the sled to the base area safely. It was my first sled ride of the season, and I’d be lying if I said driving in the handles didn’t burn my quads a little bit.

An hour or so and several runs later, it was time for closing and we all met at the top of the lift. One of the lift ops took a photo of our crew, and then we headed out to sweep the lower mountain. I swept Sally’s Way, and then met up with the rest of the crew in the patrol room, where we held a brief evening meeting, before enjoying some chips and hummus, along with some cold sodas and beer. My beer of choice for the evening was a smooth-drinking Space Sailor IPA from SeaQuake Brewing, and it was just what I needed after a good day of patrolling.

A bit later, it was time to hit the road, so we closed up the patrol room, gathered our gear, and made the drive back to the valley, fully satisfied with a great day of patrolling on opening weekend in November! Here’s to hoping the rest of the season is as good as the start, and to more opening days in future Novembers!