Ninety nine times out of one hundred when I’m looking to make turns, I load my gear into a vehicle and head east. After my most recent outing to Mary’s Peak on the 14th of April, I think I’ll have to change that. At 4,097 feet, Mary’s Peak is the highest point in the Oregon coast range, and towers nearly 3800 feet above the Willamette Valley. Given that I grew up within a few air miles of the mountain, it’s also always fun to return “home” so to speak and take in the views of the cloudy seas that stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Cascades.
I left the house rather early at 5:30 in the morning, feeling quite relieved actually to be heading west instead of east, searching for some corn snow. I’d turned down offers of a free ride and lift ticket to Mt Bachelor for the day, preferring instead to earn some turns and hopefully earn some of the best views in the state, in my opinion. The weather was calling for sunshine and calm winds, and I knew the conditions would be good since I can see the peak from my commute to work with it’s top still snow-covered. What I didn’t know was how far up the road I’d be able to drive. Unlike several years ago when I grew up playing at Mary’s Peak in the winter, the road is no longer plowed, and however far you can drive is how far you get.
Within 40 minutes I turned off Highway 34 and was able to wind my way up the road to the point where the road leaves the south exposure and wraps around the north side. At this point, there was a couple of feet blocking the snow, so I parked nearby, pulled out my DIY Custom split, and started skinning up the road just as the sun crested the north ridge. The sun coming through the trees made for a pretty picture….
Skinning up the road through the big Doug Firs and Nobles was pretty cool and reminded me that I need to get back here at least a few times each winter. After 10 or 15 minutes, I came to the west prairie, and soaked in the views of the cloudy skies. One of the things I love about the coastal mountains is the views from the higher peaks…..it’s fairly routine to have fog fill the river valleys below while the peaks stick out above….
After admiring the view from the west prairie for a few minutes, I skinned back to the road and followed it to the far side of the prairie before deciding to leave it for a more direct approach towards the true summit. Skinning by the first weather station, I could see the south prairie off the summit, holding snow on about two-thirds of it’s grass – plenty to make for some good turns. To get to it, I needed to cross Parker Creek, which wasn’t too difficult even though there was minimal snow bridges available – I got lucky and found one right where I chose to descend. When I broke out of the trees on the other side, more views opened up and I stopped to snap some photos, including the one below looking west towards Grass Mountain…
The skin up the south prairie to the top from here didn’t take me too long, though I stopped several times to take pictures of the surrounding views. The snow surface was perfectly frozen smooth snow, and I knew it would turn to primo corn as soon as the sun warmed it. When I reached the top, I was rewarded with 360 degree views, ranging from the Willamette Valley to the Cascades to the Pacific Ocean. I set up my tripod for a few shots and snapped some photos…
While waiting for the snow to corn, I skinned down off the top to the north, dropping down to the north prairie, a place I used to frequent while in college. Memories of building kickers with my buddy Andrew and gazing out across the lights of the Willamette Valley at night came flooding back. Mt Hood was clearly visible to the north, as depicted in the below photo….
After spending a few minutes on the north prairie, I headed back to the top to snap a few more photos with the tripod before making some turns. The sun was at the perfect spot in the sky to snap some pictures, and I got a few photos I really liked with my 10-22 mm wide angle lens, including the below photo looking to the southeast with the Willamette Valley in the distance…
Around 9:00, I put the tripod away and assembled my board halves into ride mode. The snow wasn’t quite corned yet, but I was getting ancy to make some turns and wanted to get multiple laps in. Dropping into the low angle slope, I made dozens of smooth consistent turns turns. The nice thing about snow covering a grass meadow is that it doesn’t take too much coverage to provide ample riding. The snow was nearly 4 feet deep at the edge of the meadow, but only a few inches on the other side, but cranking turns wasn’t a problem since the grass surface was really smooth. At the bottom of the slope, I found myself wondering why I hadn’t been spending more time up here in the past few years. I headed back up for another lap and found the snow to be perfect corn on the second run. The following photos shows my tracks looking back down the meadow…
A couple more laps followed, and the snow seemed to get better and better on each successive lap. Skinning up the meadow was quite peaceful, and before I knew it, I’d laid down several tracks on the mountain. I contemplated another lap on the meadow, but decided against it, wanting to get home for a late lunch with the family. On my last run, I made nice smooth turns down to the bottom, then switched back to ski mode for the trip out. Here’s a shot of my tracks in the meadow…
I crossed Parker Creek on the same snow bridge where I crossed earlier, and stopped to snap a few photos of the creek since the lighting was nice….
The ski out went quickly, and I ripped the skins once I got back to the road and skied out on the still frozen snow. The snow was firm enough that I probably could have snowboarded, but skiing was kind of fun, and I only fell once:) Back at the car, I loaded my gear and was home by 12:45pm – in time for nice outdoor lunch with the family and some afternoon gardening!
