December 24th, Willamette Pass

The snow was falling, it was Christmas Eve, and presents were wrapped under the tree. Would there be an early one for me? With fresh snow in the mountains, Dan and I made plans to head to the Pass to find out. Pulling into the parking lot, it looked like about a foot of new had fallen over the past couple of days. We took advantage of the lift serviced terrain for most of the morning, then grabbed a quick lunch and our skins and headed out for some more fun.

The snow was really light and nice, thanks to the cold temps. The skiing was ok in the trees due to a lurking crust, but excellent in the open areas. We set a skintrack after our first lap, and enjoyed a beer at the top. By the time we were done, we’d made 3 laps, and each of us took turns snapping a few photos of the other. The pics turned out ok, given that I forgot to turn the image stabilization feature on for my zoom lens, as well as the shutter speed getting stuck on 1/160 sec without my noticing. They weren’t as crisp as I’d hoped for, but hey, it was great pow the day before Christmas.

For some reason, the area was closing at 2:00 pm, and we didn’t get back inbounds until 2:45 or so. Not to worry, a quick call to the patrol room ensured it would remain unlocked for us so we wouldn’t be locked out. One more run back to the area was the reward to end the day, and it was a good one.

Beers in the patrol room with only the company of ourselves ended a great day, and then it was time to hit the road to get back and wait to see if Santa would make a visit later in the evening:)