It seems like 2017 was the year of Willamette Pass I thought to myself as I made plans to head up that way Dan for the final day of 2017. There had definitely been some good days up there over the past year, most filled with bottomless powder even into the month of May. On this day however, Dan and I both were trying to think of other options for turns, but given the extremely thin snowpack we just couldn’t come up withe any good options. So, after driving around looking for options, then stopping at the Gold Lake backcountry shelter for a bit, we ended up at the Pass.
We loaded our gear and skated across the parking lot, and worked our way up the hill. Conditions were looking pretty meager, and the snow was firm. It was still cold, but our hopes were that the snow would soften in the afternoon sunshine…
Within an hour or so we were at the top and skinned over to Peak 2 to check out conditions. Unfortunately the snow stake was only reading 18 inches — the lowest total for the season since early October.
After milling about for a bit, we decided to ski Upper Rosary, which had been getting morning sun and looked soft. It was, and we made fun turns all the way down to the big corner. Skiing Rosary in such low snow conditions reminded me of a previous trip Dan and I made a few years ago in early November. At the bottom, we decided to boot back up to Eagles to have a break for lunch and to enjoy a beverage before taking another run. I snapped the picture below of one of my new favorite beers on my most recently completed splitter….
After our snack, we peered down Eagles. It looked good, but we decided to give it a bit more time and booted up for one more run on Rosary. There’s nothing quite like being able to boot up a firm ski run with 6 inches of total snow on it on the last day of the year….
On our second run down Rosary, I decided to snap a few photos of Dan to document the conditions. I’m pretty sure the pic below makes the snowpack look deeper than it really was….
With two runs down Rosary in the bag, we headed backup to our half drank beers at the top of Eagles, finished them off, and strapped in for a run down the super deep snowpack on Eagle’s. Dan snapped a few photos of me shredding the deep stuff….
All kidding aside, at least the snow was soft. It was somewhat difficult skiing, but still fun. We definitely had to be on our toes though, because the rocks and trees were thick…
Once at the bottom, we traversed our way over to George, and made scratchy turns all the way down to the base. For whatever reason, probably the inversion, the lower mountain never corned. Not to worry though, the turns were still fun and all in all it was a good day. It just need to snow more…..soon! Here’s a parting shot from the day….
