One of the days I look forward to most each year is the annual after work dusk patrol. There’s nothing quite as nice as skiing good corn on a warm afternoon after a long winter season, followed by grillin’ up some burgers and brats in the parking lot while sitting in flip flops and shorts and enjoying a cold beer. This year’s trip started out like many in the years past — with Andy, Neil and I leaving work around 2:00 pm and driving up highway 126 to Hoodoo. We arrived at our favorite pullout, loaded up packs, and headed out…
The skin up Hoodoo in the afternoon sun is always enjoyable. The views back to the north from Black Butte to Mt Jefferson never disappoint, and cresting the top and seeing Big Lake, Mt Washington and the Three Sisters is always a treat. We made it to the top in short order and snapped a few pics….
As we readied to drop in we could see Joe (who was planning to me us) heading up down below. After a brief discussion, we elected to ski the east face, which is probably my favorite run on the hill. As we dropped in, I headed down and found a spot to snap a few photos of Andy coming down…
I also got a couple pics of Neil skiing by, with Mt Wahsington as a backdrop. After snapping the pics, I followed the guys down the face, enjoying the soft, albeit a bit bumpy, snow down to the bottom.
At the bottom, it was decision time for whether we should head back up and ski the west side of the hill or ski a few laps on Hayrick. The snow on Hayrick looked really good and was right in front of us, so we ditched the packs and put in a bootpack up the short, steep slope. At the top of the pitch, we could see Joe drop in down the east face of Hoodoo, and we met up with him at the bottom.
We climbed back up and put in another lap, utilizing our existing bootpack, up around the dogleg and to the base of the cliff where the snow ended. The ride down was equally as nice as the first run. Having laid a few tracks down on the slope, we moved north a little bit to another patch of good looking snow and checked out a new line…
It didn’t take long to get to the top, and we were enjoying some quality turns back down in no time. Andy and Joe decided to head back to the car to get the grill going, and Neil and I stayed behind for one more run because the snow was just too good.
We skied down and then out across the flats below, and made the short walk to the car, where Andy and Joe were getting the food in order. It always feels good after skiing a few runs to pop the boots off, grab a cold one and change into shorts and flip flops! On the menu for the evening was grass fed beef from my freezer, along with some quality brats that Joe brought. There was also various other items like chips and salsa, guacamole, and all the fixin’s for the burgers…
When the food was ready, we definitely ate like kings. Sitting there, enjoying the good company, quality meats and cold beer, with a view of the mountain, everyone agreed it doesn’t get much better than that.
Like all good things, our evening eventually came to an end with the realization that we needed to head back down to the valley (with the exception of Joe who was going to check out Jefferson the following day). We packed our gear, snapped a few photos, and said goodbye to Hoodoo, knowing we’d be back again when the time was right for another day of corn, brats and sun!
Here’s a parting shot from the day of Andy chillin’ and enjoying the apres ski….
