On the last day of May, Todd and I headed out to Hoodoo to get turns in. It was the last chance for Todd to continue his turns-all-year streak, after suffering a hamstring injury earlier in the month in a softball game:). I had been out the weekend before with Andy at Mt. Bachelor, so I just tagged along for the fun of it. Given that access to the higher peaks was just starting to open up and that the Cascades Lakes Highway was still closed and that Todd wasn’t sure how much skinning/riding he could do, Hoodoo seemed like a good choice. 2008 has been an excellent snow year, and when we pulled into the parking lot at Hoodoo we could tell there was still tons of snow left. The weather was very nice and nobody was around. We made it to the top in short order, and Todd’s leg seemed to be doing good. We made a couple of runs in the main bowl and skinned back up to the top. We didn’t take any pics today, but did take some video, from which I pulled some still pictures from. Here’s a shot of me coming down the main bowl on run number one…..
Todd spent most of the day riding without his t-shirt since it was humid and warm. He did pay for it later though, since the sunscreen didn’t really work to well once it sweated off. We made a run down the east face, which was slightly steeper and still held good snow most of the way to the bottom. Here’s a shot of Todd on that pitch….
We climbed back to the top once more and soaked up the views in the sun. It was pretty amazing being able to get such good snow at such low elevation on the last day in May. The snow will likely be good well into June! Strapping into the bindings once more, it was time to make one more run all the way down to the car. Here’s a shot of me heading down….our previous tracks are barely visible up top. I can’t believe there was still a cornice guarding the top of the slope…..
Back at the car, we cracked a few beers and admired our tracks on the mountain. Todd felt like he was back in commission, and we were both ready for bigger and better pursuits in the coming months. It was quite peaceful in the parking lot around 1:00 with nobody around, and we enjoyed the warm weather and suds. Todd commented that it would be nice just to just have a camp right there and catch a few Z’s in the tent before doing it all again. I couldn’t agree more……
