Category: Lift Served

September 1, 2008 – Palmer Glacier, Mt Hood

I met Todd at 7:30 in the Timberline parking lot and we headed up for some lift served turns. Given all the hiking we’d been doing lately, it was nice to get some lift riding in. It had snowed down to about 6500 feet overnight, and there was a little wind sift on the east side of the Palmer that measured several inches in places. By doing a power slide, I could actually get the fresh stuff up in my face. The cold smoke hitting my warm face was like a dream.

Riding a bit of September fresh!

The snow corned by about 10:00 and fog drifted in about 11:30. Here’s a shot looking down towards the lodge at about 9:00……..

Looking south from the Palmer Snowfield

We climbed out towards the White River Glacier for a rest and some GU, and admired the large ice field complex. It looks good for some climbing, but the seracs are big and most likely unstable. Several more runs followed, and we got several thousand vertical feet of riding in for the day.

September tele turns….

We quit riding around noon, and headed down to the Ratskellar in Government Camp, where the Monkey Face Porter hit the spot. You can ride down to within about 200 yards of the lodge. I’m amazed at the coverage up there still. The Zigzag Glacier looks decent, and might be worth the hike. Get out and enjoy it while it’s good. It won’t be too long now until winter returns!

Month 4 – March 2006, Mt Bachelor

Andy and I headed over to Mt Bachelor for the day from the valley in search of some fresh snow and sunny skies. We found both. The summit chair was spinning and we spent much of our time on the mountain’s southside. The upper part of the southside was a bit crusty, but the snow down lower in the glades was excellent. The views south towards Willamette Pass were excellent, as were the views of the 3 Sisters to the northwest.

Matt w/South Sister

 

Month 2 – January 14-15, 2006 – Mt Bachelor

Fighting the crowds of the MLK weekend was worth it for all the fresh powder that fell at Mt Bachelor over the long weekend. Bachelor’s base of 120 inches and 170 inches at mid-mountain is quite possibly the deepest snowpack in the US right now. We started off riding the Outback and Northwest chairs on Saturday. The Northwest didn’t open until about 11:00 or so, and up to that point the lift lines were pretty long. The northwest chair was pretty vacant all day long, and the snow was fantastic (about 2 feet of fresh in places).

The second day I spent on the other side of the mountain on the Rainbow chair. Although slower than the high speed quads, the Rainbow had great snow and few people. The wind was pretty miserable on Sunday, and fog kept freezing onto my goggles. I ended up with a little wind burn on the face, but well worth the 18 inches of fresh pow. The wind had swept much of the new snow along the top of the Rainbow chair into the westerly facing slopes of the small ridges, creating some unique snow conditions. The weather cleared off after lunch and the summit view was great, though the summit lift didn’t open (high winds and avalanche danger). Looks like more of the same weather for the coming week!

Pow Pow!

Month 1 – December 2005, Willamette Pass

This was the month that started my passion for making turns all year. Willamette Pass was open and rumor had it that the snow was in pretty good shape. So, my buddy Andy and I headed out to see what was up. I was just coming off a minor back surgery due to a herniated disc (which is why I didn’t get November turns) and didn’t want to hit it too hard, so we stuck mostly to the  groomers, which were in nice condition. We did manage to get down SDN a time or two though, as the snow was in decent enough shape that I didn’t jar my body around too badly. It so happens that this was also the day I met Todd, whom I knew from work, but had never rode with. Todd and I would later become good friends and backcountry partners as a result of this meeting. Overall, it was a good day, and very refreshing to be back in the winter environment after another long hot summer (which was made longer by injury). It was also the start of something special…..month one of Turns All Year….

Note: I only have one photo from the day which survived my computer crash from a few years ago, and it is of the ski run from the bottom of SDN. Due to it’s unimpressive nature, I substituted this shot of me in the very same place from a few years ago, after a 30 inch powder dump in March.  Photo taken by Andrew Sahalie.

 

Hitting a nice kicker at the bottom of SDN

 

Month 3 – February 5, 2006 – Willamette Pass

Andy and I met early in the morning in Eugene and headed up to the Pass for what turned out to be a great day of riding. The sun was shining all day, and the backside, which apparently was closed on Saturday, was open with fresh snow. There was about a foot of fresh dry powder over the top of a bit of crust, which made for fun turns on the board. The steep tree runs west of the EPA lift were in decent shape, although the trees immediately adjacent to RTS were pretty crusty. SDS proved to have some of the best snow on the mountain, and was where we spent most of our time riding. It was an excellent day to be at the mountain, and marked the 3rd consecutive month of riding for me. I even got home in time to catch some of the super bowl.

Riding the trees on SDN