Protected: October 26, 2023 – The Twins
October 21, 2023 – Cutting at the Pass
Summer like weather was holding into late October, and conditions were looking favorable for a day of cutting at the Pass, so I made plans with Dan, Joe and John to head up for some saw time. The plan was to meet early at the Pass and work on the RTS area. Laurie, Matt and Austin were also planning on coming, so we left early from Dan’s house and made our way up Highway 58.
After a quick pit stop at Gold Lake, Dan and I pulled in and opened the gate. A few minutes later, the rest of the crew showed up and we drove our way up the haul road to the top of Twilight. At the top Twilight we scoped out the approach via Lois Lane but decided that Amber’s would be the better choice. There were some fresh elk tracks at the top of Duck Soup, and after cutting a couple of logs out of the way were parked the rigs and were ready to go.
The plan for the day was to head up hill and work on cutting some of the endless trees that seem to grow on the run (even with our work over the last several years) and then spend some time in the afternoon on the runout. Packing the saw and gear up the steep slope is always fun, and soon we were working away…
We cut until about noon or so and then headed down to take a break and enjoy some lunch and a well-deserved break. After lunch, John, Dan and I headed down to the runout to open a few lanes that would hopefully pay dividends later in the year. It got pretty warm in the afternoon, and I had to remember to hydrate as well as take my helmet off multiple times to dump the sweat out of it!
Around 3pm or so we called a day and headed back up the hill to the trucks. It was time to enjoy a cold beverage and I didn’t turn Dan down when he offered me a cold Ninkasi Hazy IPA from his cooler.
The next order of business was to get brats on the grill, so we pulled out the grill, meats and condiments right at the pickups and decided to grill right on Amber’s. It wasn’t long before they were ready, and we quickly devoured them after a hard day working on the hill. I grabbed the tripod from my bag and snapped a few photos of the group, including the shots below.
A bit later, it was time to head down, so we loaded in the truck and drove down from Amber’s. Dan and I wanted to drive around towards the big corner, so we turned left below the top of Twilight and worked our way up the haul road. The mountain was looking good from the truck as we drove up and then back down, with the only ingredient needed for opening being snow. All in all, it was a great day to be on the mountain, and I hope the next time I head up it’s to make turns! Until then, here’s a parting shot from the day of a tasty Pumpkin Patch Ale from Rogue Brewing.
October 8, 2023 – On-Hill Refresher
As hard as it was to believe, summer had passed and fall was here, which meant it was time for the refresher weekend with the Willamette Pass Ski Patrol. After a full day of refreshing OEC skills on Saturday in town, I woke early Sunday morning and grabbed Shaun to head up for the on-hill. We made a brief stop to pick up Dan in Springfield, and then we all headed up highway 58 in my new Tesla (a purchase inspired from the numerous trips in Dan’s Tesla on previous ski trips). We pulled into the pass outside the patrol room and it looked like it was going to be a nice day.
Everyone gathered in the lodge to debrief the day’s activities, and after some announcements from the area we broke into groups and headed out to do some refreshing. It was good to hear from MCP about the changes made to the area, and everyone was stoked for coming season.
As usual, I was in charge of chairlift evacuation, and this year we went back to doing evac in three rotations instead of putting everyone through it at once. I headed out to Twilight with group 1 and after talking over the evacuation plan, we loaded folks on the chair.
There were a few of us on the ground to ensure things operated smoothly from a safety standpoint, and managed the span between towers two and three, and sent Brian and Hutch up to keep tabs on the span between towers three and four. Once everyone was on the chair, it was locked out and the area’s tower climbers fixed the ropes in place for us.
The process went smoothly and we worked our way down the line, lowering folks out of each chair. Passing the rope over the chair also went smoothly thanks to the use of carabiner-boo, and soon we were down to a chair full of SPY, including Shaun. Like the last year, I was able to snap a few photos of him getting lowered, and I think his smile indicates that even though it’s a refresher it’s still fun!
Once we had everyone lowered from group 1, there was a little bit of time before our next session so I headed over and snapped a few photos of the technical rescue setup that Laurie rigged up on the Midway lift with Chanlin’s truck as well as a couple other photos of the patrol…
From there I wandered over to the mass casualty incident and snapped some pics of patrollers working on various OEC scenarios to hone skills for the upcoming season.
By then it was time to head back to Twilight and lead group 2 through a round of chairlift evacuation. That process went smoothly and by then it was time for lunch. It was nice to spend a few minutes on the lodge steps with the rest of the patrol and catch up on past times, dream about the upcoming season, and enjoy the warmth of the sun.
After lunch, it was time for the final round rotation, and I headed back over to Twilight to lead the last group through chair evac. By this time of day, the sun was in a pretty good position to make for some good photos, so I pulled out my camera, and after putting the wide-angle lens on, fired away.
As the patrol was lowered, they would move into the belayer position, then communicator position, and then out. It’s slow going having to move everyone into the rotation, but worthwhile training in the event we ever need to do a lift evacuation for real. As the afternoon wore on, the thermometer rose and it became downright warm. Several folks stripped down to shorts, and it definitely felt more like summer than fall…
Eventually we worked our way through everyone on group 3 and it was time to wrap up. I headed over and observed a little bit of the final OEC scenarios, and then it was time for self evacuation for those of us who were qualified. We did that on Sleepy, similar to the year before, and that went off without a hitch. Finally, it was time to put the gear away and be done with the long refresher weekend.
Dan, Joe, Shaun and I headed out, and made the short drive down to Gold Lake to enjoy a well-deserved beer along with some brats. I’d been looking forward to this point in time all weekend long, and it didn’t disappoint! My beer of choice for the day was a refreshing Hazy ’96 from Elysian Brewing, and it hit the spot!
A bit later the brats were done and we were enjoying them along with some fresh chips and garden salsa — the perfect way to end a long weekend. With the refresher weekend in the books, I’m ready for the shorter days of winter to arrive, hopefully filled with lots of snow and fresh pow turns. Until then, here’s a parting shot from the day of Shaun being lowered off the Twilight Lift during chair evacuation…
October 1, 2023 – Mt Hood, Palmer “Snowfield”
October finally arrived, and with it came a dusting of fresh snow, and thank the Lord for that! Dan and I had been watching the remaining snow on Mt Hood’s south side dwindle away on the Timberline webcam during the month of September, and by the middle of the month it was basically gone. Needless to say, we were pretty happy to see some moisture move through at the end of the month which gave us a fighting chance to score some early turns on the 1st of October.
We met at Harrisburg interstate exit early where my wife dropped me off, and after loading gear into Dan’s Tesla we made the drive up to the mountain, arriving a little after 8:00 am. There wasn’t a lot of snow, but it looked like it would go and mountain sure was looking good in a fresh coat of white.
We shouldered packs and hiked up the road to Silcox, stopping briefly when we arrived. Shortly thereafter, we continued on and worked our way into the Palmer canyon. We had to hike a few hundred vertical before we were able to don the skins and continue up without the weight of the skis on our backs, and it looked like we’d be able to negotiate some turns in the canyon on the way down as well.
It felt good to be skiing in fresh snow again, and soon we worked our way up to the top of the Palmer. The clouds had been rolling in and out all morning, and we decided the best odds at the moment were to ski now while we had visibility and then maybe head up above the Palmer later if the weather allowed it. The first order of business was to get the beer on ice before changing over to ride mode, so I did just that after snapping a picture of my tasty Blonde Ale from Chief’s Brew House.
After getting the board put together, it was time to enjoy a few swigs of our beers. I was pretty stoked on mine, especially given that it is brewed literally a few miles down the road from my house. I drank about half of it and then we slipped it behind some snow near the Palmer top shack, clicked into our bindings, and headed down.
I dropped in first and setup to shoot some photos of Dan, and the snow was remarkably good, resembling some pretty smooth corn. The fog gave way after we descended a few hundred feet and then some creamy, sunny turns were to be had.
Both of us were amazed at how smooth the snow was, as well as the fact that there basically wasn’t any residual snow left on the Palmer and we that were only skiing on 4-6 inches of fresh snow over glacial till. If it hadn’t been for the glacial till (as opposed to rocks elsewhere on the mountain), I don’t think we would have been able to link turns.
We worked our way down to within a hundred vertical or so of the mid-station and called it good at that point, not wanting to head down any further for fear of breaking ourselves off in the epic conditions. The decision to skin back up for another lap was an easy one, so we kicked off and headed up.
The skin back to the top of the Palmer didn’t take too long, and soon we were enjoying a quick swig of beer before making the decision to head up even higher since the weather was looking a bit better. We worked our way up to about 9,000 before the clouds and snow conditions made the decision to turn around and easy one and readied to head down. This time, Dan grabbed the camera and shot a few pictures of me as we headed down. Part way down I returned the favor and took a few pictures of him as well.
We worked our way back down to the top of the Palmer, thoroughly enjoying the turns along the way, and made a quick stop to grab our beers, finish them, and then head down. Our second lap turns below the top of the Palmer were equally as good as the first lap, and we threaded our way through quilt-work patches of snow and rocks.
We worked our way down to where we’d turned around earlier, and decided that we saw a path that would work to continue descending with the skis on, so we took it. For the most part it worked fine, and we found some really good turns as well as a few new scratches and dings on our bases.
Once down to the mid-station, we contemplated trying to ski a line outside of the canyon, but it didn’t seem like the best idea so we went with the safe alternative and hiked the skis for 50 vertical or so to where we could continue making turns.
The turns in the upper canyon were quite good, and we only hit one or two rocks as we worked our way down. After a couple of hundred vertical, we had to walk a short patch but were then able to resume skiing.
The last section of skiable snow in the canyon above Silcox skied quite nicely, and we milked it for all it was worth before putting the skis on our backs and traversing out and making the short walk to Silcox to enjoy a second beer. All told, we figured we’d only missed out on skiing about 100 feet between the top of the Palmer and the Silcox — not too bad given the conditions.
At the Silcox, we changed out of ski boots and into approach shoes, got our beers on ice, and enjoyed a well-deserved rest. My beer of choice for the afternoon was a smooth Cast Out IPA from the Crux, and it hit the spot.
A bit later, it was time to shoulder the packs and make the long walk back to the car, but it was made a bit easier knowing we made some pretty sweet turns. The views looking back at the mountain behind us as well as Timberline Lodge below us weren’t too bad either…
Eventually we made our way back to the car, and it felt good to get the packs off our backs. We fired up the grill and enjoyed some chips and salsa as well as a good view of the mountain. A bit later we were enjoying some tasty brats to top off what was already a great day.
Although the permanent snow of the Palmer was sadly gone, the mountain still provided some great early-season October turns, and both Dan and I agreed that this wouldn’t be a day that we’d soon forget. Until next time, here’s a parting shot from the day…
