Category: Ski Patrol

It was hard to believe the first week of February was here, but it was, and it was time for level 1 avalanche class at Willamette Pass. This year’s class had 6 students, and we had several instructors to cover the large quantity of material required by NSP to meet the 32 hour requirement. With the classroom sessions already in the books, our group met on Saturday the 4th at 8:00 and headed to the top of EPA shortly thereafter to begin fieldwork with beacon practice. We staged off of Boundary, and I snapped a few photos of the action, including patrol heading by us to open Peak 2…

After a couple hours of beacon work, including small group rescue, we skied down Boundary to the back of Lighthouse Knob for some stability tests. Students dug pits and performed shovel shear, compression and extended column tests. We even threw a Rutschblock test in for good measure. The tests yielded some interesting information. With about 6 inches of snow on top of a crust layer, we found failures on the compression tests after 6-8 taps. Extended column tests failed, but didn’t propagate…

After the snowpit tests, the students did some more beacon work and I slipped away for a few runs in the fresh snow during lunch. The turns on Peak 2 were excellent. Below is a shot of Laurie on Boundary after we finished the stability tests…

After lunch, it was time for spot and formal probing. Laurie, Matthew and Joe had setup a nice simulated avalanche, and the students spent some time tromping around the slide, probing clues and likely catchment areas. After they’d exhausted spot probing, it was time for an organized probe line….

Once the probe work was done, we finished the day off on the frontside doing small group rescue. Working our way down Eagle’s Flight, the students alternated hiding beacons, then finding them and digging them up. Looking out from Eagle’s, I noticed Odell Lake was starting to ice up, something I haven’t seen in the last several years…

Back down at the aid room, it was time for a well deserved beer. Dan and I headed out around 5:30 and made our way to the cabin. There was over 3 feet of snow on the cabin roof, and the weight of snow on the roof made it difficult to close the cabin door:) After starting a fire and getting our gear drying, we made the short drive down 58 to Manley’s for dinner. A cheeseburger and margarita hit the spot, and then it was time to head back to the cabin for the evening. The next morning came quickly, and we took the class out to do an actual avy route on Peak 2. Here’s a shot of the students and instructors before dropping into Dragon’s…

After showing the students the ropes (literally) and ski cutting some of the sketchier slopes on belay, we skied the meadow and broke out into small group for touring, which included route selection, stability testing, beacon searching, etc. I was tasked with getting the final scenario ready, so I hit up a few runs out of bounds with Dan before getting to my duties. Around 10:30, we geared up to get the scenario ready. Here’s a shot of Dan and Matthew, who helped set up the scenario, at the top of EPA…

Setting up the “scenario” includes trampling up some of the best snow on SDN, about 70 yards long and 25 yards wide. Trying to simulate an actual avalanche, we stomped out a crown, flanks, and a big toe at the bottom. Then we put out several “victims” including two deep burial beacons, and three other buried carpeted boards in various places in the slide to be found by either spot probing or probe line. Several clues complete the scenario. Around 1:00, we met the class at the top of Peak 2 and it was game time. Laurie led the scenario, and an hour later, the class had found all the victims using the skills gained over the weekend.

We were done by 2:45, including debrief, and it was time to finish the weekend off with some turns down through some of the best tree runs in Oregon. Brian joined me, and we made 4 or 5 laps in the soft snow of SDN. Each run was excellent, and I snapped a few photos of Brian in action….

Our last run right before sweep was the best of the day, and a perfect way to cap off a great weekend of training and riding. I’m already looking forward to more pow turns at the Pass!

Blue sky was in the forecast, at least for the morning, and it shaping up to be a great Saturday at the Pass. A significant amount of new snow had fallen in the previous days, and the stoke was high at the morning patrol meeting. It was unclear if Peak 2 would open, given that nearly three feet of new snow needed to be cleared from both the top and bottom of the lift, and the avy routes would need to be run as well. Nevertheless, the first ride up the EPA chair yielded the sweet scenery the Pass is known for…

The morning light was perfect, and I didn’t waste anytime snapping a few pics, including the shot below of Kerstin at the top of Eagle Peak…

After a couple of runs on the front side, I headed in and grabbed my new Amplid Miligram split to take it out for it’s maiden voyage. The first two runs on the board, on both steep slopes and firm groomers blew my mind. The board rocks, and is the first split I’ve ridden in a resort that rides as good or better than a solid! By 10:00 am or so, Brian and I hiked over to the backside, with the intention of running a couple of avy routes to get Peak 2 open if possible. Several other folks were digging out the ramp at the top, so we headed over with Dan to Dragon’s Back to do the control work.

We setup the rope and belay, and Dan ski cut the slopes above the cliffs while Brian belayed and I snapped a few photos….

I was surprised that with all the fresh snow we only got surface sloughs to run and nothing deep. Regardless, we finished the upper route and then dropped in for a few turns before skinning back out to run the lower route….

We made short work skinning out from the meadow back up June’s, and I definitely happy with the performance of the Miligram on the skin track — the board was much lighter underfoot than I was used to. Back at the top, we completed the lower avy route, with the bonus of dropping into Gravity chute on the way out….

After running both avy routes on the splits, we headed down to the base of Peak 2 and were able to catch a lift ride back up. Shortly thereafter, with both avy routes complete and the top and bottom of the lift dug out, Peak 2 opened for the season at 1:30. There was no shortage of stoke, pow turns, or skiers waiting to rip up all the fresh snow…

Everyone made lap after lap in the fresh snow. I spent the whole time on the Amplid and was too stoked to head in for lunch. Some of the best turns were had in the trees between Down Under and June’s….

We continued spinning laps on Peak 2 for the rest of the afternoon, and I continued firing off shots of the crew enjoying the deep pow.

Towards the end of the day, I ventured out towards the meadow again with Brian, and we found one last powder stash. This time, Brian grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics of me enjoying the fresh snow…

At 3:40, it was time to sweep Peak 2, but the stoke was high knowing that the lift with some of the best terrain on the mountain was now open for the season. Frontside sweep followed, and then it was time for apres beers after a great day. Here’s a couple parting shots from the day…

It was only lower mountain, but the Pass was open for what would be one of the earliest opening days in several years. I was on duty for patrol, and was excited to head out for the first weekend of what is anticipated to be a great season. Pulling into the parking lot, the mountain looked good. The weather wasn’t so hot in the early morning, with wet snowflakes falling, but it was supposed to get cold and snow a bunch during the day.

It was good to see the aid room full of familiar faces as everyone was gearing up for the day, and to catch up with old friends. After a quick morning meeting, we set out towards the Twilight lift to open the mountain.

The skiing in the morning was so-so, and after a few runs a couple of us told the hill chief we were going to skin up to the top to check out the snow conditions as well as the runs. So I grabbed the split and headed out from the top of Twilight, breaking trail in about a foot of fresh snow. As we worked our way to the top, the weather turned cold as predicted, and it started snowing heavily. We toured over to the top of Peak 2 to check conditions out, and found plenty of snow at the snowstake…

After checking out Peak 2, we skied over to the top of Eagle Peak before dropping in for our first lap. John snapped the below picture of me a few moments before we ripped a super sweet run down High Lead…

The snow had definitely turned the corner, and we were stoking when we ran into Dan and Joe at the bottom of High Lead. Since it was so damn nice, it was definitely worth hiking back up for another lap. On run number two we headed down Timburr and I caught the below pic of Dan enjoying the pow…

With two laps in the bag, John and I headed back down to the aid room to grab some lunch. Refueled, I headed back out for a bit more patrolling before heading back up for a bit more fun with Joe. The cool thing about being on the upper mountain with only the lower mountain open was that I could easily respond if needed to any incidents down below, but could take advantage of the untracked snow above. A short time after I started, I was up top again and hooked up with Joe for a run down Eagle’s. Joe grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics of me heading down in the blower snow…

I couldn’t believe how good the snow was, and quickly converted back to ski mode to skin back up to get one more lap before sweep. Back at the top, I chose to make a run down Success, which was probably one of my best runs of 2016. Every turn produced a huge face shot, and a whiteroom blast that seemed to last forever. What started out as a wet, heavy day had definitely turned into cold blower.

I made it back in time to help out with sweep, and the first day of the 2016 ski patrol season was in the books. After the evening meeting, it was time for a well deserved beer and BS session, and it was a pleasure to just hang out in the patrol room. Hopes were definitely high for the new season, and I can’t wait to get back out for some more great powder turns this December.

Backcountry days are beginning to feel like a distant memory as most of my ski days in January — and there have been plenty of them — have been at the Pass for either ski patrol or free riding. After an epic December and early January, the middle of the month was filled with warmer temperatures that produced wet, heavy, fat flakes. Conditions were ripe for a little sled training, and a few friends and I took advantage, running both the 100’s and the 350’s. The snow was pretty deep and sloppy, and made for some difficult conditions on the 100. I took a turn in the handles running down High Lead, and felt like I was pushing down a wave of water in front of the sled…

After a few laps, we loaded the sled on the EPA lift to take it back to the top and grab the 350, which was much better suited for the sloppy conditions…

The wet flakes were really coming down, and throughout the day it started to accumulate pretty nicely. By the afternoon, conditions were actually pretty decent.

Later in the day, I ended up having to give a couple of sled rides to patients who were injured on By George, and was happy to have pounded out a few practice laps earlier in the day.

I was also fortunate enough to get out to the Pass for a day with my son in the middle of the month, and it was unique because it was my first ever day on skis after 19 years on a board. I did pretty good, but couldn’t keep up with him….

After spinning several laps on the Twilight Chair, he decided it was time for his first trip up EPA. Thankfully, the weather was nice, the views didn’t disappoint, and Shaun was stoked at the top!

The end of the month brought a return to the snowy weather, and a few more days of ski patrol. Raleigh and I pounded out several morning laps on RTS, and I snapped a few shots along the way. The smile on his face says it all….

With February coming in a few days, I’m looking forward to more powder, a few more days at the resort, and getting back out into the backcountry for some sweet untracked turns!

Snowpocalypse is the term that comes to mind when trying to describe this December at Willamette Pass. With over 102 inches at the snow stake at Peak 2, most of which fell in a two week period, this has been one of the snowiest December’s ever at the Pass. Needless to say, there was plenty of stoke in the air amongst the patrol as we gathered in the aid room for first Patrol 2 day of the year (this was P2’s first day even though the mountain had been open for over a week).

We had our morning meeting, and soon afterwards several of us headed out for avalanche control work since the Pass was closed the day before for Christmas and had about 6 inches of fresh snow with some wind transport. Near the top of the EPA lift, the morning light was bright and I could tell it was going to be an awesome day….

After unloading, we made the short hike to the top of Peak 2, and the scenery was stunning as usual. Looking to the south, Odell Butte and Lake were glistening in the early morning sun…

Wasting little time at the top of Peak 2, we double checked gear and skied down to Dragon’s Back to do our control work. After breaking cornices along the ridge line and getting a few sloughs to go, we tied into a large tree and belayed Dan along the nose. Halfway through, I let Brian take over the belay and was able to snap a few photos of Dan as he went about his work…

Dan was able to get one decent sized slide to go, and then we broke down the rope setup, and worked our way down the rest of the ridge. Once we were all in a safe spot, we enjoyed some great turns through the meadow and back to the Peak 2 lift, with the backside in position to open for the public. I snapped a couple pictures of Brian airing it out coming out of the meadow as well as Dan making some nice pow turns…

After our morning work, it was time to enjoy the quality snow and we made several runs on the backside, finding powder on Northern, June’s and in the trees. Around 10:30, I made my way back to the front side for a few runs, and found some good snow in White Russian with Raleigh…

My bump spot was at 1:00, so I grabbed a quick bite to eat around 12:45 and headed back up EPA. Walking out of the patrol room, I snapped a picture of the hill, looking in mid-winter form in December….

Bump was uneventful, and once my hour was up, I headed out to make a few more runs until sweep. Looking off to the south, I pulled out my telephoto lens and snapped a few pictures of Diamond, dreaming of making runs on the mountains north side this coming spring…

Peak 2 sweep started at 3:40 pm, and then upper mountain sweep followed. I waited up top with Dan, and after a brief issue with a missing person that was subsequently found, we vacated via RTS.

A bit later, back in the patrol room, we had our evening meeting and then cracked a few beers to celebrate an excellent start to the season. Hopefully there will be many more pow days to come! Here’s a parting shot of Brian from the day….