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I was on duty for my first patrol day in January on the 7th, which was also the first Saturday of the month. Conditions were looking to be ok, with about an inch of new snow overnight and sunny skies in the forecast. I headed up in the morning with Shaun in tow, and we made it to the ski area in good time, arriving early to the morning quiet ahead of the hustle and bustle a few hours later.

Our patrol had a good morning meeting, and then we headed up to the top of EPA to open the mountain. After our first lap, I snapped a picture of a few of the gang at the top.

The plan for the day was to get all of our toboggan instructors through a continuing education clinic, to ensure everyone would be on the same page for teaching the sled candidates coming up over the next couple of months. We wanted to start that early, so I snapped a picture of Jon and Anna at the top of EPA and headed over to Peak 2 with several others to get started…

Once at the top of Peak 2, I found several others getting a few Cascade 100’s ready to roll down Waldo. We talked over a few points applicable to proper sled running, then headed down to the rollover to chat some more….

We talked over a variety of issues associated with running the 100’s, including proper use of the brake and how to effectively run the tail rope, as well as proper weight distribution for skis, etc. After our discussion, Craig headed down with Brian on the tail and we all slid down Waldo. I snapped a few shots as everyone headed down, capturing Mt Ray in the background….

After making a couple of runs, we called it good for the sled running and headed up to the top of EPA to play with the sled pickets that Laurie was interested in. Basically the sled pickets were just mountaineering pickets with some sewn runners and carabiners that work pretty well to anchor the sled in most snow conditions.

We spent a little time practicing with the system, and it definitely worked well holding the sled on a slope with a load applied to it. Hopefully we won’t have to use the pickets anytime soon, but it’s nice to have the option in the event they might be needed.

By the time we wrapped up the sled work, it was time to head over to Peak 2 and get ready for sweep. I was able to catch up with Shaun, and we swept Escalator together. I let him go down ahead, and snapped a picture of him at the bottom looking quite small from up above.

Peak 2 sweep went quickly, and soon we were all back up top and ready to head over to EPA for upper mountian sweep. I captured a few pictures of the SPY as well as James and Julie with the SPY up top before we headed over.

After making the short hike to EPA, we swept the upper and lower mountains. The frontside sweep went smoothly (no major incidents or courtesy rides) and we were back down at base in time for me to snap a few more pictures, including Shaun below as well as a pic of my cold beverage of choice for the afternoon, a tasty Cloud Core Hazy Pale Ale from Ecliptic Brewing.

After our evening meeting, it was time to dive into the beer and chips/dip, and it felt great to hang out and catch up with fellow patrollers after a fun day on the hill. Good camaraderie with fellow patrollers is one of my favorite things about being on patrol, and probably the main reason that I keep coming back year after year. Like many days on patrol, this day was a great day, and I’m hoping to have many more this year filled with good snow and good friends! Here’s a parting shot from the day….

 

As hard as it was to believe, the last day of 2022 was already here, and I was heading up to the Pass with Shaun for a day of patrolling. I was excited to be patrolling with Patrol 3 since I was covering for Toby, and there was a dusting of fresh snow when we pulled into the parking lot. After the morning meeting, we headed out to get on the hill. Unfortunately, the weather the night before had rained and then froze, and then finished with a little snow, which meant EPA was pretty iced up. It took several of us pushing chairs through the base of the lift for about an hour to get it going, but soon we were in business.

After we got EPA open, I headed over to Peak 2 to take a few laps and help open runs. The skiing was pretty nice, even though the snow conditions weren’t optimal. I ended up getting busy fairly quickly with incidents, and took part in three during the next few hours, either through toboggan transport or assistance in the aid room. When I finally got back out on the hill, it was time for my bump up top. I managed to catch a picture of Tyler at the top of EPA, and then headed down to the bump shack to hang out.

Once my bump was over it was time for Peak 2 sweep. I headed over and we closed the back without incident. Once back at the top, we made the hike up to EPA and the lighting was really nice. I pulled out the camera and took multiple pictures while we waited for last chair. I even managed to have one of the patrollers get a picture of me and Shaun!

The month of December is a great time to get some really good light at the Pass, especially around sweep, and I was happy to pull my camera out and take some more shots as the minutes ticked by. The two shots below of Ian and Sarah and the starburst with Sarah are a couple of my favorite from the day…

A few minutes later, we had last chair, and it was time to begin sweep. Normally I like to sweep RTS, but I chose to head down Good Time with Shaun since I had been so busy all day it was our first chance to ski together.

 We worked our way down the Toothpaste Tube and then onto Charlie. The softer snow from earlier in the day was beginning to refreeze, but Shaun managed to negotiate it without too much trouble.

We swept the run clean and met up with the other patrollers from KP and Eagles once lower mountain sweep began. I snapped the below photo of various patrollers and SPY sweeping KP, and it reminded me of the previous year before Shaun was on Patrol when he was really excited to get to sweep with us.

At the base, everyone shuffled into the patrol room, and we had a quick evening meeting. It was nice to relax after a long but fun day on the hill, and I enjoyed a tasty Pilot Rock Porter from Caldera Brewing.

And just like that, 2022 was in the books. I’d have to say it was a pretty great year, and I’m hoping 2023 is even better!

 

Sunshine was in the forecast, and it was looking like it was going to be a great weekend at the Pass. Peak 2 was on the docket, with it opening for the first day of the season the day prior, and the stoke factor was high as I pulled into the parking lot for a day of patrolling. We had a good morning meeting, and headed out shortly thereafter to open the hill in the bright sunshine. I headed up to the top of EPA and snapped a few pic before opening High Lead.

Once back to the bottom, I called in the run report and hopped on EPA and headed back up and worked my way over to Peak 2. The snow was pretty nice, and I spun a couple of laps on the back with a few other patrollers while waiting for sled check-offs to start. One interesting note — while checking out conditions in the meadow I saw a large slide that had occurred recently, most likely a result of the nasty buried surface hoar that’s been quite persistent this season. More to come on that later…

A bit later, we met at the top of Peak 2 with the intention of doing sled checks for the alpine patrollers on Escalator. Joe was up to help facilitate, and it felt nice to get the sleds out on some steep runs.

We headed off down Boundary, and Anna led the way running the sled unloaded as we headed down. I setup to shoot a few shots with my 70-200 mm Canon mirrorless lens, and was happy with the results…

At the top of Escalator, we stopped for moment to go over the basics of running a loaded sled, and to allow for a “patient” to hop in. Then, it was time to head over the edge…

Anna was in the handles and Jon was on the tail, with Greg in the sled. Anna rocked it, and had no problem skiing the sled with Greg down the run. I snapped a few pictures as they headed down…

Halfway down the run, it was time for a transition, with Anna taking the tail rope and Jon stepping into the handles. Jon did great in the handles as well, and they worked down to the flats below with no issues. I snapped a few more photos, including the shots below.

The next run up, it was my turn, and I partnered up with Dan for our sled checkoff. It was nice to get back in the handles and tail rope on a loaded sled, and it’s always fun to run a sled with Dan. After our check-off, we headed out to the Meadow — I wanted to show Dan the slide that I’d come across earlier that morning.

We grabbed Amber, who was shadowing Dan for the day, and headed out. When we got there Dan was quite amazed, given he’d been skiing back there the day prior and it appeared the slide happened between the morning and when he had skied through there the day before around 3pm. We check it out from the top and the bottom, and the surface hoar layer was definitely the culprit. I snapped several pics of the skiers on the bed surface and toe for perspective.

After all of that, it was time for lunch. We worked our way off Peak 2 and over to the front, and skied corn on Good Time on our way down to the Patrol Room. I guess if you can’t have powder in mid-December, corn is the next best thing.

 After lunch, we headed out to do some saw work on some of the downed trees that had fallen during the intense windstorm a few days earlier. Dan had his electric saw, which works great for limbing trees in the snow, and our first stop was a smaller tree at the top of Good Time. With the tree of us (Amber, Dan and I), we made short work of the tree and limbs, clearing it off the run in about 20 minutes.

Next up, we headed over to Timburr to work on a tree that Fischer and Chad had worked on the day prior. The snow on the way down Charlie enroute to the base was quite nice, and it’s always fun to shoot photos of a patroller carrying a saw…

At base, we dropped Dan’s saw off at the Patrol Room, since the beta we had on the two trees down on High Lead and Timburr was that they’d been limbed up the day prior and just needed disposal. That turned out to be about half true however (at least for the tree on Timburr). We were able to easily get rid of all the cut limbs on the tree on High Lead, but needed the shovel and saw for the other half. Dan had to leave for bump, but we radioed Jon and he picked up Dan’s saw at base and headed down to meet Amber and I.

With the saw in hand, I was able to get the rest of the limbs cut while Jon and Amber cleared the limbs. It was amazingly warm in the sun, and all of us were sweating by the time we were done, but it felt great to get the trees off the run before more snow came in to cover them up, creating potential nasty hazards. We managed to make it to the top of EPA just in time for sweep, and I hung out up top with Dan, who was running upper mountain closing, after the rest of the patrol headed down to sweep the runs. Sitting there as the sun began to set behind Diamond Peak reminded me of dusk patrol tours in the spring, and it felt really nice to enjoy the quiet after a busy day.

Shortly before upper mountain sweep was completed, Amber and I headed down to ski RTS and help out iwth lower mountain sweep. RTS was really nice, and the turns were enjoyable as we headed down in the waning light.

Lower mountain sweep went off without incident, and soon we were back in the patrol room for the evening meeting, which meant it was time to enjoy a cold beer after a hard day’s work. My offering for the day was a Public House Pale Ale from Oakshire Brewing, and it hit the spot. I should have either cranked the ISO or pulled out the tripod, but I was too tired to remember either, so the photo came out a bit blurry, but that’s the way it sometimes goes:)

The next half hour or so was filled with laughter and talk about the day, and it’s really one of my favorite parts of patrol (the camaraderie with great folks). All in all, the season’s off to a great start, both from the patrol perspective and with respect to the snowpack. I hope it keeps it up on both accounts!

The snow was flying early this season, and the stoke factor was high, with the Pass making one of it’s earliest openings in recent memory. After opening on Friday, December 2nd, I was on duty for both Saturday and Sunday on the weekend. With all the new snow, I was hoping that maybe EPA would open, but it looked like it would be Twilight only for weekend. Even so, the area was looking good, with really nice coverage for early December.

I was on duty both days, and covering for Hutch with Patrol 1 on Saturday. After a good morning meeting, we headed out to open Twilight and catch our first lift rides of the season.

Even though the Pass was open the day before, we still found some really good snow on the runs and in the trees around Swoosh and Rough Cut. After a few runs, I headed down to the patrol room for a drink of water, and then headed out to meet up with Shannon and Greg to run some unloaded sleds to knock the rust off from a several month hiatus….

It’s always fun running sleds, especially when they are unloaded. Shannon, Greg and I each took a turn in the handles, and had a friendly competition to see who could dig the downhill skag in the furthest and get the sled to turn up on edge the most…..I’m not sure who won but I almost tipped the sled over :).

The rest of the day went well, with only a couple of incidents, and soon it was time to sweep the hill and call it a day. Before we all set out, everyone got together and Laurie snapped a picture of our Saturday opening weekend crew.

Sweep went without a hitch, and then it was time to enjoy a cold beverage after the evening meeting. My offering of choice for the day was a great tasting PCT Porter from Crux Fermentation Project.

After enjoying some fun camaraderie with Patrol 1 after the evening meeting, Shaun and I headed down the hill to stay at Brian and Shannon’s for the night since the four of us were all back up and on-duty the following morning. Brian cooked up a great tasting piece of salmon and coupled it with a baked potato bar, and the meal hit the spot. We washed it down with a bottle of wine, and then it was time to hit the sack. The next morning dawned early, and after making the short drive to the Pass we were out making turns again. I finally got the chance to make a few runs with Shaun, and captured the below picture of him right after he went off a small roller on Swoosh.

Up next, I made a few runs with Greg running sleds, and then I headed up to the top of Twilight to catch up with Brian, Shannon and Jen.

As the day wore on, I made a few more runs and captured a few more photos in between incidents and while managing the hill. A couple of shots that piqued my interest was the afternoon light on the upper mountain, as well as new snow gun at the bottom of Twilight…

The afternoon wore on mostly without incident, and everyone made their way to the top of Twilight for the evening sweep. Since only Twilight was open, we were able to start sweep a few minutes after 4:00, as opposed to having to sweep the upper mountain first.

Sweep didn’t take long, and a with the mountain cleared it was time for our evening meeting. Being a Sunday, I brought beer up for patrol, and it was nice to sit back, relax and enjoy some socializing with the crew again. My beer of choice for the second patrol day of the season was a good tasting Lager from Ninkasi Brewing Company.

After enjoying the beer and company, it was time to check the incident reports and close up the patrol room, and put a wrap on the opening weekend at the Pass. Brian, Shannon, Shaun and I piled into Brian’s truck and headed back to Oakridge, fully happy with a successful opening weekend at the Pass. Here’s a parting shot of Shannon from Saturday pulling an unloaded 100…