Splitboard Oregon

February 13, 2022 – Avalanche Refresher & a Little Opera

Another week on patrol, and another week of no precipitation across the west coast. The number of days it has actually snowed during this season can nearly be counted on one hand. Nevertheless, I headed up to the Pass with Shaun for a day of patrol. We pulled into the patrol parking lot early, and before long it was time for the morning meeting. After discussing the day’s activities, several of us headed out for an avalanche refresher led by Hutch.

We started off at the base of EPA with a discussion about the rope, harness, belay setup, etc., and then moved up top once the lift started spinning.

A bit later, when we had discussed running the route, it was time to head to Peak 2 and actually run the route. The hike to the top went quickly, and soon we were skiing down to June’s Run and then walking the ridge line out to the nose. The lack of snow along the normal route was pretty stunning.

Once we reached the nose, we set the belay up and talked through how we cut the cornices and windslab that builds up around the nose. From the nose, we moved down the ridge to then second belay point, setting up the belay once more and discussing how to make appropriate ski cuts in avalanche conditions when the slopes are loaded. Finally, we worked our way out into the meadow below, skiing from island of safety to island of safety, and then down to the bottom.

After running the route, I took a lap or two on Peak 2 to enjoy the snow, and then headed down to the base for a lunch break. At the car, I couldn’t resist pulling out my beer for the day — a Stash Bandicoot Hazy Imperial IPA from Hop Valley Brewing — but just to take a picture. Enjoying it would have to wait until the end of the day.

After lunch, I headed back up to the top of EPA to check on some OEC training that was going on. Gretchen was working on leading a femur fracture scenario, and Fischer and Tyler were assisting, with Laurie supervising. Things appeared to be going pretty well, so I then headed out for a couple of laps before meeting at the top of Peak 2 to supervise some sled training with Ian and the sled candidates.

Gretchen leading a femur fracture scenario

When I arrived at the top of Peak 2, Ian informed me they were hoping to do a full scenario, including a mock injury, treating the patient, loading the patient into the sled, and then running the loaded sled down June’s to the base of Peak 2.

Patrick and Ben treating Gretchen, with Anna holding the sled

It was fun to watch the sled candidates apply all the training they had been doing over the year, including discussing where to park the sled, applying the necessary OEC treatment, and then loading the patient into the sled before ultimately wrapping them up and heading down the mountain. Overall they did a great job!

After a bit of discussion and trouble shooting, they were able to get Gretchen in the sled without issue, and the ride down to the bottom of Peak 2 was smooth and easy. The overall progression of Anna, Ben and Patrick on the sleds has been great, and the following weekend (after running the RTS Belay Sled), they became full fledged alpine patrollers!

Ian and Laurie talking over the entire scenario

With all the day’s activities, the hour was getting late and it was almost time for Peak 2 sweep. I met up with Shaun, and we were able to ski a few runs on together on Peak 2. Our final run before sweep was on Destiny, and I was able to grab a few photos of him as we headed down…

Peak 2 sweep went off without a hitch, and soon it was approaching the end to another day of patrolling. Clouds were starting to move in as well, which hinted at the slightest possible change in the weather pattern.

We loaded the Peak 2 chair, rode to the top, and headed to EPA for upper mountain sweep. The light on Diamond Peak was looking really pretty, and I was able to snap a few pictures before we started sweep, including the shot above as well as the one below framed by a chair from EPA.

While I was taking pictures, Gretchen began belting out Happy Birthday to Kyle…..in Opera. It was Kyle’s birthday — all the lifties had let us know about it earlier, and everyone stood there in awe. Gretchen absolutely rocked it, and at the end there was a big round of applause. In all the years I’ve been on patrol, this was one of the coolest moments in recent memory.

Gretchen singing Happy Birthday in Opera

After the opera show, it was time for upper mountain sweep, which went off without a hitch. Lower mountain sweep went without incident as well, and finally it was time to enjoy that beer in the parking lot after we cleared the mountain and held our evening meeting.

Even in the midst of ridiculously long extended ridge of high pressure, it was still a really good day on the mountain, and I’m looking forward to getting back up again soon. Here’s a parting shot from the day of Shaun skiing down Destiny…

February 5, 2022 – Patrolling at the Pass

With the unrelenting ridge of high pressure hanging tough off the Oregon coast and showing no signs of abating, I headed up to the Pass for another day of patrolling and to escape the valley fog. The forecast was calling for blue skies and sunshine, and it turns out that’s exactly what we got. As usual, I pulled into the patrol lot around 7:20 am with Shaun in tow, and donned my gear before heading over to the base area. After checking in with management about the day’s activities, I was able to capture a few photos before we settled in for the morning meeting…

Getting the last of the grooming done before opening

After the general announcements and discussion about the day’s activities, Hannah led a conversation for the medical minute about mid-shaft femur fractures and the sager splint, which gave me time to step away from leading the discussion as hill chief and shoot a few photos, including the one below.

Once the medical minute was over, it was time to head out and open the hill. I headed up EPA, and opened one of the frontside runs, and then went down to grab Shaun and get him out on the hill for the day. We had time to make a couple of runs before meeting up with the SPY at 10:00 am…

A few minutes before 10:00 am, I had to head down to the base, while Shaun wanted to spin a few laps on Peak 2. My conversation with the SPY focused on aid-room activities, and then I headed out to check-in on the OEC candidate training that was occurring at the base area. I found several scenarios going on at once, and decided to take the opportunity to snap a few pics with my camera to document the action…

It was looking pretty serious with several folks evaluating, and it was good to see both Jen and Matthew on the hill, as both were recovering from health/injury issues….

About the time I headed back to the patrol room to grab my gear, the area completely lost power. We later learned that most of central Oregon from La Pine to Klamath Falls was out of power, but nobody knew it at the time. To keep in communication, as a patrol we had to switch to channel 6 (line of sight), and I was able to establish connection with John Fischer at the top of the hill to relay to our folks on Peak 2. After about 20-25 minutes, the area had everything up and running on backup power, and we were back in business.

Richard working on Jen with Brian and Shannon evaluating

I quickly hopped on the EPA lift and made my way to the top. With all things considered, I was pretty amazed at how well the area management was able to get everything switched over (including running the Twilight lift on diesel power) to get everyone back in business. I waited up top for a few minutes for Shaun, who I knew would be coming up soon, and snapped a few pictures of Lakeview Peak through the barstool at the top of EPA, as well as a self-portrait reflecting in the glass of the EPA summit shack….

A short time later, after another lift stoppage of about 20 minutes, Shaun arrived at the top of EPA and we headed over to Peak 2 to check in on the sled training Ian was leading with Anna, Ben and Patrick.

The sled candidates were working with the 350, and although conditions weren’t ideal, they were rocking the unloaded sled on Waldo.

I took a few pictures of Anna in the handles and Ben in the rear handles as they came down, and then skied down the run with Shaun.

We ended up spinning one more lap with the sled group, and then it was time to head back over to the front side for some more turns…

A bit later I found myself back at the top of EPA, and I wanted to take a few photos with my Canon f/1.8 50 mm lens. Anna and Austin showed up a few minutes later and made for a suitable subject.

Ian and Dan were next, and obliged while I fired off a few shots. Finally, I turned my attention to Brian, as we supervised some of the OEC training that was happening up top.

Given the power failure and that we were running on backup power, I was happy to have the extra patrollers and candidates at the top of EPA for training as opposed to the base, in the event that we needed extra hands if something went awry.

As it usually does, 3:30 pm rolled around before I knew it, and it was time to sweep Peak 2. I headed over and met up with Shaun, who was game to help with sweep as well. At the top of the lift, I snapped the below picture of Anna, Tyler and Patrick before we closed the runs off for the afternoon….

Shaun and I were assigned to sweep Waldo, and it was awesome watching him sweep the run after everyone was off the hill. He clearly enjoyed being the last person on the run, and as Fischer said, he’s clearly got a little patroller in him….

Down at the bottom, we loaded up and headed back to the front to sweep the upper mountain. The sun was low enough in the sky that I was able to get a few decent shots with my wide angle lens, including the one below of a group of patrollers unloading Peak 2.

After unloading Peak 2, we made the short walk to the top of EPA, and the light was still really nice, so I grabbed a picture of Kyle at the top terminal, as well as the P2 crew just before we shoved off for sweep.

Shaun wanted to sweep Success, so we headed down and found some really nice corn. I was pretty happy with how Shaun was skiing, and he made really nice turns down the good snow.

We headed down the bottom, not needing to sweep George since it was covered from the Twilight closing crew, and found the OEC candidates getting their jackets. OEC candidates no more, they had successfully passed their training and were now full fledged patrollers!

New Patrollers Chris, Sarah, Richard, James and Jen!

A few moments later, the rest of the patrol trickled in, and we had a quick evening meeting and then celebrated with post-patrol beers. The social committee had a cooler full of Oakshire, and I was happy to drink a tasty beer that had been in my fridge for a few weeks — a Tangerine Express Hazy IPA fro Stone Brewing.

A well deserved hazy IPA from Stone Brewing

The beers hit the spot, and it felt really nice to hang out with fellow patrollers after a long day on the hill. I did manage to escape for a few minutes to head in and review the incident reports in the patrol room, and then it was time to make my way to the car to load gear and hit the road. All in all, it was another great day on patrol, even if it hasn’t snowed in several weeks!

January 29, 2022 – Peak 2 Opener

It was another sunny Saturday in January, which meant continued unrelenting high pressure. I was on duty with Patrol 3, subbing for Toby who was going to cover for me a little later in the season. Shaun was game to join me again, and this time he brought his friend Henry along as well, which was great since they could ski together while I was patrolling. We got to the hill early like usual, and after getting my gear together and securing a ticket for Henry, it was time for the morning meeting. Stoke was in the air, because even though the weather wasn’t the best, Peak 2 was going to be spinning for the first time all season!

The morning meeting went quickly, and we headed out to open the hill. I headed up EPA, and being assigned Peak 2 opening duties, the first order of business was to get the closure up at the saddle and then open a run on the front side before spinning back up to head over to Peak 2. While riding the chair, I caught a couple pictures of patrollers on both of my first two lift rides. Pictured below is Sarah and Richard in the first picture, and Dan and Hannah in the second.

By the time I was back on top of Peak 2, I recruited Dan and we headed over to the back side with sleds in tow. Dan grabbed one from the top of EPA, and I snagged the sled from the saddle tube and we headed back. Dropping under the closure and heading down to Peak 2 felt great. Dan skied down Escalator to open it, and I headed down Boundary. At the bottom, I loaded him with the sled and he headed up.

Heading to Peak 2 for the season opening

Hanging down at the bottom of Peak 2 felt great, and a few minutes later Ian made his way down and loaded me with my sled to take up to the top. Once up top, we stowed the sleds away, and then proceeded to make a few runs on the back. The snow was remarkably good, and we did laps on Northern, June’s and Waldo. Back up top, I caught up with several patrollers, and everyone was stoked on the back side being open!

I hung back on Peak 2 for a few more runs with Dan, and we skied Destiny and then ended up back on Northern. As we dropped in for our second run down Northern, I heard Shaun yell from the lift. Looking up, he and Henry were riding the chair, and appeared pretty stoked on Peak 2 being open as well.

With several runs on Peak 2 in the bag, I headed back to the front around 10:00 am. As Dan and I were riding back up the chair on EPA, we noticed a female skier stuck next to a tree near the top of Success. After calling out to her and confirming she was ok, we went back about our business. I snapped a few shots of the OEC candidates working near the bump shack on various scenarios, then did one lap back to Peak 2.

As I unloaded EPA, I heard a call come in over the radio for a female skier that needed assistance on Timburr. It sounded like it was the same person Dan and I had seen earlier on Success, and Dan responded with me as backup. As it turns out, it was the same skier, and fortunately everything was ok, but she did request a courtesy ride back down to the base. I ended up bringing the sled down Timburr (which was still quite icy), and then Dan and I hauled her down to the base. The below picture (taken with permission) shows Dan prepping the sled.

The sled ride down was really warm, and both Dan and I were sweating pretty good as the temperature started to rise. We ended up doing another run down Timburr because Dan left his helmet at the scene, and then it was time for a well deserved lunch break. While enjoying my lunch, I wandered around the parking lot for a few minutes with my fisheye lens on the camera, and snapped a few shots, including the one below…

After lunch, it was time to head back out on the hill. I put my 50mm portrait lens on the camera, and found Matt and Ian sitting up top. It was nice to see Matt, who’s been out on injury most of the season, up top and and enjoying the sun…

I skied a few more laps as the afternoon wore on, and then it was time to head over to Peak two for sweep. Just before we were getting ready, Shaun and Henry climbed up to the top and wanted to help as well. They headed down Waldo with Shannon, and the rest of us headed out as well. A few minutes later, we loaded up at the base of Peak 2 and headed out to complete the first Peak 2 sweep of the year.

After sweeping Peak 2, upper mountain sweep on EPA went off without a hitch, and I worked my way over to Twilight to start lower mountain sweep. They had plenty of people, so I snapped a few photos and then headed down to the base. The evening light on the mountain was really nice, and even though I wished it was snowing it was still a pretty scene.

Ian led the evening meeting, and then it was time for a well deserved beer. My beer of choice for the day was a tasty Amber Ale from Oakshire Brewing. The pic below was taken earlier in the day around lunch.

It was really nice to hang out with fellow patrollers at the base and enjoy a cold beer after a fun day of patrolling, and evenings like these are a main reason I get so much enjoyment out of patrolling. The parking lot crowd was also enjoying themselves, and I spent a few minutes visiting with them as well before it was time to hit the road.

Patrollers enjoying post skiing activities after sweep

And with that, as quickly as it had started, January at the Pass was over. I loaded up our gear, and Shaun, Henry and I hit the road, thankful for a great month of skiing, and hopeful for a return to winter weather soon!

January 24, 2022 – Mt St Helens

After a great day of turns on patrol the day before, I woke early with my alarm at 2:30 am. Since all my gear was ready to go the night before, I dressed quickly and was able to hit the road by 2:45 am and head north. The drive up the freeway through the thick fog went smoothly, and I was stoked to be heading out to visit a volcano I hadn’t been to in 9 years (could it really have been that long?). I pulled into the snowpark a few minutes before 6:00 am, and found Joe’s truck in the lot. We got our gear organized, took care of filling out the required permits, and shouldered our packs a little before 7:00 am. Skinning right from the snowpark was definitely a plus, and we worked our way through the trees. After a hour or so we got our first views of the mountain.

Coverage on the upper mountain was looking pretty good, and we skinned on under the firm snow as the sun rose above the horizon and created an orange glow. Looking back at Joe as we worked our way up the low angle slopes, I was definitely pretty happy about our choice to come here on this day…

A bit later, we caught up with a couple of guys who were on foot ahead of us. After some small chit-chat, we headed on and the slope steepened. We were able to skin for a ways, but a couple of steep pitches caused us to switch over to booting to keep away from an unwanted slide.

Soon, it was time to enjoy a deserved break, and we refueled with a bit of food and water. As we were sitting there enjoying our food and the views, a lone raven decided to pay us a visit to see if he could mooch any food off of us. I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of him, and then once he realized we didn’t have anything for him, he headed out.

With our break done, we headed on, and it proved to be easier to continue to boot for the time being. As we worked our way higher, the views became better and better, and I snapped a few pictures of Joe with Mt Hood in the background. A short time later, we were able to get back on the skins and get the skis off our backs…

As we continued skinning, the views continued to improve, and we started to get good views of Mt Adams to the east. We kept skinning for as long as we could until the snow conditions became icy, and then it was time to switch to crampons for the final thousand feet or so. A few solo skiers were ahead of us and kept their skins on, but it was quite a struggle, and we quickly passed one of them.

One of the things about climbing St Helens is that it always seems like the top is just within reach, but it’s kind of like a mirage on the horizon —- always just a bit out of reach and a bit further out there. Finally, after working our way through some wind blown sastrugi near the summit ridge, we made our way to the top and were greeted with one of my favorite views in the cascades. Looking down onto Spirit Lake with Mt Rainier in the background is always such a visual treat…

We made the top somewhere a bit before 12:30 pm, making for an overall approach time of just under 5 hours and 30 minutes. I pulled out the fisheye lens and snapped several photos, taking extra caution not to get too close to the edge of the cornices overhanging the caldera. In the below photo, Joe is visible hanging out at the rim on the far right…

After snapping several photos with the fisheye, it was time to get my beer out and put it on ice, and we sat around and enjoyed the views for a bit. Joe offered to snap a picture of me in my usual pose with my board, and I returned the favor by shooting a pic of him on the rim as well….

We hung out on top for about an hour, enjoying the views, waiting for the snow below to hopefully soften some and turn to creamy corn, and enjoying the beautiful weather. Eventually, we figured it was time to make turns, and it was also time to pull out our beers and enjoy them before our long run down. My beer of choice for the day was an excellent Overland Amber Ale from Yachats Brewing. It definitely hit the spot, and by the time I had downed it I was ready to shred.

Taking off the crampons and putting on the board and skis was the crux of the trip, and once we had our sliding gear on we felt quite a bit better. I shoved off from the crater rim first, and the turns were a bit spicy for the first 800 feet or so through the sastrugi wind polished ice/snow mix. I caught a few pics of Joe coming down, and we were able to work slope for some pretty decent turns.

Once we were through the marginal snow, conditions improved significantly, and we headed over to the line Joe, Ron and I skied several years ago. Our timing was perfect, and we were stoked to be in for a really nice corn harvest!

Continuing down, we worked the slope for hundreds of turns. Joe grabbed the camera and fired off a sequence of shots of me harvesting the corn, including the ones below….

Heading down the south side of St Helens

The benefit of climbing over 5500 feet on the approach meant that it would be a big run on the down, and we were definitely in the middle of it and it wasn’t disappointing. Above the worm flows, we spotted some good snow on skiers left, and worked our way over to ride it. Joe kept the camera, and snapped some photos as I rode through the lunar landscape…

More turns followed, and eventually we had to stop to rest our legs from all the action. Needless to say, both Joe and I were pretty stoked to score such nice corn in January.

As we continued down, we started to run out of real estate and eventually had to drop into the canyon below. After scouting the ridge line, we found a spot that looked like it would go and it did…

The ski out of the canyon was fun, and the snow stayed nice. We worked the natural quarter pipe down to the flats below, and retraced our uptrack from the morning back towards the treeline.

Once at treeline, we were able to cruise out the trail on the mostly flat slope really easily. The gliding was fast, and we needed to stop a couple of times to rest tired legs. I was able to ride the whole trail with poles out, and it was a remarkably easy glide right back to the pavement’s edge, where the first order of business was to get out of the ski boots and get the brats on the grill. While waiting for the brats to cook, we enjoyed one of Joe’s Sierra Nevada IPA’s along with the exhilaration that comes with an awesome day in the mountains.

Within a few minutes, the brats were done, and as usual they hit the spot after a great day of turns. It didn’t take long to scarf them down, and they were gone in no time. We hung out for a bit discussing Joe’s plans for the next few days, and then it was time for me to head out for the long drive home. I bid Joe farewell and headed down the road, but had to stop after a couple of miles to shoot one more shot of the mountain bathing in the afternoon sunshine.

The drive home went super smoothly, and I made it through Portland without a hitch in rush hour traffic, which is unheard of. All in all, it was an excellent day of January corn, and completely worth the early morning start and long day. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but really hope a return to winter comes soon. Winter corn great, but I’m definitely ready for some more pow turns! Until then, here’s a parting shot from the day…

January 23, 2022 – Never ending sunshine

Sunday was coming up fast, and with no change in the forecast, it looked like it would be another sunny day at the Pass. As usual, I headed out early, with Shaun in tow, and we pulled into the parking lot around 7:30 am. I headed to the patrol room while Shaun hung out in the car, and pretty soon more patrollers were gathering around the base. After a quick morning meeting, with a debrief on ambulance and helicopter protocols, we headed out to open the hill. As usual the light was pretty nice, and I snapped a few photos up top…

After opening the frontside, I headed down and got Shaun ready to go so he could head out and meet one of his friends who was coming up for the day. Then I headed back out to join Joe, Ian and the sled candidates to do a little sled work with the Cascadde 100’s.

The sled training crew ready to head out

I caught up with the crew at the top of EPA in time to catch their second lap down Eagle’s, and snapped a few photos of Anna as she headed down with the unloaded 100 towards the run.

At the top of Eagle’s, Ben got in the sled as ballast, while Anna worked the handles and Patrick took up the tail rope. Both Anna and Patrick killed it, and looked good working their way down Eagle’s.

We worked our way down the run, with Ian and Joe providing feedback, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed with this year’s sled candidates. I snapped a few more pics as we headed down, and then put the camera bag in the bag to enjoy the turns down Eagle’s….

After the sled run, I headed back up top to work with the SPY on what happens during an incident with respect to how to safely mark the scene, ask important questions if they happen to ski upon an incident, and how we load patients into a sled. Once we went through a scenario and loaded up a patient, I headed back up to chat with Devin about a couple of issues.

A few minutes later, with our business out of the way, I rejoined the sled candidates and busted out the camera for several more shots on another run down Eagle’s. This time Patrick was in the handles, with Anna riding as ballast and Ben on the tail rope.

We finished our run down just in time to grab a quick lunch at the base before heading back out on the hill for the afternoon. Down in the parking lot, I enjoyed a well-earned break and applied another layer of sunscreen.

Once lunch was over, I headed back up on the hill, and the snow was definitely starting to corn. It was hot up top, and I found Tyler hanging out on bump. It ended up getting so warm that I stripped down to a base layer and nothing more, and was still plenty warm. After hanging out up top a bit, I met up with Shaun to take a few runs since his friend Tanner was heading home for the day.

We spent the last hour or so taking laps down High Lead, Timburr and Success, and I snapped a few photos of Shaun along the way. It’s fun watching his skiing start to progress over this season so far…

A few minutes before 4:00 pm, we headed up EPA one last time, and joined up with the other patrollers up top to get ready for sweep. Shaun ended up sweeping High Lead with John, while I headed down early to review the run reports and get the patrol room tidied up so we could get make a quick get-away after the evening meeting, in order to get a super early start the next morning for plans to make turns on Mt St Helens.

A short time later, the patrol started rolling in, and Shaun was the last one to the patrol room — I’m learning he really likes being the last one on the hill, something he shares with his dad! We held a brief evening meeting to recap the day, and then it was time to cap the day off with a well earned cold beverage. I had got a half case of Jubeale from Deschutes earlier in the week for just this occasion, and busted it out for those who were thirsty. It definitely hit the spot, and capped off another really nice day of patrolling at the Pass.