Last week when we were in Colorado people kept asking what it was like to ski in Oregon. My response was pretty consistent: our area is smaller, we get spring conditions year round, and most importantly, we get some killer powder days. Today was one of those days.
I really should have worked today, and I might regret skiing eventually, but not right now. The weather patterns this week were typical of this year: sunny early in the week and then some rain in town with a couple inches at The Pass which melts into the pack immediately. So I got kind of excited last night to see the forecast was calling for 6" above 3000' and 12" above 5000' (The base of Willamette Pass is 5200'). I was also skeptical since we've had a few false alarms this year on the pow front.
I got up at 7am to check the snow report. The DOT is reporting 2", the ski area 4", but it is raining hard in town. Plus it's cold. All good signs. We head out. The snow starts falling around 2500' and the road is snowpacked around 3000'. Trucks are trying to spin out in front of us as we ascend the pass.
When we get there, a good 6" has accumulated in the parking lot. On the mountain: 9" to 14" on the front side and up to 24" on the back side.
Yes, the snow is plentiful.
Amazingly plentiful. We were so happy to have gone up today. We were also very cold... it was flat out blizzard conditions.
Dylan attempts shelter from the storm behind the drift. With limited success.
Dylan gets lost in the clouds on High Lead
Rooster Tail!
Snow explosion
Float
It's deep!
Deeper than it looks!
Gotta love the knee deep. Lots of face shots today to go along with it.
Still snowing, still shredding.
Despite the fact that there is virtually no base in the trees, we venture down Cherokee Ridge. Awesome!
Dylan's got snow all over his face.
Here's some mini films on Northern Exposure. It was so cold my camera battery was on the verge of dying all day and I didn't want to take my gloves off to shoot. I've got country hands with my gloves on and somehow switched the resolution to tiny. You'll get the idea--that the snow was more than 2' deep!
SDN.
By 12:30 we were freezing. The snow kept falling so we did a couple more runs. By 1:20 we were done.
It was still snowing hard in the lot when we left. As we got on the highway, the temperature started to increase and the road was a bit slushy. Watch out for those semis, they'll crush your truck!
Looks like we might have a repeat tomorrow. We're definitely there. If it isn't, then I'll whip out the tele's for the free heel festival. If it is, I'll stick with what I know and what is fun.
What we did today.
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