The Price is Right!

Saturday, May 4, 2013
Mt. Hood Meadows

Our season started up again...at least for a day. Dave called and said he could get $20 passes this weekend to Mt. Hood Meadows. Dylan wanted to go and the weather report was for it to be in the 80s and it sounded like fun. Anyhow, I did one better on Dave.

Complimentary...the price is right! I called in some favors from our work for Ski Oregon and scored a couple of free passes. Sweet.

We were hoping for a bright sunny day...and we got it. The only downside was the wind. It was blowing about 30mph at the top of the lift--and so hard that the higher lift was closed.

Off in the distance.

 Made it.

 Dave, Dylan and Ken (Dave's neighbor). Ken works as a ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park.

 Somehow in the past five years, Dave learned to ski pretty good.

Dylan, with Mt. Jefferson in the background. 

Dave and Ken.

This being end of season, they had a band on the deck.  We hung out and had a beer and listened for a while. It was fun.  I gotta see about getting one of those gigs.

It was a good, but long day. It's not quite as far as I feared (about 3 hours each way with stops to pick up and drop off Dave and Ken), but further than desirable. I wouldn't do it myself, but since Dylan is willing to take driving shifts, it helps a lot.

Now we're thinking Timberline in June. I got the connection!

fizzle...

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Fizzle. Or Drizzle. Either way, that's the sound of the season going down the drain. It was unseasonably dry and warm the last few weeks and then started raining Friday and has continued since. The Pass got a few inches of fresh overnight, but it's raining now and I just couldn't bring myself to haul up one more time and be disappointed.

A balmy 34.9 degrees. Just enough to make things unpleasant.

Friday was fun...we played acoustic music for about 300 people at Cozmic Pizza as a part of the McKenzie River Trust's McKenzie Memories program. They got a couple of old codgers in their 80's (kind of like my dear ole dad) to tell stories about life on the river back in the day. They showed a cool video from 1939 called "Shooting the Deschutes" and talked a lot about boats. It was a huge success and I was happy to play a part in my post-board member role.

MRT made the front page of the Register-Guard.




















The Blue McKenzie trio chillin' in the green room.

About 1/2 of the audience as seen from the guitarist's chair.

What a privilege to play original music for such a large audience.

Well, back to the end of ski season. It was fun, but a little underwhelming this year. The storms were sufficient to keep the snowpack decent, but the number of powder days were disappointing.  Total snowfall came in at a paltry 257".  We had five decent days in December and two since the beginning of the year. Guess this climate change thing is real.

While I haven't lost my love for skiing, my body is definitely feeling signs of 45 years of skiing and 18 years of running. My right knee has an annoying chunk of cartilage that flares up pretty regularly now. My hips feel arthritic, and my back...well, it's never been the same since that day in January 2005 where I had what I thought was a minor fall on my ass. The left foot is sort of permanently numb now.

Not to complain or anything, but I'm not sure how many more years of hard core skiing I get to have. So I better get whatever I'm going to do done. Dylan has one more year of college so next year will probably be the last for me to have a built in ski buddy, and potentially the last for a season pass...at least until I retire.

Moreover, I'm getting more and more fussy and turning into a powder snob. That's what makes it for me. One of the very cool things about The Pass, and I think Oregon in general, is the snow conditions are such that you don't have to ski bumps on a powder day. It's been a while since our last Colorado trip, but I know what the conditions are on the stuff I like to ski, and it's bumpy...everywhere...even in the trees.

There's nothing like skiing the Great Northwest.

Well, that's all for this year. I'll be back when the snow flies again...or potentially this spring if we decide on a Batchelor or Hood day.

Totally 80's

Saturday, March 30, 2013

It must be nearing the end of the season. Today was Totally 80's day and we didn't even know it. Not that it would matter anyway. Been there, it was fun enough the first time around...I don't need to relive it.

Willamette did their typical promotional job on this...virtually no publicity even though it was a benefit for Food for Lane County (note: Willamette Pass is just over the County line in Klamath County).

Looks like a jam packed agenda!
















Look, a flock of Pink Flamingos!

















Not sure what that has to do with Totally 80's...but who are we to critique mixed party themes?

The Totally 80's crew. I think it was Yarl from Berg's and a bunch of Berg's people.
















It was a yellow wax kind of day. By the time we left it was 65 degrees in the parking lot and 81 in Oakridge. With this kind of weather, our season will go down the drain in a big hurry.

 The fir trees like it.

 Yo! Totally 80's Dude!

With Pink Flamingos!

And a reggae band called Longshot!

Well, that just about says it all.

Tim (the owner) said they'll be open next weekend...so, unless it's raining we'll go back up for what will probably be the last weekend. I see little hope for another snowstorm. But, you never know. April Fool's of yesteryear's have been pretty awesome.

Spring Break

Monday, March 25, 2013
Spring Break Week

We made it through another term! Dylan finished his finals, I posted my grades, and now he has a whole week off, and I have a whole week to catch up and get prepared for the hell that my spring schedule promises.

What to do? Take a day off and go skiing!

We got there early today...11:45 am. Skies were overcast and it wasn't the sunny spring day we were hoping for. At least not to start.

 Something's wrong with my iPod!

 Diane watches Dylan in the Park.

 Man down!

  Timburr Glades.

It got sunnier and warmer as the day went on. Eventually, the snow got sticky. We initially addressed that with yellow wax--which worked, up to a point.

Dylan was working on his front rodeo's today.

He came pretty close to sticking it a couple of times, but the kicker wasn't really right for it. The landing was too flat.

By 3pm it was getting real sticky, and the wax wasn't working as well. So, we headed out and stopped for sweet treats at Dairy Queen on the way home.

A great day with the family!

West Peak

Saturday, March 23, 2013

I'll start with the interesting stuff and work back from there.

Time: 1:45 pm
Location: Summit of West Peak
Stoke level: Off the charts



















Let's back up a bit. We didn't go up last weekend because it got really warm and then it was cold with a tiny bit of snow. The evaluation was that it was going to be too gnarly for my blood.

It snowed a bit starting on Wednesday and they reported something like 9" over the past few days. There was 3" overnight...not enough to get up at 6:30 and hit first chair. Plus, I figured it would be the proverbial "dust on crust" conditions.

We arrived at the crack of noon again. The crowd was thin and the clouds we're thinning too.

We did a couple of front side runs to start. Conditions were better than expected. The park, however, continues to deteriorate. Not much hope for the rest of the season on that since the main park dude took a grooming job at Breck.

We talked with some patrol guys on a ride up and they said backside was alright. We started with a run down SDN, which was ok. We pressed a little further over the bowl than we usually go and found some nice new lines.  Then we headed backside and did a run down Cherokee. It was pretty chopped up. I convinced Dylan that conditions were just right to hike West Peak today. We've been talking about it for the past three seasons and it felt like the time was right. 

Dylan gets some Northern Exposure.

Into the woods. West Peak is maybe 1/2 mile from the top of Peak 2. We skied down Waldo to and cut into the trees over to the saddle between West Peak and Peak 2. Eventually down changed to up and we started hiking. Conditions were as good as they could be--10" of fresh on top of a nice layer of crust. No postholing here. Makes hiking easier.
 


















Approaching the summit.
 


















Nitka, Viktor!

Peak 2 (left) and Eagle Peak (right) from the top of West Peak.

Check out these dudes.

The clouds part on our arrival.

Diamond Peak is still Obscured by Clouds.

Ahh, sweet sidecountry pow!

The trees were amazing off West Peak. Open, with lots of interesting lines. Now we have a bunch of new zones to explore next time it snows. It will carry us well into next season. The question we are both asking: "Why did we wait so long?"  The answer...fear of getting stuck in a hole and having to walk out.

West Peak from the top of Peak 2. Note the tracks (ours) off the summit.

Ski!

Awesome day. I did not anticipate an expedition today, but sometimes you have to follow where your feet take you. The trick is knowing when to listen to your feet.

Spring break week this week. Time to catch up on projects, write some grants, and maybe get a day or two of skiing in. Weather report is sunny for Monday, so...Monday's on deck.

Sunshine

Saturday, March 10, 2013

Holy cow, we're nearly halfway through March already and 2013 is almost one-quarter over. Subjectively, time seems to go a little faster with each passing year. Kind of like Newton's Law of Gravity--an object on earth accelerates at 9.81 meters/second squared (wow, I do remember something from physics), only without the limits of terminal velocity. In other words, time accelerates without limit.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. My explanation for the perception of the subjective passing of time at an accelerated rate is that the older you get, the more time you have behind you. For example, at age 20 you've lived about 7,300 days or 173,000 hours. By age 50 you've lived more than 18,000 days or 438,000 hours. Or conversely, at age 50 you've lived 2.5 times as many days as at age 20. Why wouldn't an hour seem faster?

That of course is simply a subjective perception. An hour is still an hour and I can still think of things that will make an hour seem like a lifetime. Those experiences tend to make one wish life were much shorter.

Enough of that already, my brain is starting to hurt.

Now my eyes are starting to hurt. It was super bright out today, but not super warm (~40 degrees).

On the hill with Diane.

 
Dylan shreds the park...

 

Or whatever you call that.

The bearded trees. 

Diane shows off her red coat.
















Back into the studio tomorrow for more recording. We'll see what we come up with this round.

"C" is for Corn

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Spring is showing its colors here in the verdant Northwest. The flowers are blooming in town and change is in the air...

The weather was pretty typical of the season during my trip to Mt. Vernon, Washington this week (note to self, schedule a North Cascades National Park trip this summer).  It got unseasonal yesterday--63 degrees in town. I was afraid to look at what it was at The Pass, but it must have been an awesome day!

Unfortunately, I had to work. The good news (at least in one respect) was that all six of the people we had scheduled for our focus group yesterday bailed. Probably had something to do with the weather. We went for a five mile walk.

It was pretty overcast when I got up at 8:30 this morning (I know, but it's the weekend and it didn't snow 16" so why bother?). Dylan and I didn't have a lot of motivation, but the fact that the season is getting short got us moving. We arrived at the crack of noon.

It was a warm, grey day. That didn't make any difference for the conditions--totally spring corn. It got warn yesterday and didn't freeze last night.

Mt. Bachelor from the top of the Escalator.

 A snag at the top of Peak II.

 


















Dylan and Zack, we seems to be up on the mountain and in the park every Saturday.

Riding the backside chair.

Snowpack went down 10" over the last seven days. That's how it works out here in the wet Northwest. At least on our low-elevation hills.

Dylan taps the spool.

Not a bad day, all things considered. That said, I'm still rooting for some more powder days. We have five weekends and spring break left for it to happen. My dream is to get away on a 16" day during the week when there's maybe 20 other cars in the lot. Fresh tracks all day long (or as long as my lower body will allow, which seems to be 3-4 hours these days).

Given my work schedule over the next five weeks, the probability of that happening is close to zero.