Redemption on West Peak

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Last day at The Pass.

The season will continue through May at Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood, but this is it for us. I got a grand total of eight days in at The Pass this season. We didn't get enough days to pay for our passes--which was a big disappointment. We were lucky to get to ride at all.

The crowd is a little thin today.

We did a few runs on the runs, which were kind of ok-ish. Then we decided to give the trees a try. We started with Cherokee Ridge on the backside with the intention of hitting the saddle  between Peak 2 and West Peak. We started exploring that area on the last day of last season, with the intent of fully mapping it out this season. That didn't quite pan out since there hasn't been enough snow to safely ski the trees all season.

This turned out to be a good call. The additional new snow overnight on top of last week's snow left about 16" of good pow in the openings. On the first run down the meadows I took a 5' drop while I was angling for an open area. Big surprise, but lots of fun. Dylan takes a slightly different line over smoke shack rock (because there's a smoke shack just to the right of where he is in the photo.

We explored a few new zones today--most of which were great (the exception being when Dylan took the far, far right line and pretty much had to hike a mile back to the lift). This was one of the amazing powder fields.

Dylan winds his way through the trees.

I.

 II.

The view from the bottom of RTS where the trail comes out.  They cut this out in the 90s when speed skiing was an Olympic demonstration sport. Skiers would straight line the 1000 vertical feet on the 54 degree run and hit about 110 mph at the speed trap. I'll pass on that, but it must have been a rush.

After 4 laps we were running out of time since Dylan had to work at 4. We decided to make the 15-minute expedition up West Peak and check it out.

There's my new skis (Armada JJ's) ready to shred down West Peak.

Rock & Roll!

The view of Peak 2 from West Peak (in the clouds to the left). It looks a lot further than it actually is.

Odell Lake through the trees.

Summit party!

Here I am starting my best run of the year. There's some amazing tree skiing on West Peak--1000 vertical of open slots.

Well, there's lots more to explore here. We were pretty stoked on this run and it was a great way to finish the season at The Pass.

I'll be back, but probably without Dylan. I'll be surprised if he sticks around next winter since he graduates UO in June. Bittersweet for me for sure. I'll have to find a new ski posse which could be challenging since the people I've skied with either don't go very often or aren't good enough to keep up.

The upside is that we trained Dylan well. He's got the love and I'm guessing he'll be pining for tree runs at The Pass at some point.

Onward to spring activities!

Winter's last gasp

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Winter finally returned this week. It snowed on and off most of the week. I considered going up by myself yesterday, but despite the 6" of snow, it was 34 degrees at the base and the forecast called for 1/2 to 3/4 inches of rain. You've got to draw the line someplace. My is at rain.

Today the snow report said an additional 4" and it was 27 degrees when we left the house at 7:15. This might be our last chance to get some decent snow in, so it's worth the try even if conditions end up being less than ideal.

Today is the annual "Totally 80s Bash." The pulled out all the stops and had the REI demo crews there. I wasn't interested--I bought a new pair of powder skis this year that I've only used twice so far, and one of those days was in Steamboat. So much for shredding lots of pow.

 Looks wintery enough at the top of High Lead. The snow was a little heavy, but my new skis were up to the conditions. Super fat and floaty.


















Dylan more or less straight lined it through the obstacles. He's the tree-ish looking thing in the middle left.

Woo-hoo, pow, how novel!

The bash included snow rafting, which looks a lot more fun than it probably was. The snow was really slow and the course really short. That's Dylan's friend Courtney in the front left.

While conditions have basically been crap all year, there's almost 7' of snow at the top.

We got around the mountain quite a bit. Dylan went off to ride with Courtney so I took the liberty of checking out the trees. They ranged from not so great to really great depending on the size of the openings. The openings had a good 15" of nice rideable show. Areas under the tree canopy were a little thin and gloppy from snow blobs falling off.

The forecast calls for more snow and colder conditions again overnight, so hopefully we'll get one last crack at it.

Nothing to write home about

Saturday, March 23rd, 2014

Today is officially the first day of spring break here in Oregon. We'll put the emphasis on Spring since the weather has been either sunny or consistently rainy at lower elevations. Today is a true spring day at The Pass.

 Maybe a little too spring-y. The base at the bottom is a little thin now.























Good thing that By George is not the only run. Good thing By George gets the most sun exposure--otherwise all hope would be lost. It's kind of remarkable that they are even able to operate. Given the numbers in the parking lot, there's little probability that they are breaking even on operations. To the south, Mt. Ashland called it quits this week and will not operate at all this year. The higher elevation Oregon resorts (Mt. Bachelor and the Mt. Hood areas) are doing ok. Washington has had pretty good conditions after a slow start.

We ran into The Kid again today. He rode with us a little last year. He was showing Dylan all the jumps.

Dylan liked it. There was not much else to do today.

 Except for tap the stumps.

That all aside, conditions were remarkably ok today. Perfect corn on the less exposed runs and temperatures in the 50s.

All this lack of winter has broken the ski area. We had a discussion with Tim the owner, who said next weekend was going to be it for this year. It's not very surprising, people gave up before it even started. They operate Friday through Sunday next week, so we're hoping something happens to make it a good closing weekend.

Winter passed us by...

Saturday, March 15, 2014

It's been a few weeks since our last ski adventure. This is mostly due to persistent rain which seems to be the pattern every weekend now. It hasn't snowed much since the last post. Between that and the rain, it's hard to get motivated to make the trip.

While the sun is out, the parking lot is a little barren today.


















The runs are a little less so...






















The snow is only slightly crusty.























A few obstacles make the runs more interesting, right?























Leaping over little trees.


















Despite the lack of snow it was good to get out and slide around a bit today. The weather was pristine--no jacket required.

Only a few weeks left for winter to make an appearance. Let's hope for more snow!