Looks like we'll have a season afterall

Thursday, December 23
The Pass

I'm just now getting around to posting about last week's ski adventure with Dylan.  We went up on Thursday after the snow report indicated that it dropped 6" overnight.  We were prepared for just about anything--you never know what you're going to get here in the Great PNW.

We got 6" on the frontside, which was not quite enough to cover up the crust underneath from the rain and sun on Tuesday and Wednesday.  But, Willamette has a secret weapon called the Backside.  The snow tends to sock in back there and today was no exception.  There was a good foot on Northern Exposure and June's Run and the 45 degree trees in between.  My first line got poached by an asshole ski patrol who jumped in right in front of me.  Gotta be quick around here.

Dylan attempts the trees on Cherokee Ridge, which were not, as they say, "all that."  What it was was 4-6" on top of nasty crust.  We didn't go back in after that.


















Dylan was sticking on Diane's board so we went to the car for some wax.  Dylan in his element.

Power magazine has been asking the hard questions this year in a series:

Why is skiing important? And, why do we ski?

I've been threatening for years to write an essay on the similar question of "why I ski?"  In my view, it's useful to think about such things.  "Because I can" is a simple, but lame answer.  I'll pick up on this and hopefully do a longer exposition on these questions in the coming year.  For now, I'll share some of the more interesting reflections.

In the January issue, Rob Story says "Skiing is the Bestest." Hard to argue with that one.  But it does beg for further elaboration. This one stuck out:

"Skiing is important because it's in the Olympics, which means America gives a shit about it every four years.  America: Fuck yea."

In case you don't get the reference, it's from our South Park friend's movie "Team America World Police."




In December's issue Neil Stebbins states "Skiing is not important."  I get his point, but fundamentally disagree.  Yea, it's not important from the standpoint if world peace or solving pressing problems like global warming, but saying skiing is not important is kind of like saying music serves no purpose. There is, of course, a tangible value to the activity--people spend a lot of money on skiing. There is also an intrinsic value in the activity related to the location and conditions at any given moment as well as the people. On the tangible end, I'm pretty sure that it's important to the thousands (or millions) of people who make their livelihood from it. I'm definitely sure it's important to the folks that publish Powder magazine.  It does, you just have to think for a while to figure it out. Apparently thinking is out of style in America (Fuck yea!).  You can read Neil's full remarks here:

• Neil Stebbins - Skiing is not important...but everybody should still do it.

Rob's comments were not available on the Powder.com site at the time I wrote this. 

I'm sure it felt important to Dylan as he leaped off the Whale's Tail.

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Back on the topic of the ski industry, IBISworld--an online database of industry trends--had this headline in January 2016:

"Slippery slope: Economic recovery will boost demand, while climate change strains operations"

IBISworld defines the snowsports resorts sector as follows:

This industry is composed establishments engaged in operating downhill, cross-country or similar skiing areas, or operating equipment, such as ski lifts and tows. These establishments often provide food and beverage services, equipment rental services and ski instruction services. Four-season resorts without accommodations are also included in this industry, but companies that own and do not operate ski resorts are excluded from the industry.

IBISworld summarizes the industry as follows:

Note that this is just the resort portion of the industry and doesn't include impacts down the supply chain. And concludes that Vail Resorts has 38% of the US market share. The conclude, not surprisingly, that the industry is highly vulnerable to economic trends and climate change.  Anyway, seems a tiny bit important to me.

There will be more meaningless proselytizing in future posts. Until then, I'll wait for the next storm!

Extreme Weather

Saturday, December 17th
7pm

Icemaggedon.  An ice storm visited Eugene starting Tuesday.  Dylan was flying in on Wednesday to visit during the break.  We had our fingers crossed he would make it.  He did, but it was a bit of an adventure for him--like the movie, "Trains, Planes and Automobiles."  He didn't do it quite in the order, however. 

Dylan was scheduled to arrive at 2:30 pm Wednesday afternoon.  There was a bit of ice on the ground and it was raining when I got up to go to work.  The rain increased through the afternoon and it was getting colder.  Dylan said they came in to Eugene and we're about 100 yards off the ground when the pilot gunned it.  They diverted the flight to Portland because of the freezing rain.  I got home around 4:30 with the potential to have to drive to Portland and pick him up.  I was not excited about that given the weather and the fact that it was snowing in Salem and Portland. After talking back and forth, he jumped on the Max with the hope of getting to Union Station in time for the 6:05 train to Eugene.  He barely made it, but showed up in Eugene about 9pm.  Disaster averted.

The ice was pretty intense.  1/4-1/2" stuck to everything.
















Thursday, December 15th
The Pass

The forecast was calling for 1-2 feet up at The Pass.  Conditions in town were spooky - trees were breaking and falling everywhere.  We got up early.  Willamette reported 12" overnight and the DOT reported 16". Despite the fact that getting up the driveway was an adventure, we decided to brave the conditions.

The trees in front of the house are feeling it.  

We got down the street to the intersection and had to wait while the crews cleared the road.

The standard route over 30th Avenue was blocked, so we turned around and went to the Franklin exit to I-5.  The Fairmount Neighborhood got it too.

We got up to the mountain about 9:30, which wasn't bad all things considered.  The strange thing was that the roads were fine as soon as we hit the freeway and there was no ice 10 miles east in Pleasant Hill.

Success! (the run)

Dylan enjoys the Oregon Pow.  They don't have that in Colorado.

It snowed about five feet last week.  There was a good 16" overnight, but it was layered.  The top layer was about 12" and below that it was a good two feet.  It was rough if you broke through that top layer.  It was also rough trying to muscle it through the flats.

Five miles east of Eugene the Filberts are frozen.

 Ice art.

Here's a slab from our garbage can.

 

It was Diane's birthday, so we celebrated when we got home. Thanks for letting us go to the mountain sweetheart.

 

Things weren't much better Friday evening. The entire block east of us starting two houses down has not had power since Wednesday night.  It's Saturday night now and they don't know when it will come back on.  The worst we had to deal with was the cable being down (no Internet).

 

That was an interesting start to the season. It seems like it's snowed up there than they got all of last year. A friend told me this is the most snow we've had this early since 2001.  

We'll probably go up again next week.  You have to get it while you can around here!