Willamette Pass
Ethan texted me Monday asking if I wanted to go up again on Wednesday. The forecast looked right--cold temps and a rain pattern that would carry through Tuesday and end Tuesday night. By Tuesday the forecast was for sun and higher temps. It had also snowed a bunch by then, but I wasn't sure how much. It was enough for me to commit.
I got up Wednesday at 6:30 and checked the snow report. The DOT report wasn't much to get excited about, but the resort reported 18". That's enough to get a powder hound worked up. The forecast also called for it to get up to 52 degrees in town, which meant that it would likely warm up by late morning or early afternoon and consolidate all that snow. Thus, the early bird gets the pow.
I was running a little late and met Ethan at the LCC lot at 7:20. He gave me a hard time, but I knew we had plenty of time to drive up, get our passes, and get in line before rope drop. When we arrived at the parking lot, there were maybe 80 cars there. We were going to share a powder day with 200 of our best friends (or at least people that had the same idea we did).
I did a snow check on the way to the lift--it was definitely 18". Like last week, there was a more consolidated lower layer and a lighter top layer. Not exactly blower pow, but seemed like it would ski just fine. Especially on the JJ's which are 136mm at the tip. They ride a bit like waterskis.
Waiting in line. I commented to the kid in the middle that my parents never let me play hooky to ski. I'm probably wrong about that; if we did, I've forgotten. They definitely did not take me up on a day excursion on a Wednesday powder day.
I think there is a universal law that you will remember any hooky days you have. I'll definitely remember this day, and would certainly not have done anything at work that was very memorable. More stuff and things. Memories...la-ti-da.
That reminds me of another time I played hooky. I was 15 and had gone to Vail for the weekend with our neighbor, Larry Butler, his girlfriend Lindsey, and Steve Vanscoy. Steve was the QB on our high school football team a few years later. Anyway, his parent's had a house in West Vail across the freeway. It would have been 1976. I'm not sure why mom and dad allowed me to do stuff like that when I was that young, but I thank them for it. It was a lot of trust. To my and my friends credit, we never caused to much trouble and never landed in jail.
Anyway, we have a great two days skiing and it's time to pack up and go on Sunday afternoon. It's snowing really hard at this point. So hard that we determined that it would be extremely dangerous to drive back that evening in the Butler Econoline van. I don't know if that was really the case, but none of us cared--it was going to be an epic powder Monday at Vail. The crowds back then aren't what they are now as the video below indicates.
So, we get up early and head out. It's easily 15" of blower pow and we're shredding on our skinny sticks. All of us were very good skiers even at that early age and we were having a blast. Vail was a huge mountain even back then. I don't remember all the stuff we did, but it involved some back bowl action (this was decades before Blue Sky Basin) and some Highline action.
By mid-morning we found ourselves ver at Northwoods. As the Vail trial map clearly shows, there's some cliff action off of North Rim. This was were the adventure started. Larry, Lindsey and I stopped below one of the cliff bands and somehow Steve ended up on the top. It was big--my recollection (which is thin) was that it was at least 20' if not 25'. Big enough to pucker you up. We dared Steve to hit it, which he eventually did. He dropped it and stuck up to his waist at the bottom. We were howling with laughter.
It looked like the kind of fun that Larry and I needed to have, so we went back up and did it again. When we got to the top of the cliff it was pretty damn scary. Keep in mind that I was 15, probably 5'6 and 120 lbs. Larry when first and skied out of it, then I went. All I remember is that it was a huge adrenaline rush and that, like Steve's first attempt, I stuck at the bottom. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done on skis. Maybe one of the coolest things ever.
In subsequent trips to Vail I've tried to figure out where those exact cliffs were to get a sense of just what we did. I know the general vicinity, but could not positively ID the precise location. No big deal, the memory is permanently embedded in my brain. To summarize...thanks Mom and Dad!
Back to the present. The father of the little girl in pink told me their kids were home-schooled. What a classroom! Rope drop and away we go!
Here's the video of the first trip down. Blogger won't accept videos over 100mb, so here's the short version. We were non-stopping laps all morning. Not bad for a post-mature adult. The snow didn't ski like 18"--as I said, it wasn't blower pow, but it was still really fun. On the lower angle runs, you floated across the top; on the steeper runs, you dug in.
We spent the day in the trees. Here's one of the pitches off Bullseye. The snow was 2' in this location.
Cascade awesomeness. This is the trees between Northern Exposure and June's Run.
I took the GoPro the last couple of times. It's kind of fun to see POV through the trees. It makes it look a lot hairier than it is. Or at least, that's what I think. I guess skiing trees the way I do is a bit hairy. For me, it's mostly fun.
Upper Bullseye:
See the cloud snake down in the valley. We get the amazing, rare, bluebird day, but it was cloudy in town for a good part of the day.
Looks like 18"
Awesomeness on Cherokee Ridge:
There's more snow in the lot this year than since the 2011-2012 year. March 1, 2017:
Here's a photo of Diane, sometime in the 2007-08 season before I started the blog. The snow was rather deep that season.
Here's to a great season so far. Hopefully, I'll be able to squeeze in more powder days. I've noticed the number of blog posts has decreased in recent years. That's due to two things: (1) my ski buddy Dylan abandoning me; and (2) the fact that I mostly ski powder days now. I'm at the age where I'm not sure how many more I get, so I need to get them while I can.
