Eagle's Flight

Saturday, February 11, 2012
Eagle Peak, Oregon

Kodi enjoys her chewy stick...

She's not super stoked to get left home every weekend. But taking her up is an even worse option. Kodi doesn't like sitting the the car very much.

Another sunny day at The Pass. We've had a lot...so many that I'm only up to day 10 on the season--and that includes three days in Colorado. Definitely an unusual snow year. I suppose it is payback for the several good seasons we've had in the past five years. That doesn't mean we have to like it.

Today a pair of bald eagles were circling above Eagle Peak. Unfortunately, I was in the wrong place at the right time and did not get a picture any closer than the one below (see the little dot in the lower middle).

Despite my bad luck on the photography task, it was very cool watching them float the thermals at the top of the mountain. The lifty at the top said they were there for the past two days.

Conditions were sunny and spring-like. The snow turned to a nice consistency of corn on the Front Side.

Diane gets ready to tackle Eagle's Flight.

At the top of Eagle Peak looking east. That's Odell Lake in the background.

Check out the coat. Stylin'

Riding the Twilight lift with my sweetie.

I don't think we'll have any night skiing on Twilight this year. Not a huge loss--we probably wouldn't night ski anyway. There's no park features and the snow firms up to a nice bumpy consistency at night.

The weather report suggest we might get some precipitation this week. Unfortunately, it is calling for temperatures that will be above freezing at pass level during the day. Meh.

Boots

February 4, 2012

Diamond Peak on a sunny Saturday.

I got a new pair of boots this year as a birthday gift from my parents. I got my last pair of Salomon's in...I think...2002? I loved the Salomon's--they were super comfortable, sufficiently stiff, and generally worked well. Except after nearly a decade of skiing they were pretty packed out.

Gear has changed a lot in the past 10 years. Skis got more sidecut...then they got shorter...then wider...then rocker. The innovations in equipment are awesome. They make skiing so much easier and fun. Especially in powder.

Boots evolved too. They got stiffer and more upright to reflect the stance needed to work new skis. The technique required for new skis is not the aggressive forward stance needed for the old gear. You now stand and turn with both skis and take a more neutral stance.

At any rate, after trying on lots of different boots, I found that the Rossignol's fit my fat feet the best. Here they are.

I got the boots back in August and didn't ski on them until we went to Colorado in December. The first three days were pretty painful. I loved the way the boots rode, but it was agonizing getting in and out of them. Plus lots of pressure on the side of my fat foot and on my bony ankles. So, we went back to the Outpost where we got them. The bootfitter basically said that I was pronating and that it was forcing the outside of my foot...further outside. I did not completely buy the explanation, especially since the purported solution was a $150 pair of custom footbeds.

To say the least I was a little pissed off by the expectation that I would throw down an additional $150 on top the $500 the boots cost just to make them fit. There wasn't much I could do at that point--it was either suck it up and deal with the pain of spending $150 on footbeds, or suffer through the pain of wearing the boots as they were. I got the footbeds.

I didn't get to use them until I got back to Oregon. They were still a little painful in places, but significantly better. Five ski days later and they are starting to feel a lot better--they are easier to get in and out of and my feet don't go numb any more (bonus!). I'm confident that I'll get along with these boots just fine.

Diane strides across the parking lot.

Diane tears it up.

A fun day of skiing capped off with a gig at the Axe & Fiddle in beautiful downtown Cottage Grove, Oregon. It was a fun place to play even if the place was dead. We made $32...my take was $8 which ended up to be $2 after paying for dinner. We usually get pay significantly more, but it was fun nonetheless.

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Chair 88

Saturday, January 28, 2012
Family Day at The Pass

We all piled in the van today for a sunny January day at The Pass. Conditions were...well, sunny!

Diane and Dylan rock chair 88.

Conditions are still very early-season-ish. There's plenty of snow for now, but we need another big system to come through and pile it on. There's plenty of days left in the season, so there's still hope. Until then, we'll take what we have.

Dylan works on the front flips.

Ripping up By George:

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It was a lovely day skiing with my wife and son. The snow was good on the backside and ok on the front. But that's not the point; we all had a great time.

The Official Start of the 2011-12 Season

Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Pass

To my surprise the entire mountain opened today. I did not think enough snow made it between the rain for that to happen. It did. Depending on where you looked the mountain got somewhere between 2' and 3' last week. The difference two weeks makes on the snowpack is astonishing.
January 8, 2012

January 21, 2012

It is well above that now since we had additional snow over the weekend and this week. Bring it on.

Diane and Dylan's buddy Ian came with today. I made the egregious error of skiing right past my wife this morning. I did not even recognize her in her new jacket. Oops...I'm sorry. I get a little overexcited and focused on a powder day.

Dylan leaps the log feature on High Lead.

We have a feature on the backside in the trees called the "Whale's Tail." The Whale's Tail is 100 or so yards long and drops off about 20' to 30' on the east side down into the trees in slopes that range from very steep (60 degrees plus) to outright cliffs. We went in there last week and were dodging rocks all over the place. This week it had filled in.

Dylan hucks a 10-footer off the Whale's Tail.

And gets buried.

All in all this was a good start to the official season. They had a decent crowd and we got fresh shots all day long.

Finally...

Monday, January 16, 2011
MLK Day

This entry marks the 100th post to this blog. That must be some kind of threshold, right? At a minimum, it is the 100th post to this blog, which means that I've skied 100 days since I started. Not bad for 3 1/3 seasons. It should strengthen my resolve to go more.

Good news today. Finally...finally it snowed. We got dusted in town and got an early start and caught the sunrise.

The roads were pretty treacherous for the rookies who were dumb enough to try to drive to work on black ice. At least five cars were in the ditch on the drive up.

For us, it was a holiday. Dylan's pal Keith rode with us today.

The sun was shining on the first ride up. Note that most of the bushes visible on By George last week are now covered. The forecast calls for snow all week. We've got a cold front moving down from Alaska colliding with moisture coming in from the Pacific. With any luck the entire mountain will be open by next weekend.

Pow, we got pow. 12" in the past two days which made for great shredding. Dylan tears it up.

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At least once a year I manage to leave something at home. Today's dopey move was to leave my snow pants. Bad call. Bad day to forget. I was in my standard base layer and I usually don't wear thermal underwear because I don't get that cold. I got Dylan to let me use his, which made it almost bearable. I figured I would get about two runs in before I was completely soaked. Amazingly, the fleece repels water and I got eight runs in before I couldn't take it anymore. The crowd had pretty well ravaged all of the decent snow on the backside by then.

I took a break in the car to warm up.

I warmed up enough to go out for a few more runs, but that didn't last long. I went to the lodge and got some coffee and hung out. It was a good reminder to throw some reading material in the car.

Things are looking up.

Waiting for Winter

January 8, 2012
Day 2, Willamette Backside

We don't have many days like this in January. Typical Oregon weather would be overcast, or better yet, full on Cascade snowstorm. Today could not have been nicer in the weather department.

Diamond Peak from the summit of Peak 2.

Yet, the fact remains that the snowpack is thin. Way below normal thin. According to Oregon Snotel, 30% of average at Salt Creek Falls. One could read the gauge as 27" given considerable generosity.

Dylan endorses RockStar. Makes you ride like a RockStar...even if you stayed up until 3am the night before. I avoid the stuff.

Looks like everything is topsy-turvy this year.

Looking up the line on Peak 2.

Dylan at the top of "Where's Waldo."

He is pondering "Where's Winter?" Definitely an unusual weather pattern this year. La Nina is um, underperforming here. I did read that Cordova Alaska has had 13' of snow so far. Guess we're just at the wrong latitude.

At any rate, hope springs eternal. At least while we're waiting for winter.

Better than Colorado

January 7, 2012
Day 1, 2011-12 Ski Season, Willamette Pass

Strange to say, but this is the first day of the, uh, 2012-12 season at The Pass. Fall passed into winter, through the holidays, and the snow went somewhere else. Weird. Global climate weirding. Something.

I made it through last week. Lots of work, and a fun New Year's Eve playing with the Beautiful Wrecks at Happy Hours.

We rocked the joint!

Back to the present day. The snowpack is still pathetically thin... but Willamette has a secret weapon. The Back Side.

The Back Side is like a vortex. A vortex where all snow in the general vicinity gets captured and deposited. A vortex that holds snow until Father's Day in June. A vortex that has salvaged what has otherwise been a despicable, pathetic excuse of a season.

Management provides the following disclaimer:

We saw that online and brought the rock riders. We get the obstacles part, but ski mellow? Ski Mellow? Yea, right. Ok, Go.


The snowpack on the frontside is not so great. At least the lifts are running.

Thumbs up from Dylan!

Thumbs up from Bob!

Once again, all is well with the Universe. The snow is here, and we're riding.

So much for mellow. Dylan leaps the rock band, heh.

And so it went.

The snow was much, much better than advertised. Better than my three days in Colorado before Christmas. Better than Dylan's nine days in Colorado which ended on Wednesday.

Who would have thought it? Nobody's getting snow, but conditions at 6,000' in Oregon are better than conditions at 12,000' feet in Colorado.

Hope springs eternal.

Welcome to 2012, year of the Maya.