Pandemic Pow!

Saturday, March 14, 2020
Willamette Pass

What to do when the country is in a national emergency and it snows 12"? Go skiing!  There's no better means of social distancing. We had four weeks of spring in February. Flowers are blooming, trees budding, I had to mow the lawn, and my allergies are kicking in.  I was pretty much ready to give up on any more powder days.

Besides, anyone with half a brain has been watching the unfolding global disaster and our inept President's response to it (note that this is the G-rated version). The administration finally did something about it last week and declared a national emergency yesterday. Gee, why didn't they think of that six weeks ago when the first case was recorded in Washington? Maybe because they disbanded the pandemic position on the National Security Council.

The whole thing will probably get pretty ugly, and has a chance of being catastrophic. Even today there are reports of people hitting the bars to party.  American exceptional alright...exceptionally dumb.

The upshot is the snow was an excellent way to distract myself for a day and practice social distancing. There were maybe 25 cars in the lot when I arrived at 8:30. There probably weren't more than 300 people total at the mountain. A huge crowd relative to the reported 8 on Thursday. Willy delivers when it wants to - great snow, great mountain, small crowds. Gotta love it.

Snowing hard when I arrived.

 I think this was the third ride up the chair.

 Nobody on the hill.

 A few remnant skier tracks.

 Wait, there's someone.  There was 12" at the base and probably close to 15" or more in some places.

 Backside chair.

Wait a second, who's that hucking the cliff?

The snow was 12+" on top of hard pack or ice. Skiing the 45 degree Northern Exposure trees was an adventure in avoiding sluff--the mini avalanches I was setting off on every turn.  Keeps things interesting.

 Social distancing in the trees on Cherokee Ridge.

 The sun peeking through a bit on Cherokee.

The Camp Robbers didn't seem to get the memo that there was a global pandemic.  They were aggressively panhandling.  Kind of like hanging out in downtown Eugene.

 Clearing skies.

What a great skiing day. No crowd, no risk, full on pow.  Catherine texted later that Vail resorts was closing as of Sunday.  No doubt Willy will continue to operate. There's not enough people up there to create much risk - at least no more so that, say going to the grocery store which I'm going to get to do tomorrow.

Stay safe and healthy out there everyone.  And vote for someone who is not Orange nor insane in November.

Oregon Bluebird

February 16, 2020
Willamette Pass

Finally.  It finally snowed enough to get me up at 6:30 on a Sunday and head for the mountain.  Eight inches doesn't exactly qualify as an epic dump, but given that it was 50 degrees two days ago, it's enough to check out.  I misplaced my phone during prep and ended up leaving 15 minutes later than I wanted.  I arrived at 8:30 and the parking lot was already 1/3 full.  As always, straight to guest services to get my pass before the line gets outrageous.

In the liftline at 8:50 and watching patrol go up.  Operations were unusually prompt today.

The restless masses await the ceremonial rope drop.

Eight inches was just enough to cover the icy rime underneath from all the warm weather.  As always, the first few runs we're pretty fun.

Went over to the backside as soon as it opened. The Einstein lifty wasn't paying attention when we loaded and the random guy next to me sat down just as I tried to flip the chair down.  I bailed into the pit since riding up with the seatback up wasn't super attractive.  The other guy did it.

Backside I

Backside II

I pretty quickly got off in the steep deep.  This particular line was very steep and pretty deep.  Much steeper than the photo suggests.

First run through the woods was great - I was the first person in so it was all virgin pow.

The Dragon's Back.

In the "I'm insane and wanna die" department, someone straighlined down the side of Dragon's Back. I unfortunately missed this event, but note the line terminates in some very large trees on a pretty steep angle.  I've seen people ride this before, but never straight down.  Props to whoever the mad person was.

As if straightlining were not enough, the second line on lookers right over the spicy basalt was even more insane.  Again, I didn't get to witness this stroke of madness.  Looking at the line it terminates in the deep woods. Much respect for whoever tracked that.  Hopefully they'll posted POV footage on youtube.

The sun does shine in Oregon in February.

Lots of cool misty clouds started rolling in by afternoon.
 

















Diamond Peak and Odell Lake.

Odell Lake.

Overall, a great day.  I left around 2 - it got warm and the snow started consolidating.  More annoying was the number of people making tracks through my private stash.  The ski team shredded part of it (good for them, bad for me).  The word apparently is getting around.  I blame social media and bro culture. Modern equipment doesn't help--it allows people to do things beyond their ability.

I was home by 4:30.  Since it was still light and the lawn was exceeding 8", I mowed the lawn and raked some leaves.  Then I went and put a coat of paint on the downstairs bedroom I've been working on.  All the repairs are starting to come together.  They need to - my guess is we'll put the house up in about two months.

Hopefully I won't have to wait another month for the next powder day.  The season is passing right before my eyes and I want to get as much skiing in as possible.  Right now it looks like the next pow is at least 7-10 days out.  Ugh.

33" = All Time!

Wednesday, January 15
Willamette Pass

Weather update: the storm track I discussed Sunday delivered.  In fact, it exceeded expectations and dropped 33" between Sunday night and Wednesday morning.  I was pretty happy when I got up at 6:30 and looked at the snow report that I had cleared the meeting schedule Wednesday in the event that might happen.

We hit the road at 7am and arrived about 8:30.  The snow report was no fluke - there was at least 33".  What a day to play hooky!

Nick came with the shred the gnarr today. 

Ace.  Good call.

Bet the lifties didn't envision this level of manual labor would come with bumping chairs.

The doors in the race room are blocked for the season.

The parking lot was a little fuller than I hoped. Pow...it's catching on.

When I bought my pass I made a comment that I thought it would be a miracle if the EPA lift spun at 9am. 

We stood in line for about 10 minutes and it quickly became clear that it was going to be a while.  So, we went over to Twilight and did a couple of runs there.  The runs on the bottom just didn't have enough angle for that much snow.

Nick shreds the gnarr at the bottom of By George.



















EPA finally spins and there's some blue sky!

I.

II.

The trees were where it was at today.  Nick plays slalom with the Doug Firs.

At least 33".  It skied pretty well--not exactly Champagne Powder, but fluffy enough.

Nick went in for a while and I billy goated into SDN.  It was pretty cool.

Nick explores the winter wonderland.

I found a zone in the afternoon that was untouched by the am crowd. Willy sells skiing by the hour and at least half the crowd disappeared at noon.  It was fresh tracks all afternoon. Unfortunately, they never opened the back side.  Nonetheless, pow reigned supreme today.

The forecast was for 25 mph gusts in the afternoon. Those materialized and it was a little bitter on the top.  That said, a little wind didn't slow us down.

Overall Evaluation: top 10 of all Willy days - maybe even top 5.  Stoke levels were maxed out all day. 

We left around 3:15.  I had a call with a consultant in Hawai'i that invited ECO to team on some elements of the South Maui area plan.  I took it in the car on the way home.  Sounds like interesting work--but it probably won't require field work.  Too bad - I'm fully prepped for a trip to Hawai'i.

At the end of the day, I figured I would be completely beat.  The gnarr stoke carried me through our recording session in the evening.

Let it snow!

Willy's Back!

Sunday, January 12, 2020

It's finally happening--the storms started last week and dumped 3' of snow in the last five days.  Willy opened for full operations Friday.  It snowed 13" Friday night but I couldn't go because we are experimenting with extended curriculum at the beginning of the term for Workshop this year. It was killing be to be in class right when I should have been jumping on the lift.  I tried to convince myself it wasn't going to be that great since there's only a 40" base.  People I rode up with didn't really support that hypothesis.

As always, I try to be out of the house by 7:15 on a powder day.  I left a few minutes after 7 and got there about 8:35.  I barely beat the rush at the ticket counter - it started backing up a little while after I got in the queue.  Word was that it was 40 minutes long at one point.  Sounds like a Willy move.

9:04am Waiting for rope drop.  In typical Willy fashion, they were warming up the chair when we should have been loading.  At one point someone said it was going to be an hour.  I didn't believe that, but I figured it would be a while.

Then this happened.
I.

II.

Having two chairs stacked that close to each other is something new.  Fifty-two years of skiing and I've never seen that one before.  At that point I bailed the line with Nick and Rebecca and we went over and took a ride on Twilight.  EPA was open by the time we got to the bottom.

Conditions were pretty darn good when I finally got to the top.  I got a couple of rippers on High Lead and Timburr and then headed for the trees.  I caught up with Nick and Rebecca in line after a while and Nick and hit Eagle's trees.  They were pretty much untouched and really nice. Then the rope dropped on the backside and we headed over there.  The Northern Exposure trees were the run of the day for me--knee deep floating through the trees on a 45 degree hill.  Can't beat it.  What I could beat was the line that had piled up at the Peak II lift.  They were loading every second or third chair and had some story about weight.  Willy's giving me lots of confidence about the safety of the lifts this year.

I underdressed and was pretty cold by the time we got back.  Nick was supposed to meet Rebecca in the bar so I went to the car and revived my dead phone and got some new hand warmers. 

The Willy slogan.

The afternoon was all trees.  Great stuff.

The author.

An unspecified location in the woods.  It's much steeper than it looks.

The snow be piling up.

It was a full on blizzard when I got back to the car.  There was 3" of new snow that I had to clear off and lots of snow was getting in while I took my boots off and got ready to leave.

The forecast calls for more snow all week and a winter storm warning through Wednesday morning.  Feet of snow are called for.  I plan on playing hooky from work Wednesday.  Looks like it might be amazing--and better than today. 

Willy's back!

Ski Ashland!

December 30, 2019, 10am
Mt. Ashland Ski and Snowboard Resort

The snow this year has been pretty intermittent.  It rained a bunch in August, keeping fire season at bay, and then has been pretty dry with the exception of the Thanksgiving Bomb Cyclone.  That dropped some snow - but not much.

Willamette is under "limited operations" on weekends.  The way to read that is that there's not enough snow to open.  They've opened the lower mountain, but there's nothing of interest for me.  So, we decided to skip the $119 tickets at Bachelor and go ski Mt. Ashland for $52.  Another positive - I've been wanting to ski there for three decades and never made it.  Dylan was game - which was good because it's more than three hours each way.

We left at 6:52 and arrived just after 10. The Rogue Valley was foggy, but we broke out of the fog and into pristine sunlight. The view from the parking lot.  That big lump is 14,179' Mt. Shasta - the second highest mountain in California.

The lodge.

The retro sign.

It was an interesting summer.  I'll retire next June and so we're getting the house ready to sell.  It's been a big project.  My summer project was rebuilding decks and deck railing.  That turned out great, but on July 3rd I was playing ball with Zoey and she slipped a disc and was paralyzed for several days.  She has recovered enough to walk on all fours but has permanent nerve damage in her left hind leg.  That took a lot of emotional energy and a fair amount of money.  She seems to have adjusted pretty well to her new limitations.

In August, nephew Parker got married so I went to Colorado with Dylan. Diane had an abscessed tooth so she ended up staying home.  The wedding was at Ten Mile Station at Breckenridge and was quite lovely.  Dylan came out before and we drove back together stopping at Strawberry Lakes and City of Rocks on the way.  Both were very cool.

Since then we've been getting rid of stuff - many garage sales - and painting.  We spent a good part of the week working on the basement and having all of us work on it helped move things forward substantially.  We didn't quite get to a finish point on any of the projects so Kayla and Dylan didn't get the satisfaction of seeing it all put back together, but we should get there by the end of the week.  We'll get somewhere!

Back to skiing... 

One unusual thing about Mt. Ashland is that the parking lot and lodge are at mid-mountain.  You ski down to get to the lifts which take you above the mountain.  The view from the ticket booth into the foggy valley.

The view from the top of Ariel lift and the top of Mt. Ashland.  That's Mt. McLoughlin in the background.  Mt. McLoughlin is a mere 9,499'.

Ashland is a pretty cool little mountain.  It's small by most standards - 1,150 vert, five lifts, and 240 acres.  What it lacks in size it makes up for with heart and soul.  It's a nonprofit - which means it's purpose in life is skiing not a platform to sell real estate. It's got a sweet new lodge, and friendly employees who keep the lift line bumpin' with great tunes.  More than half the runs are expert.  And, the bowls.  The bowls are pretty awesome.  Technically they are out of the ski area boundary, but patrol allows access as safety permits.  There a little short, but there's some spicy terrain in there.  I counted five chutes--three of which we skied.  The other two didn't have enough snow and had more sun exposure which meant they were boilerplate hardpack.  Neither were places you would want to fall.  In fact, falling on any of the chutes is probably not a great idea.

The bowls from the top. 

The bowls from the bottom.  There's some pretty spicy terrain up there. Chute 1 is to the left and mostly out of the picture, Chute 2 is the narrow slot to the left of the big rocks, and Chute three is in the middle.  They are much steeper than this photo suggests.  We started with Chute three because it looked the funnest. It was pretty good until about halfway down where it became boilerplate hard pack.  Not terrible, but not terribly fun either.

Riding up the Ariel lift. It was pretty quaint riding slow doubles with the pole in the middle. Reminded me of the old Eskimo Chair at Winter Park.  

Dylan.

Dylan at the top of the second chute. That's about a 10' vertical drop off the cornice.

 Dylan throwing a method off the cornice at the top of the second chute. 

Three-quarters of the way down.

The money shot of the day.  Dylan takes a 10' plus leap off the cornice.

 A little closer.

Mt. Ashland is not that big.  We hit all of the runs and rode all three lifts that weren't the bunny hill.

Dr. Evil's lair at the top. There's a bunch of microwave relays on top of the mountain that give it the appearance of some mad science experiment.

Ariel lift looking out over the Rogue Valley.

Mt. Shasta.

Dylan on Aha!

It was a lot of driving, but we were both glad we went.  I got in trouble for not waking Kayla up - she wanted to go explore the City of Ashland.  I misunderstood a comment she made last night as that she didn't want to go.  She got some painting done instead, which I was thankful for.

I would go back to Mt. Ashland and recommend it to anyone that wants to experience skiing the way it should be.  It's a great little mountain and has to be amazing on a powder day.  The bonus for people in Ashland is that it's only 15 miles from town.  I could get on board with that pretty quick.

So, check another resort off the list of places I've skied in Oregon.  I've hit eight of the 13 resorts. My plan to hit the rest of them this year was foiled when Travel Oregon did not fund my grant application to do another economic impact of skiing in Oregon study. That was pretty disappointing, but maybe for the better as the season has been slow to start and I have a lot of work to do on the house.  I may re-apply next year when I'm semi-retired and living on the beach. Who says you can't run ski studies from Florida?

The forecast for the rest of this week looks somewhat encouraging - it's calling for modest amounts of snow at the pass. I hope they get enough to get going.  It's going to take a couple of big cycles before I start getting excited. I hope it happens - the clock is running down on my Oregon ski days and I'd like to get at least five powder days in this season.  Ten would be better.  I've tried to keep my schedule as clear as possible so I can go up during the week. Fingers crossed.