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SkibowlSubmit a report
05/10/08 The last weekend for SkiBowl this year. They still have a
ton of snow, 8 to 10 feet at the parking lot and almost 16
feet mid-mountain, but the Upper Bowl chair is broken and
business is dying out. Parking lot mostly empty, maybe 100 cars
or so. Weather, cloudy with a few sprinkles, about 50 degrees.
We got a late start, I don't think it mattered today, with
the cloud cover I don't think anything froze overnight. We
headed over to Mutorpor chair and took some runs on the heavy
Spring snow. We could see that Cascade chair was running,
and since I was skiing my patterned back country skis I
headed over to check it out. Turns out they were having an
end of season party for the Ski Patrol folks, they wouldn't
let me on the lift, so I skied up to the top and took a nice
run down the steepest run on the lift - Stump Garden. Heavy
glop, but lots of fun. I then discovered there are some trails
that head through the woods back over to Multorpor chair and
I had a nice, if somewhat slow ski back over to join the family.
The weather was really quite nice, it wasn't too warm and the
snow stayed consistent. we skied until they closed up at 4,
they were folding the chairs up as we arrived at the bottom
of the lift. At the top, Kiyomi and Rachel headed down to the
lodge and I skied up to the top of Upper Reynolds to hit one
last black diamond run. Again, very nice, I was quite comfortable
skiing with the lighter gear. As I came down the lower run I
was trailing the Ski Patrol - he was wondering where I came
from, but didn't have a problem with me poaching the upper
runs. It's been an awesome season, and there's plenty more
backcountry skiing to be done, but today was the last day on
the lifts.
TeleMurray
05/04/08 The family headed up to SkiBowl looking for some nice Spring corn
and sunshine. We arrived a bit before noon, parking lot maybe 1/6th
full at best. We headed up the Lower Bowl chair. At the top we
noticed that the Upper Bowl chair wasn't running. I skied over to
ask the liftie and he said that tower 3 had shifted that morning
and the Upper Bowl chair was closed, possibly for the season. Oh no!
So we headed over to Multorpor for a couple of runs on the soft,
sticky snow. I knew there was a reason I had my kicker skins in
my day pack all season, so after a couple of runs, I put my skins
on and headed up the green run to the top. It was very warm, even
with my bibs unzipped down below my knees I was sweating. But the
view at the top was spectacular, I could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson,
Signal Buttes to the South, Mt. St. Helens and a myriad of snow
clad ridges in every direction. The line skier's right of Pizazz
had looked sparsely tracked, so I headed over there. A sweet run
down untracked Spring slush, very nice. I then traversed over to
Accelerator, pretty manky with yesterday's tracks and quite sticky
below. Still, it was nice to get at least one run on the Upper
Bowl. Rachel was getting tired (she had too many layers on and
refused to take any off, stubborn, I wonder where she gets that :-)),
so they headed over to Lower Bowl for a few more runs and I joined
them. Middle and Lower Reynolds was pretty nice, the steepest run
on the lower mountain, I took the run far skier's left, it was
quite nice as well. With the Upper Bowl closed, I may stick to the
backcountry for the reast of the season, I'm guessing the record
snow pack must have been pushing down on the tower, it's hard to
see them getting it fixed before they close for the season. Major
bummer, just when we start to get good Spring conditions, the best
steep skiing in Oregon (IMHO) closes down. Oh well, they had an
awesome Winter and Spring this year. There's plenty more snow out
in the backcountry and at the resorts.
TeleMurray
04/20/08 We had to go up this weekend, with all the fresh snow, despite
the fact that I'm sick (still or again?). They reported a 17
foot 5 inch base this morning, we arrived at a bit before 1 -
temp about 29 with variable Spring weather (sunny, snowing,
etc.). It snowed about 4 or 5 inches while we were there, so
their base is still growing I think :-). I started out on the
Upper Bowl, headed towards West Wall, but it was pretty
chewed up and there wasn't enough fresh to really make it
good. I headed over towards East Wall and hit Accelerator,
the groomed was pretty hard, but it was very nice soft, chewed
powder off to the side. A run down Pizzaz, not bad, especially
off the run. I hit East Wall - I guess the glades there are
called 'Oh Shoot' (I saw the sign today), found some nice fresh
tracks heading down through the trees. In fact it was very
good, the snow light and fluffy and deep enough that I wasn't
scraping the hard pack underneath like out on West Wall. Being
still sick, I decided I shouldn't push it too hard, so I
decided I would do one more run and join the family over on
Multorpor when my wife called asking for her goggles and a
face mask - they were both in the car so I took what was the
outstanding run of the day. Down more fresh tracks through
the trees on Oh Shoot, traversed across to hit the trees
down to the Lower Bowl chair and down through various tree
shots down to almost the base area. Again the snow in the trees
was absolutely outstanding, light, fluffy and cold. There was a
wreck on 26 I guess, I could see the traffic stopped and could
hear numerous sirens as well. I headed up and then over to
Multorpor, hitting a nice open glade down to the top of the
chair to see my wife and daughter at the top. We skied a couple
of runs, I took another nice tree shot skier's right of the
chair, but when I caught up to my family I had a major coughing
fit, I guess it's time to head out before I overdo it and get
worse. About 3 1/2 hours of skiing in conditions as good as
any we've had this winter, still a huge base, it looks like
they can easily stay open through May if people keep coming
up, they had a good crowd today. As we headed back towards
Hood River, traffic was lined up all the way back to Snow
Bunny from Government Camp (headed towards Portland). I think
all the resorts had a good crowd this weekend. It's late
April and they still have more snow than I've ever seen.
Awesome!
TeleMurray
04/11/08 Still recovering, I took the family up to Ski Bowl to check
out the Spring skiing. We got a late start (what else is new?)
arriving at around 1 pm, temp in the low 50s and suuny. It
had not frozen overnight, as off the groomed there was about
a foot and a half of uncsolidated glop, but I started out on
Upper Bowl and headed down towards West Wall. The trees were
untracked so I headed in, finding inconsistent conditions,
varying between glop, to corn to icy crust. I made it out OK
and instead of hitting West Wall I headed down the run next
to it, trying to hit untracked shots as it was very heavy
snow. It was skiable, but it was really hard work - when I
got to the lift, the liftie said "that looked ugly" :-). It
felt ugly too. I hit Pizazz a couple of times, I could tell
that my legs just didn't quite have the needed strength to
make those quick transitions, it was like being stuck in
molasses - well the snow did have the same consistency.
East Wall was closed and I could see the evidence of heavy
slides all along, but I found some fresh off of Accelerator
that wasn't quite as deep and gloppy and took about 4 runs
there. I could tell I still wasn't at full strength - I had
trouble even on the steep groomers, the leg strength just
wasn't there. After 8 runs on various combinations of glop
on the Upper Bowl I was totally exhausted, so I headed over
to Multorpor lift to ski with the family. We skied for
another couple of hours on the soft, slightly sticky snow
and headed out around 5:30 for a nice 4 hours. There's an
unbelievable amount of snow, the windows on the Warming hut
are completely buried. We plan on heading up again on Sunday,
I'm expecting much better conditions the next couple of days.
It should freeze the next couple of nights so we get more
consistent Spring corn. Next week it looks like winter returns,
We should be skiing at SkiBowl at least through May. I can't
believe all the Washington resorts are already closing down,
all the Mt. Hood resorts are still running strong.
TeleMurray
04/06/08 The family is sick, I'm recovering, so I headed up to
SkiBowl for a short day, arriving shortly after noon. Parking
lot less than half full, temp about 37, snowing off and on.
I started with West Wall, finding deep freshies in the trees
on the way down, the snow definitely heavier than last week.
West Wall was less tracked, very nice at the top, but as it
got more tracked as I descended, the snow got heavier.
Combination of sun and warmer temps I think. I spent most
of the rest of the day on various glades off of the East Wall.
I found fresh tracks in the tight trees where I've skied
before. I tried some new shots off the traverse over, very
steep, only slightly tracked. Next time on the traverse, I
spied some open areas with no tracks, cut in, decided not
to huck the cliff, but cut in on the side, cutting off a
nice slide as I did. I then proceeded down some really steep
untracked, setting off another slide near the bottom. Next
run I dropped in on the same track, but spied another untracked
shot skier's left, so headed down, setting off another slide
and getting pulled down with it this time, my hat and goggles
getting torn off. Luckily I wasn't buried and after I got
up I spied my hat and goggles down the slope a bit. I was
getting tired, but unfortunately the Warming Hut was closed,
so I cleaned out the snacks in my pack and hit a few more
shots off the East Wall traverse. Again, about the same
steepness, these were just skier's left of the previous shots,
but they didn't break loose and I had a couple great runs,
continuing on down through the chopped up powder and glades
down to the bottom. I took a thrasher down Pizazz, the chopped
up snow definitely heavier on the West side of the bowl. Took
a run down Accelerator, starting with some freshies at the top
in the trees and watched the ski patrol practice hauling people
down in their sled. With the heavy snow and my recovering from
being sick, I got thrashed pretty quickly, so at around 4 I
made my final run, all the way over to East Wall, down through
the trees - more fresh tracks. I never scraped bottom, pole
plants showed maybe 18 inches of fresh, but much heavier than
last week's snow. I traversed over past Scotty's Run and headed
down through the tight trees, again coming out skier's right
of the Lower Bowl chair. I had spied some lines through the
trees on my initial ride up, so I cut down through the trees
again, getting untracked powder almost all the way to the
bottom. Schedule is now Friday - Sunday 9 am to 10 pm. The
web site lists 17'7" mid moutain - WOW! I expect them to stay
open through most of May at this rate, hopefully people will
keep coming up so they can keep running. I'll be there!
TeleMurray
03/27/08 I was supposed to take the family, but my daughter is sick - again.
So I headed up myself, arriving at around 11:30 am. It was sunny with
melting snow on the East side (as I passed by Meadows), but snowing
as I headed towards Government Camp. The sun poked out as I arrived,
parking lot maybe 2/3 full, about 25 or 26 degrees. I headed up
towards what has become my favorite lately, West Wall. This time
I ventured further into the trees on the way down to it, finding
thigh deep powder in thick trees. West Wall was pretty tracked, but
I still managed to find a less tracked line, even getting a few turns
of untracked at the top. I did a few runs here, then headed over to
East Wall to check out the trees over there. No one had skied the
tighter lines so I headed down, floating down through steep glades
in more thigh deep powder - as good as I've skied this year - on
March 30th!. More tracked lower, but still sweet. I then hit the
glades next to Pizzazz, finding some nice soft turns and then
traversed over towards Radical and hit the chewed powder down to
the lift. Since it was then past lunch I headed down past West
Wall out to the end of the ridge and headed down a run called
Powder Keg, next to some cliffs. Again, thigh deep, but it had
started to set up in the sun and was a little crusty in spots. After
lunch I headed up towards West Wall again, having a blast in the
thickets on the way down to it - thigh deep, untracked, but after
a couple of runs of whacking into trees and branches - you've got
to find ever tighter shots to get those fresh tracks :-) - and given
that East facing slopes had started to set up a bit I thought I'd
head over to East Wall. Got to the bottom, lift was stopped and a
long line had formed, so I decided to head over to Cascade chair.
When I got over there, the short Poma lift to get up to the chair
was stopped too - luckily not for long. I headed down the chewed
up powder on skier's right - Raceway - as I got half way down I
noticed Yumper was not roped off (it's usually closed for tubing).
I headed down, finding thigh deep freshies on the fringe. Next
run up I headed over to Rhododendron, skier's far right, which is
hardly ever open. I tried heading down through the trees, but they
soon got too tight, heading out into a big cut up bump field and
my d#mn O2 binding popped loose again - major hassle on a steep
soft bump field. The liftie said lift closed in 20 minutes so next
run I hit the tight trees next to Stump Garden. Heading further
right I was able to link thigh deep turns again. Instead of heading
down the run out, I crossed over into the trees below, finding some
really nice shots before I had to pay the price and traverse my way
out. Back over for more Upper Bowl, I tried a thrasher down Pizzazz,
but being East facing it had started to set up and I struggled in
chewed up bumps and traversed over towards Radical and Accelerator.
I took a run down Accelerator, starting in the trees at the top,
getting a few thigh deep turns before hitting the chewed up face.
Some nice shots in scattered glades on the way down. Last run was
East Wall again, taking the first open shot down through the glades,
barely tracked, hitting glorious thigh deep shots again, then
traversing across Scotty's Run to the trees towards the top of
the Lower Bowl chair. Awesome thigh deep turns through tight
trees, actually came out skier's right of the chair. I cut back
towards Lower Bowl and headed down through the trees again - as
usual, more thigh deep turns and then out, finishing at about
5:40 for a ripping 6 hours of skiing. 17 feet mid mountain - I
heard talk that SkiBowl is talking about staying open though May.
Sweet indeed! The awesome season continues!
TeleMurray
03/21/08 With a rehearsal on Saturday and an Easter gig on Sunday, my
only shot is Friday night up at SkiBowl. I got my skis on at
about 5 pm, parking lot maybe 1/4 to 1/3 full, a pretty good
crowd for SkiBowl on a weekday. It was hard pack at the lodge
so I headed up to the Upper Bowl to see what I could find. The
West Wall looked less tracked, so I headed down the bump run
next to the Outback entrance, finding some leftover freshies
in the trees along the edges. I headed out past the knob on
the top of West Wall (you have to side step a bit to get there)
hoping to find less tracks out there. This was the case, very
soft snow - maybe a foot - on top of a bumpy hardpack. The bumps
underneath threw me off a couple of times, but it was pillowy
soft heading down. I took another run there and then checked
out the East Wall. Someone had tracked the tree shots I found
last week so I headed down an even tighter line, finding decent
fresh tracks, but the trees were tighter than I like. A decent
run down, but I headed back over to West Wall for the next couple
of hours (until they roped it off when it started to get dark).
Very steep, soft and pillowy between the tracks, it was really
good. An Alpiner came over and joined me for a couple of runs -
Pete - he said he was looking for good snow and saw me take
run after run on West Wall so he thought he'd check it out. He
wasn't disappointed as the snow was excellent. I continued to
ski various lines, heading further out on the ridge for fresher
tracks, but the center line I skied initially was the best. I
was considering skiing further out and coming down through the
trees to the Lower Bowl, but was having so much fun I kept skiing
back to the Upper lift. Finally I headed down to hit the trees
down to the Lower Bowl, but they had just roped it off, so I
heaed out under the cliff on the Upper Bowl, finding some really
steep lines, which unfortunately were chewed up and too dark
for me to see well, took a nice slide about 20 feet or so. I was
getting pretty thrashed and being an early riser I didn't want
to stay late, so I was figuring I'd do another run and then
head out. I headed down and then up to Accelerator, finding
nice chewed up snow on this run. It was so nice I decided one
more run, I thought I'd hit the run skier's left of Accelerator,
but cruised past it so I headed down into the trees between the
runs, finding a short patch of deep freshies - outstanding!
More chewed up, soft powder, into another glade finding a
couple more fresh turns and then down, my quads burning with
the exertion, then down the Lower Bowl to the lot, getting
back to the car around 8:40 or so. Another excellent day
(evening) of skiing at the premier night ski area. Conditions
were really very good, the powder was a little heavy, but it's
late March - Spring already. Still right around 16 feet at
mid-mountain with probably 10 feet at the base. With more
low snow levels in the next week, Spring skiing is looking
really good at SkiBowl this year.
TeleMurray
03/16/08 Mt. Hood area resorts all were getting 7 or more inches of fresh
the last few days. I had intended to go up on Saturday, but sprained
my ankle playing basketball on Friday - I don't think I could've
got my boot on. We headed up Sunday. arriving at lunch time and
headed up the lift after lunch, the family heading over to Multorpor
lift - I headed up the Upper Bowl to try the cut up powder on my
gimpy ankle. I headed down the open glades skier's right of Pizazz
and quickly found that my ankle couldn't handle the uneven terrain,
so I jogged over to the smoother slopes on Pizazz and had no real
problems. I cruised down and then over to Multorpor to ski with my
family, figuring I'd probably have to content myself with skiing
groomers today. After a few runs, the very slow Multorpor lift was
really making my foot sore, so I headed over to Cascade lift, which
is shorter and steeper, this really seemed to help my foot and I was
able to ski "normally". I saw a ski patrol tele down some cut up powder
on the steeper run skier's right, so I headed over there and just
ripped it all the way down. I hit this one a couple more times and
then headed into the tight trees next to Stump Garden, finding deep,
fresh tracks down through the tight trees. I took another ripper down
the cut up with a nice face plant at the bottom, then headed up thinking
I'd take another tree run and head over to meet the family, but I saw
the ski patrol tele-guy at the top of the cut up run so I headed over
and talked to him for a few minutes and then we headed down the cut up
run, he ripping slightly better than me with his T-1s, and retrieving
my hat which I lost as I gained excessive speed near the bottom :-).
Another run down through the untracked trees - very tight, had my
hat snared by some branches, got my skis wedged, but still worth it
to get that knee deep powder. A couple of runs on Multorpor with
my wife and daughter, but that lift was still hurting my foot - all
that time dangling with no movement I guess. We then headed over
to the warming hut for snacks, coffee, hot chocolate and beer. They
then headed back over to Multorpor and I headed up the Upper Bowl
for some runs to see how I could handle the steeps now that I was
loosened up. I headed down a bump run off the entrance to the Outback
and headed for the top of West Wall. Looked awfully steep up top
by my lonesome, tracked, but not tracked out. I headed past the knob
and then headed down trying to hit the fresh spots. A steep, thrashing
run, but quite fun. I then headed over to the East Wall hoping to
get some freshies or at least less tracked shots in the trees over
there. While the wall was pretty tracked out, by heading down through
some tighter tree shots I found completely untracked snow - open
enough to make 2 or 3 turns then traverse slightly for a few more,
then down into slightly more tracked shots, finally coming out on
the lower part of Accelerator and down to the chair. I took another
run, again finding totally untracked lines (at 5 pm on a Sunday
no less). Now it's getting to be time to go home, so I took a last
run down on Pizazz - I should have traversed over to the East Wall
again - it was completely fogged in for a totally blind run. A couple
more runs down Multorpor with the family and we headed out around
6:30 for another excellent day of turns at SkiBowl. Conditions
were pretty excellent, lots of fresh on hardpack. Still 16 feet
of snow at mid-mountain. Given the low snow levels all week they
should end the month of March with 15 or 16 feet of snow - WOW!
TeleMurray
03/08/08 All the ski areas reported about an inch of new snow - in
looking at SkiBowl's web-site, we noted Spring passes for $88.
Rachel and I talked my wife into it and we headed up, arriving
a little after noon to sunny skies and around 40 degrees. After
getting our passes we headed up, they headed directly over to
Multorpor chair and I was allowed to take a run on the Upper
Bowl to start with. I headed down Pizazz, quickly learning why
no one was skiing off the groomed areas (they groom even the
steepest runs here). Conditions very similar to what Jay and
I found at Willamette Pass a couple of weeks ago, very firm with
some fluff on top. I skied down to Canyon and then over to the
ungroomed on the other side - it was actually pretty nice in a
small untracked shot - but SkiBowl tends to get tracked out
quickly. I met my family over at the top of Multorpor and we
took a few runs on the softer snow on the lower elevation runs
on that side of the mountain. We broke for lunch at about 2:30 -
I was allowed to take another Upper Bowl shot, I had hoped to
ski the East wall (I think they call it Scotty's Run now), but
it was roped off so I hit Accelerator, and had a nice run down
the steep and very firm runs coming down on that side of the
bowl. At lunch, my well aged IPA literally erupted out of the
bottle when I opened it (outside the car, thankfully :-)), but
I managed to consume most of it. When we headed back up I again
got permission to take some runs on the Upper Bowl - this time
I saw skiers heading out to the East Wall, so I headed on over.
The East Wall was getting full sun as the sun was sinking down
over the ridge. As hoped for I found soft conditions, maybe
softer than I would have liked, but it was steep and relatively
unchewed, so I had some nice runs here. I took 4 runs down here
I think, finding smoother lines as I progressed further to
skier's right. Soft and heavy, but very steep in open glades,
very fun, the best runs of the day easily. After that I decided
I better hook up with the family again, for some more cruisers
off of Multorpor. I noted Cascade Chair runs were still in the
sun as Multorpor was starting to ice up a bit - I saw the bump
run over there (Stump Garden?) in the sun, so I headed over
(you have to ride a little Poma to get over there). Unfortunately
the way over to Stump Garden was roped off, so I took a couple
of runs on the steeper and shorter Cascade chair and headed back
to cruise the now icy groomers with the family. We quit at about
6:30 as all the runs were now pretty icy. A good day at a fun
resort, lines, in general were not too long - a long wait when
we first boarded the Lower Bowl chair as they were having races
and the racers were getting priority, and a rarity, our first
ride up the Upper Bowl chair had about a 5 minute wait as well.
There were no lines on any of the chairs the rest of the day
though, even Multorpor was ski right on. There's more snow than
I've ever seen as a skier - I remember the wall of snow being
as high in the parking lot when I was in college - about 30 some
years ago. I think they're saying 16 feet mid-mountain - I'm
hoping they stay open through April, but we'll be ahead of the
game with just 2 more trips up.
TeleMurray
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