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Willamette PassSubmit a report
02/22/08 Still no fresh snow, but a couple more inches from yesterday's
snow fall, conditions looked to be the same as the day before.
We headed straight to the backside and hit the trees off of
Escalator, finding some very nice powder stashes. We then
headed up to hit the glades off the top, Jay heading down the
main run, Northern Exposure, and I headed over to drop in off
the steeper gladed areas. We then did some runs over off June's
run, Jay hitting the fringes and me dropping down through some
steep, tight trees at the top, finding a bit more powder on this
aspect, mixed in with the icy, crusty stuff. After hitting a
really steep, tight shot, we then hit some turns in the sun
off a ridgeline lower down when my binding popped off. The
cable had worked it's way loose, luckily on an easier slope
and not on the more technical steeps just a few minutes prior.
I think I'll shop around for some new bindings after the season
is over, this has happened before. We decided we'd shoot some
more video on my cheap Intel camera - we took a couple short
ones coming down June's run, then I asked Jay to shoot me
coming down the steep upper glade again. The only line with
good visibility was the one he shot me on the previous day, so
I headed down, checking my speed with each turn and dropping
straight down to hit the tight gap between the trees. I made
it down the top, really steep section OK and started really
ripping it as I skiied by Jay and then lost it, going down
hard and sliding about 40 feet down the hill, scattering poles
and hat on my way down - right under the lift, probably the
best entertainment of the day. The tele ski patrol guy was
riding up and commented - "it looks like you blew a heel out".
Everyone's a comedian (being a free heel skier :-)). I've got
a nice bruise on my elbow and a sore shoulder to show for it.
As we headed back up the lift I regained feeling in my fingers
so we hit a couple more steep runs before heading down for
lunch and beer. It had started to snow again, lightly at first,
but fairly steadily later. After lunch we decided to ride up
the shorter Twilight Lift to save walking before mounting our
skis and had a really nice run down through some wide open
trees which hadn't been skied at all (all the tree skiers
are on the back side). We also hit one of the black diamonds
on the front side - High Lead, looking for an open ungroomed
run. What we found was steep, icy, crusty bumps, so we mostly
skied along the fringes to find some smoother turns. Back to
the back side, starting with the trees next to Escalator,
still some very nice shots up high, but snowboard scraped
down lower. Some more runs here, finding the few remaning
untracked areas. The trees off Where's Waldo, the ridge
between the lift and Down Under, the trees off of Escalator
and of course the glades off the top. I had thought that we
would just mellow out in the afternoon as we were pretty
tired, but I seemed to get a second wind and hit successively
steeper shots off the glades at the top, feeling really good
about skiing down this area - which I was too chicken to ski
in cut up deep powder a couple of years ago. Today we were
skiing it in really tough conditions - a thin layer of powder
on icy crust. My last run was the steepest of the day, I
think I found the steepest line there, a couple of the turns
feeling like I was dropping straight down - basically just
checking my speed with my edges, but still linking the turns.
At this point Jay was tiring rapidly, so at 3:25, we could
have got one more on the back side, but instead headed back
over to the front for our last run. We took a couple more
vids heading down the steep upper parts of the front side
and cruised on out. Again, Wllamette Pass delivers the
goods. If anyone wants to know why we ski here rather than
Mt. Bachelor - I have 2 words - "cheaper" and "steeper".
There isn't anything on Bachelor as steep as the glades on
the backside or the top of the front side. Another awesome
trip to the gem of the Central Oregon Cascades. The first
time we've been here and not found deep powder stashes, but
the skiing was still fantastic and we skied harder runs
than we've ever skied. Willamette Pass rocks!
TeleMurray
02/21/08 The first full day at our favorite Oregon ski area. We didn't
get the hoped for fresh snow, so we headed over to the backside
expecting to spend the day on the groomed runs. we were
pleasantly surprised to find a couple of inches on top of
Escalator, one of the shorter black diamonds on the back side.
Quite nice, but lower down it was groomed and the groomed was
very hard. Next run we hit Northern Exposure, right under the
lift, probably the steepest of the back side runs. A mix of icy
crust and powder on a steep run. We tried the glades next to
June's run, found breakable crust and a little bit more powder,
very steep, but pretty nice. That was when we started seeing
skiable lines in the trees, so we headed in. An interesting
mix of crust, powder and icy crud. very challenging, but quite
skiable as long as you kept the speed down - trees are unforgiving.
We skied down the trees through the steep upper portions and
hit the fringes on the more mellow lower part of the runs. We
finally checked out the trees out of bounds off of Where's Waldo,
one of our faves. We found very nice wind blown powder when we
left the trail, some tight trees to get through and some pretty
decent powdery, crusty tree skiing on the steep upper portion.
Very nice snow in the more open glades down below and chopped
up ice down lower. Very nice overall. It started to snow about
noon, so we took a couple more runs off Where's Waldo and then
headed over to the front side to head down for lunch. We headed
into the glades between Good Time Charlie and Eagle's Flight,
finding more carvable crust. The big danger was the bumps and
the ruts from previous tracks. I hit a scraped spot (snowboard
sliding sideways) and landed hard on my butt, digging in my
skis to keep from hitting the trees just below me. The trees
got thicker and the snow worse as we descended. After lunch
we headed back to the back side to find more hidden powder
stashes (we hoped). This time we took a few runs down the
glades skiier's left of the lift, the steepest that the Pass
has to offer, as steep as RTS on the front side, which is
listed at 52 degrees. Jay took a nice video of my coming
down through the steepest part and continuing down. We shot
a few others, which turned out pretty good. I'll have to look
for somewhere to post them now that I have DSL at home. we
decided to check out the trees out of bounds on the other side.
We saw a couple skiers, asked them if there were any powder
stashes - "no way" they responded. They were right, marginal
conditions all the way down, challenging and entertaining. We
hit the trees over by Where's Waldo, found some more decent
shots, hit the knob just below the cliff band and played in
and out of the trees on either side of the steeper runs. All
in all a very challenging and, despite the marginal conditions,
fun day on the slopes of Willamette Pass. Lots of snow, about
8 feet on the front side and 12 feet on the backside. After
dinner we headed out for a short tour along the railroad
tracks, hoping a train would pass. A pleasant tour, no train,
but nice weather under a full moon.
TeleMurray
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