Funny thing about this being the worst winter since the mid-70's for snow. Snowpack in the Cascades is at about 20-30% of normal throughout . . . and yet . . . and yet we've gotten in a couple of REALLY good powder days (see also Todd Lake).
This was meant to be a weekend for doing our annual trip to the Wallowas but we were a little hesitant to travel that far for boney skiing. The hills around Bend had been maintaining a decent base all winter so Jon and I decided just to spend the weekend bumping around his parts doing some 'bile-assisted touring. Day #1 around Kwohl Butte and Day #2 around Broken Top
| Jon helping himself to the free beta. The potato guns fully loaded |
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Since it was Jon's first time to Kwohl we weren't exactly certain the aspect we should hit. So we kicked in a track to the top through the milky soup (the visibility rule for me this year both here and in Utah) and found our way to the North end of Kwohl's cool little summit crater.
| Looking down on the cool cone-of-Kwohl from the summit of Bachelor. We skiied down into the tongue of snow pretty much center-photo (Jon Carney photo) |
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Found a nice short open pitch - but not the money shot . . . we'll have to return
| Jon suffering thru the poor skiing conditions of '04-'05 |
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| More turns down into the trees back to the 'biles |
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Saturday night was forecast to feature snow. Woke up next morning to 4-5 of new on the hills. Enough to freshen everything up. Once again took the biles out - this time to the wilderness boundary at the base of Ball Butte.
The goal on the day was a yummy ridge on the North aspect of Broken Top - but the vis was so poor that after hiking for a while, we realized we'd hiked to the col between BT and Ball and were heading into certain peril.
So we followed the breadcrumbs back to the machines and had a sit-down. Decided to ski Ball a few times and call it good owing to the fact that it was still dumping, poor vis, and Jon had already expelled one lung in one of his coughing fits. What a faker!
Made quick work of the skin up to a shot on the SW aspect of Ball. Featured some really cool boot-packing up to the upper pitch.
| Kicking in steps toward the top of the poke on lap #1 |
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We kicked in a narrow platform at the top of this thing and gingerly set about stepping into our skis whilst not sending them careening down the slope below
| Jon making his way up to the platform before dropping in |
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| Jon reaching out for another powder turn |
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This shot was in great shape so we helped ourselves to another
| Jon punching in on the way up for lap #2 |
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| Fuzzy evidence of the Skiing Sasquatch on Ball Butte |
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Jon on the phat Carbon Smurfs toward the lower end of the pitch.
"Our work is done here" |
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