12/14/02
MAN!! The waiting was finally over. The incredibly dry weather of the fall had finally broken and we received a blast that was sufficient to open up the ski areas - and the backcountry turns. Met Jon, his bro' Clint, and Matt up at the Timberline lot to do some turns in the terrain that spills into the upper Salmon River Canyon.
| Clint makes his way out of the 1st minor drainage out of the lot |
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The weather was pretty milky - and the snow was still flying, but the temps had remained cold and the snow levels low for the storm cycle. I actually started hitting snow in the air by the time I reached Rhododendron. A pretty good sign - when we got up there we found that the snow was in great shape for some powder turns.
Skinned up perhaps 600 vertical feet before agreeing that the combinatioin of visibility, wind, and horizontal snow was making things a bit uncomfortable. We planned on skiing the canyon as far below our parking elevation as was practical - so this was probably a good place to start. Goal for the day was some 1st turns, dig a few pits, and do a few beacon drills, anyway. Nothing epic. Gettin' together with the fellas is always a good time.
| Prepping to drop in and guarding against the weather |
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Turns were a little grabby toward the top with some thin windslab to keep things honest. Crossed a rollover and found a nice pitch full of choice powder turns.
| Matt skiing the 1st pitch - for his pleasure |
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| Getting into the lighter and less wind-hammered stuff lower down |
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Little further down found another pretty stunning pitch - now down in the trees and protected so the snow was in awesome shape. Still - the pitch rolled into a pinch between the canyon walls. . . so we did a few ski cuts and dug a few pits to check things out. Kind of weird early season when the bottom end of your pit ends on the dirt ("guess that's how deep we'll go with this pit"). Nothing alarming found - so we helped ourselves.
| Matt, Jon, and Clint preparing to drop in in the lower canyon |
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| Jon helping himself to the goods (aka "looks great - you go first") |
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| Matt doing his best to hide the easter egg for a beacon drill |
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| After some stunning technical beacon-work, Jon finds Clint grinning three feet away |
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Skinned up and out and back up to the top of our efforts for a few more laps. Certainly not a huge day, but good to get out nonetheless.
| Matt finding his way around in the milk bottle... |
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| ... and sending up a rooster tail on the way down |
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| Jon gettin' jiggy widd-it on his spankin' new Sumo's |
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Skiied on back to the parking lot & pondered our libation options. Clint had never seen the lodge at Timberline before, so a stop at the Ram's Head was obvious.
I think we spent nearly as much time relaxing in the Ram's Head as we had out in the weather. Finally started down the road for the trip home. The access road to Timberline was pretty greasy on the way down & I had to rally to get myself out of a couple of sideslip jams that I had put myself into. Jon, Matt, and Clint all stared in wonder at my superior road-handling techniques . . . or maybe that was fear.....?