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The plan was to rally in Portland and embark on a shred-quest, the scale of which had been witnessed by none of us before…  The team consisted of myself, Rob, his brother Brad, Brad’s best friend Ryan, and fellow ski team alum Karl.  We’d rally in Portland, drive 6.5 east to Halfway, OR.  From there we’d meet up with the Wallowa Alpine Hut guides at the Carson House and spend one last night in civilization before plunging into the wilderness.  The following morning, the guides would tow us into the woods behind a snowmobile for roughly 6 miles, at which time, we’d skin an additional 2.5 miles and 2000 vertical feet to the Norway Basin yurt.  The yurt would serve as our back-country skiing base-camp for the next 5 nights.

Halfway, OR…

Halfway to nowhere, in the words of Karl Cyr…

Plains, mountains…

…and sunsets.

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In the map above, the black path represents the drive, the green represents the snowmobile drag, and the blue is the skin to the yurt.  The bed marks the Carson House.

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Right around now, it dawns on us: we’re actually doing this!

After some last minute ‘gear harmonizing’ at the trail head, we were on the trail, in pursuit of pow, gnar, first tracks, fist descents and virtually every other Holy Grail conceivable to five back-country skiers such as ourselves.
The snowmobile drag got off to a great start, including one overheated drive-train, resolved by shoveling a bunch of snow onto the tread, and one mid-course un-packaging of the gear sled, resulting in the loss of some miscellaneous gear, and all four tow-ees.  The snow machine turned around and came back for us and the gear as soon as they realized that about 1000 lbs. of dudes had dropped off the tow line.

At about mile 6, we transitioned into climbing skins and prepared for the final push toward base camp.  Laden with extra clothes, emergency gear, spare parts and overnight gear, the last 2.5 miles from the sno-mo drop-off to the yurt, took us nearly two hours.  Once at the yurt, we took some time to unpack our non-essentials, hydrate and rest before a quick orientation with our guides, Kip and Victor.  From a local high point, known as Rocky Top, they pointed out most of the significant land marks and major regions accessible from the yurt.  Victor’s knowledge of the area proved indispensable and we left him hefty tip.  Once we were all oriented, we took a quick schuss down to Bob’s Hole, the landing area for virtually everything west of the yurt, and then headed back to the yurt for some planning and R&R.

Home sweet, yurt.

Unloading any excess gear.
Photo credit: Ryan

So much gear!
Photo credit: Brad

Skin track.
Photo credit: Brad.

Photo credit: Brad.

Victor and Kip showing us the lay of the land.
Photo credit: Brad.

Transitioning.
Photo credit: Ryan.

Finally, a few glimpses into the terrain we’ll be skiing. The topo maps
don’t do it justice.

Photo credit: Brad

Inspecting our handiwork.

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Karl and Brad, doing some homework.

With about 3000′ of vert and one decent run under our belts we retreated to the yurt to gear up for the next day.  The recent rain event and associated warm-up had destroyed virtually all of the deep persistent instabilities.  There were a few sun crusts near the surface of the snow pack, but precipitation since the development of those layers had been sparse.  If anything were to rip out, it would be low consequence.  Additionally, the forecast for the following day was fair, but weather was expected to be moving in toward the end of the day.  If we really wanted to get into the alpine and slay some big lines, we’d have one shot at it.  We ate, drank, stared at the map until it was nearly committed to memory, and hit the sack for an alpine start the next day, with alarms set for 6 AM.

A lot to take in…

Continue Reading at The Oregon Trip: Big Mountain Lines.

Gear List (click links for more product info):

Continued From The Oregon Trip: Big Mountain Lines.

Having temporarily slaked our big-mountain-line-slaying thirst with the previous day’s activities, we got off to a decidedly non-alpine start for the second full day.  We had heard that the forecast was for snow and poor visibility, and sure enough it was pretty socked in when we lumbered out of the yurt that morning.  To make matters, it came in wet and heavy, on top of the whatever may have refrozen after the afternoon’s sun.  Between the dubious snow-pack and our dubious legs, we decided to stay out of the alpine and stick to low consequence pistes for the day.

Overcast and wet…

The fog made for some surreal scenes.

Low viz…

The conditions were less than inspiring, but we figured we’d make a go of it.
Photo credit: Ryan.

Our first objective of the day was to head back up toward Rocky Top, and check out the conditions on the windward side of the ridge.  It was a decent sized slope with a medium pitch but nothing too complicated.  I broke trail through the heavy, crusty mank that had come in over night.  At the top of the ridge the winds were whipping up a ground blizzard and practically chased us down into the cover of the terrain contours.  Unfortunately the wind had beaten us into submission, and no one bothered to pull out a camera for this leg of the trip…

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The skiing was half-decent if not a bit crusty and the weather was much more tolerable off the ridge.  However we learned an important lesson: the snow was slabby and the wind direction was being influence by the local contours of the land.  What we thought was a windward slope was actually getting loaded from somewhere.  Rob and Karl both kicked off very smalls slabs (a few inches deep and running only 10 feet or so).  They were both able to ski out of these slides, but we decided that it was time to seek more sheltered less exposed terrain.  After all, the snow was still coming down and the wind was still blowing.  We turned back toward Bob’s Hole, swung by the yurt for a lunch-time IPA and pushed on toward Spines and Lines, a set of spines and chutes nestled just south of the yurt.

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Spines and Lines dumps you into the Pit of Despair, a local depression lower in elevation Bob’s Hole and considerably lower than the yurt.  Nothing like winding up like 600 vertical feet below home at the end of a day of skiing.  We made sure not to wind up at the absolute bottom of the Pit, yet when we got to the end of the run and saw the climb that lay ahead of us, we despaired anyway….

Anyhow, the skiing looked decent and there seemed to be very little wind around the yurt when we left, so we hoped the snow-pack would be more reasonable in that area.  Brad broke trail up to the top of the line and we eagerly got ready to ride some untouched back-country spines.  The snow was still heavy and but we made the best of it and shot some quality POV footage.  Karl and I rode the spine to looker’s left (above), and Ryan, Brad and Rob followed the chutes to looker’s right.  The snow was nowhere nearly as slabby as it had been earlier in the day, but Rob still managed to kick off a large slough in one of the chutes, reaffirming our suspicions that the alpine would be a no-go for the rest of the trip.  We climbed out of the Pit of Despair and returned to the yurt to plan our attack for the last full day of skiing.

I break trail up out from the Pit of Despair back to the yurt, with Brad following.
Photo credit: Ryan.

When we awoke on the last full day, we were greeted to nearly two feet of heavy new snow.  Low angle woods, here we come.  We plotted a course due east of the yurt toward East Lake Falls.  The slopes to the east of Rocky Top cascaded their way through well spaced evergreen and eventually into a north-south running drainage.  We decided to check out the conditions and just lap woods for the day.  Again, the gloomy weather left us without sufficient motivation to pull out the point-and-shoots, but we managed to capture some good POV cam actionand even some cool chase cam shots.
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Continue Reading at The Oregon Trip: Return to Civilization.

Gear List (click links for more product info):

                         

Continued From The Oregon Trip: Spines, Lines, and Woods.

The conditions on the final day were less than epic, and with our day-packs overloaded with extra gear, spare parts, extra clothes, trash, etc. we decided to just schuss straight back to Halfway via the snow-mo path and steal a few turns here and there as the opportunities presented themselves. The snow predictably grew heavier, wetter, and slower as we lost elevation culminating in literally skating and poling the final 6 miles out of the woods.  Brad declared it to be torture, and Ryan dubbed it the trail of tears.  I offered no argument here. We skulked back to Carson House, showered ate snacks and then made a hasty egress, across Oregon and toward a civilization rife with beer, pizza, more showers, couches and other amenities that we hadn’t realized we might miss so much.

Back to Halfway, OR.

Goodbye, Wallowas…

We arrived back in Portland late that night and crashed.  The next day we feasted on unreasonably large breakfasts and took a ride out to Mount Saint Helens for some casual touristry.  The scenery was every bit as stunning as in the Wallowas.  The visibility and lighting were exceptional and we got great views into the crater.

The very next day we realized we hadn’t quite had our lift served resort skiing fix for the year, so Rob, Brad and I piled into the car and set out for Mount Hood.  Again, we were greeted by uncharacteristically blue skies and overall pleasant weather.  We found ourselves lacking sufficient ambition for the usual profusion of still photos, but we managed to snag a few minutes of quality chase cam footage on some of Hood’s more exciting terrain.

Mt. Hood.

Eventually we realized that we all had real lives that needed attention, so after a week of exceptional fun in the mountains we parted ways with half-baked plans of a round two already beginning to formulate in our collective consciousness… Gear List (click links for more product info):