Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
NY Times - local article
Recently, an article came out in the NY Times about the local snow options in the Central Oregon area. It is an interesting read and struck a chord because the missus made the article via the photos. The backstory is that she was taking an avie class last year up at TamMac and the crew was there at the time doing the article.
Fast forward about a year and the article comes out. The missus is in the photo of the skiers getting towed in on the snowmobile…she is in the 'musher' position on the sled with the blue jacket.
random and fun…link below:
Skiing in My Own Backyard
Fast forward about a year and the article comes out. The missus is in the photo of the skiers getting towed in on the snowmobile…she is in the 'musher' position on the sled with the blue jacket.
random and fun…link below:
Skiing in My Own Backyard
Friday, February 14, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
TamMac Day 4
As with any vacation, the last day is always a bit of a bittersweet moment….the prospect of the vacation ending looms, but the idea of getting back home lingers too. We woke up on Sunday knowing that we had to pack up, clean the yurts and be ready for our ride back out. We hustled in the morning to get everything cleaned up and ready for the next group at the yurts.
Once we wrapped up the cleaning duties, we got ready for our last day of adventure. The game plan was to head south from the yurts and explore the ridge up that way. The snow was a little thin on that aspect until we hit the ridge where it looked like there was lots of great snow. We worked our way up the ridge until cresting and tried to find an elusive bowl that Erin and Cari kept referencing. Alas, the bowl would remain hidden (weather was rolling in and there was limited visibility).
There was a nice treed slope that we eyeballed as we made our way up the ridge. After deciding the bowl would remain a mystery for the day, we tackled the trees and found some great snow. As we picked our way down the hill, the snow got thinner and thinner until it made little sense to keep going. Soon enough, we were skinning back up to the ridge and getting ready for our last downhill fun of the weekend. Once again, the snow was untracked and in great shape until we hit the saddle. Upon hitting the saddle, things started to get a little thin and I cringed as my board made contact with things 'not snow'.
All too soon, we were back at the yurts and getting our gear together for the ride out. Before we knew it, we were back at the parking lot and loading our gear into the cars. Based on the time, we had just enough time to get back to Bend and watch the SuperBowl. It was perfect timing all the way around…and to boot, the Seahawks won! It has been a long and lean journey being a Seahawks fan but they pulled of a great victory in the big game!
As I watched the Superbowl, I started to process the long weekend that was. I came back refreshed but still not ready to start work the next day. The thought of work could be put off just a little longer while basking in the glow of this trip. We can't wait to get back up there and look forward to more exploration and another stay at they yurts.
More pictures to come tomorrow.
Once we wrapped up the cleaning duties, we got ready for our last day of adventure. The game plan was to head south from the yurts and explore the ridge up that way. The snow was a little thin on that aspect until we hit the ridge where it looked like there was lots of great snow. We worked our way up the ridge until cresting and tried to find an elusive bowl that Erin and Cari kept referencing. Alas, the bowl would remain hidden (weather was rolling in and there was limited visibility).
There was a nice treed slope that we eyeballed as we made our way up the ridge. After deciding the bowl would remain a mystery for the day, we tackled the trees and found some great snow. As we picked our way down the hill, the snow got thinner and thinner until it made little sense to keep going. Soon enough, we were skinning back up to the ridge and getting ready for our last downhill fun of the weekend. Once again, the snow was untracked and in great shape until we hit the saddle. Upon hitting the saddle, things started to get a little thin and I cringed as my board made contact with things 'not snow'.
All too soon, we were back at the yurts and getting our gear together for the ride out. Before we knew it, we were back at the parking lot and loading our gear into the cars. Based on the time, we had just enough time to get back to Bend and watch the SuperBowl. It was perfect timing all the way around…and to boot, the Seahawks won! It has been a long and lean journey being a Seahawks fan but they pulled of a great victory in the big game!
As I watched the Superbowl, I started to process the long weekend that was. I came back refreshed but still not ready to start work the next day. The thought of work could be put off just a little longer while basking in the glow of this trip. We can't wait to get back up there and look forward to more exploration and another stay at they yurts.
More pictures to come tomorrow.
Friday, February 7, 2014
TamMac Day 3
Day three was a bit of a turning point for us…we were losing part of our group which meant that we would be down to four of us. Bob, Eric, and Nathan decided that they had to re-arrange their sock drawers and apparently needed to all supervise each other while doing it. Legitimately, there were excuses of vacation plans in Hawaii, Superbowl parties, blah blah blah…all I heard was excuses as to why the three princesses did not want to go out for a morning adventure. After all, the Superbowl was a day a way and Saturday was young!
Alas, they remained stubborn and were determined to not have any more big fun in amazing terrain. After they whined about how their toe nail polish was coming off and did not want to risk the possibility of their Lee press on nails coming off while having fun, they packed up and talked about the logistics of getting back to the parking lot which was 6 miles away. There was one borrowed snowmobile between the three of them so this was bound to be humorous. They finally figured out who would carry what while be towed by who…and it went a little something like this:
Nathan would commandeer the controls of the sled - Captain Nathan had Bob strapped to his back, who had Eric's 'end of days' backpack filled with everything under the sun. The backpack dwarfed Bob as he hung on to Nathan for dear life while going. It was all rather comical….it looked like the huge pack was riding Bob like a drunken sailor who just reach port, and in turn Bob was riding Nathan like it was his first pony.
We watched them sputter away with Eric pulling up the rear ala water ski mode on his ski's. The remaining four of us decided there was bound to be a good story when this was all said and done.
They disappeared around a corner and all of a sudden, things were different…we were going to miss their camaraderie.
As we got ready, we expected them to limp back into camp with some story about how the snowmobile blew up, or Eric's pack blew up, etc….
The rest of us rallied for a trip back up to the ridges. The day was the most clear we had had until that point and the views were bound to be ridiculously good! and they were! The whole range opened up…we could see Paulina, then Tumalo, then bachelor, then Moon, then Ball Butte, then Brokentop, then S, Middle, N Sister, then Hoodoo, then Mt Washington, then 3 Fingered Jack, and of course Mt Jefferson…in the distance to our east we could even make out Smith rocks. Wow! Killer views. We decided to head back up to our lookout lunch spot to take in the views.
A few pictures and with lunch in our bellies, we headed back down - we ended up at Probiscus where we dropped into a little bowl/terrain trap that skied like butter. Since it was a shortie distance out of the bowl and the snow was pretty consolidated, we boot packed out…urggg, I forget how much work that is. We went up to Jelly roll and got a quick lap in and then dropped into the bowl we all dropped into on our first day. The snow was holding up AMAZINGLY. I was blown away by how well the snow was still skiing - there were still stashes of great untouched snow beckoning for tracks - and we obliged.
Soon enough, we made our way back down to the yurts and settled in for the evening. It was our last evening at the yurts and once again we ate like kings.
That evening was much more subdued than the prior evenings but it was good to chillax and look forward to day 4 of riding.
Alas, they remained stubborn and were determined to not have any more big fun in amazing terrain. After they whined about how their toe nail polish was coming off and did not want to risk the possibility of their Lee press on nails coming off while having fun, they packed up and talked about the logistics of getting back to the parking lot which was 6 miles away. There was one borrowed snowmobile between the three of them so this was bound to be humorous. They finally figured out who would carry what while be towed by who…and it went a little something like this:
Nathan would commandeer the controls of the sled - Captain Nathan had Bob strapped to his back, who had Eric's 'end of days' backpack filled with everything under the sun. The backpack dwarfed Bob as he hung on to Nathan for dear life while going. It was all rather comical….it looked like the huge pack was riding Bob like a drunken sailor who just reach port, and in turn Bob was riding Nathan like it was his first pony.
We watched them sputter away with Eric pulling up the rear ala water ski mode on his ski's. The remaining four of us decided there was bound to be a good story when this was all said and done.
They disappeared around a corner and all of a sudden, things were different…we were going to miss their camaraderie.
As we got ready, we expected them to limp back into camp with some story about how the snowmobile blew up, or Eric's pack blew up, etc….
The rest of us rallied for a trip back up to the ridges. The day was the most clear we had had until that point and the views were bound to be ridiculously good! and they were! The whole range opened up…we could see Paulina, then Tumalo, then bachelor, then Moon, then Ball Butte, then Brokentop, then S, Middle, N Sister, then Hoodoo, then Mt Washington, then 3 Fingered Jack, and of course Mt Jefferson…in the distance to our east we could even make out Smith rocks. Wow! Killer views. We decided to head back up to our lookout lunch spot to take in the views.
A few pictures and with lunch in our bellies, we headed back down - we ended up at Probiscus where we dropped into a little bowl/terrain trap that skied like butter. Since it was a shortie distance out of the bowl and the snow was pretty consolidated, we boot packed out…urggg, I forget how much work that is. We went up to Jelly roll and got a quick lap in and then dropped into the bowl we all dropped into on our first day. The snow was holding up AMAZINGLY. I was blown away by how well the snow was still skiing - there were still stashes of great untouched snow beckoning for tracks - and we obliged.
Soon enough, we made our way back down to the yurts and settled in for the evening. It was our last evening at the yurts and once again we ate like kings.
That evening was much more subdued than the prior evenings but it was good to chillax and look forward to day 4 of riding.
