Crater Lake Spliboarding - Garfield Ridge

The second day of backcountry play at Crater Lake was going to be a bit of a mystery to us since it had been raining non stop in the low lands since we returned from our Saturday's session of snowblast.  We decided to head up to  the ridge that gains access to Garfield Peak and then dig a pit towards the top and see what the snow conditions were.  Where it rained all day/night in the low country, that precip was in the shape of snow up at Crater Lake.  There was lots of new snow and it was time to figure out just how much and just what kind....short version...over a foot of fresh...and it was on the heavy side.

We zigged and zagged our way up the steep ridge and then found a good place to dig a pit.  We got our shovels out and started the due diligence...after digging a pit, we shaped a column to perform the compression test.  The first thing we noticed in the snow pack was that there was a warm rotten layer (big layer) about 14 inches down.  It appears like there was a warm up for a few days and then the new storm rolled in and dumped about a foot of new snow on that rotten layer.   That new snow must have insulated the lower/deeper layer which remained 'marbly'.   We figured that it did not get cold enough for that layer to re-freeze since it was still 'wet'.

The compression test yielded alarming results...after three light whacks on top of the column with our shovels the column started to collapse at the first weak layer which was higher than we expected:  about 5 inches down.  It look like it was Sunday's snowpack on top of Saturdays windblown or rain pack.  We quickly concluded we would stay in the lower angles in the trees and avoid anything that looked like a an avie path/terrain.

We re-ran the tests on a second column and found the same results...we then also dug a bigger block to do the block test, and just weighting the block started to show the weakness.  It was pretty sobering.  In our minds we realized certain slopes would be red and we would stay away from those!

After filling in the hole we dug, we went into ride mode and found amazing snow and riding through the trees!  There was only 1 other person out exploring while we were out.  It turns out he was a park employee who lived at the base of the ridge...pretty good spot to work/live/play!

On our way down, Bob approached a series of rocks that he caught just in time before core shotting his board or catching about 20 feet of air....

All in all, it was an awesome weekend shared in the backcountry.  Each time we head out down there, we get a little smarter about the opportunities that the terrain offers, and more importantly we get a little more in tune with the conditions down there.

The snowpack is definitely sketch due to the windloads, amount of snowfall, and the weak layers.  This could be an issue if it does not get cold enough up there for that layer to freeze and bond.  The lesson served as an incentive to go back and bone up on wet slabs and avie literature....

As the show Hill Street Blues line goes 'Let's be careful out there!!'

Some pix:

Crater Lake Spliboarding - The Watchman

Hodgie and I managed to synch up this past weekend at his cabana and use their cabin as base camp for  some splitboarding around Crater Lake.  The plan was to check out the Watchman and then perhaps do another tour the following day of the Garfield ridge again.

We woke up to rain at the cabin and had our suspicions about the snow conditions up at Crater Lake.  As we drove up, the rain turned into snow.  As the rain turned into snow, the snow started to howl sideways and we knew we were in for a treat of a day when we got out of the car at the rim and got a rude awakening of gusts of snow flying into our faces.

Hodgie was breaking in his new splittie (Burton splittie that is) and there was no better place to break it in than the snow of Crater Lake.  We did not dilly dally too long in getting into tour mode for the approach to The Watchman.  The approach would follow the rim for about 3 miles until we hit the hill. The only problem was visibility was very limited (at worst it was about 25 yards and at best it was about 100 yards), so it was going to prove interesting to try to figure out when we were at the base of the Watchman.

The wintery snow wind mix continued as we followed the rim.  At times the wind would pelt us in the face with snow...getting sandblasted by snow...or in this case snowblasted.  These were not exactly the type of 'face shots' we were hoping for but we trudged along stubbornly as the wind howled even more stubbornly.

We stopped along the way a few times to see how the snow was accumulating due to the wind and we did some quickie tests to see how stable the snow was.  The area had received warm spring like weather over the past couple of weeks and this new snow was accumulating quickly on top of that warmed up snowpack.

The wind swirled, it was at our back...it was hammering us sideways....it changed to frontal shots...it was all over the place.  There were a couple of spots where we were sidehilling on scoured snow/ice...and other spots where we were breaking trail 3-5 inches deep.

We found our objective of the Watchman and started to ascend.  We were not 100% sure as we could not see the hill or the outline to determine whether we were in the right spot.  After some ascending we knew we were on the right path and forged to the top.  The higher we got towards the top of the hill on the rim, the harder the winds blew.  We made it to the lookout tower and took off our equipment and checkout out the windblown/ice popsicle that looked like it was in the shape of a lookout tower.  We took a couple pix, imagined where the lake was and pontificated about how amazing the views must be when not in the middle of a blizzard!

We changed into ride mode and headed back down the hill where we got in a few great turns on some good snow and then decided we wanted to boot up (as opposed to skin) a shortie hill that had a great aspect and better snow.  As we worked our way up in waste deep snow, we started to realize it was going to be a lot of work for about 3 turns...sometimes 3 turns is worth a lot of work so we continued....

Three turns later we were at the bottom of the hill again and transitioning into skin mode for our 3 mile trek back to the cars.  Our return trip was much like the trip to the Watchman...more snow blasting, more blustering winds, although this time there was a little more 'whine' to go with the weather.  The wind was blowing so hard that we could not find our tracks from our trip to the Watchman.  Fortunately the return was brainless as we just followed the contours of what we thought was the road and rim back to the parking lot.

It was a great day out.  Each day in an area gets you more local knowledge about terrain, conditions, snow type, etc...so it will be going into the information locker for future reference...

some pix of the fun:

TGIF

Somehow this past week flew by and by the time Friday rolled around it was time to think play!  I decided to follow last week's Friday protocol and head up to Tumalo for a quick backcountry lap.  The wifer joined in the fun and we were in the Dutchman Sno Park parking lot by 3:30 and were skinning up the side of the mountain by 3:45.

The views on the way up were mixed  but the snow looked really promising.  There was a cloud that enveloped the peak of Tumalo as well as enough cloud cover north so you could not see Broken Top and Sisters.  There were still great views of Bachelor and the west though.  We got up to the top and were treated to views of...yup, clouds.....the cloud cover looked like it was moving relatively quickly and if we had the time we might have hung around for a little bit to see how quickly it would have cleared up.  I was in bare bones minimum clothing and forgot to pack and extra layer and the wind was making things chilly enough to want to keep moving.  In the mad dash to head out of the house after work, I forgot to pack a shell and was in a base long underwear layer with a shirt on top of it.

Quickly enough we were in ski/snowboard mode and enjoying the FINE powder on Tumalo.  What a great surprise snow wise.  The mountain was in great shape and the quiet peacefulness of floating on top of the snow was a perfect way to wrap what was an incredibly hectic week on the work front.  Soon enough (all too soon) we were back at the parking lot but I could sense that my tension had been relieved somewhat from the whacked out work week.  The soul had just been fed a little and it was time to relax and enjoy the promising weather for the weekend....

Tumalo Splittie Lap

After a rough week in the trenches at work, I managed to shut the computer off after my last meeting on Friday and run up to Tumalo for a quick backcountry lap.  I was dressed for play while holding the last call and watching the minutes click by as we wrapped up the week.

We were in the 60's in town and I was curious to see what the conditions were like up on the hill.  I was skinning by 4 and on the summit by 5.  After a few shots on the way up and at the summit, it was time to go into ride mode and see what the snow had in store.  It was a little on the heavy side and it took a couple of turns to figure out that you had to keep your tip up and lean back a little so as not to get buried in the heavy snow.  I managed to keep enough momentum all the way back down to the parking lot and was back in the car by 5:30.  Woohoo!  What an AWESOME way to finish the week - and start the weekend....

Sisters and BrokenTop on the way up:

 skins tracks and Bachelor on the way up:

 starting to get above tree-line

 summit fish eye with Bachelor on the left and Sisters/BrokenTop on the right

 summit fish eye view including the splittie in skin mode -

COB Backcountry - Moon Mountain

I ordered a Backcountry route book for Oregon that arrived in the mail on Friday.  I immediately proceeded to get to the table of contents and browse the possibilities of what the state had to offer.  Josh had touched base earlier in the week for a tentative backcountry rendezvous on Saturday so the timing was just about perfect.

We had our sights set on Tumalo and then the book arrived and I thought it would be good to try something new....so we set off with Todd Lake as an objective....We missed a turn and ended up deeper towards BrokenTop than we had expected but saw a little peak that looked like it had some possibilities.  At this point we were 4 miles into our skin in and we figured we could backtrack to our missed turn for Todd Lake or just take advantage of the peak in front of us.

After a somewhat short skin, we changed from tour to ride mode and scraped our way downhill.  The snow was crusty crusty crusty!  It had a very hard crusty layer but once you broke through it it was softer snow.  The problem was you had very little control on the crust until you broke through which was unpredictable at best.  After a couple of quick turns, my edge caught the crust, broke through it, and send me flying to a nice face-plant.  The recent warm up had consolidated the snow, but has also left that hard layer.  It will be something to keep an eye on as additional snow sets up on top of that layer.

We scraped our way down and then readied ourselves for the 4 mile skin out.  It was pretty flat on the way out so it was fairly quick going as we headed back to the car.  When we did the little peak, we had no idea what we had just skinned up and rode back down.  We got back to the car and put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out we had just been up Moon Mountain.

The rest room at the parking lot...they have been getting just a little bit of snow out there!

where we probably should have zigged instead of zagged....

following the ridge up the moon

converting from tour to ride...

masked men on the moon