Thursday, November 19, 2009

Turns Out: Ski Season is Here Already

As it turns out, ski season is, in fact, here in Oregon.

I had my suspicions based on last week's excursions, and in our seemingly endless quest to become better snow scientists, myself, Pete and Gabe made time on yesterday's tour to make some turns and both the turns and the tests confirm: Yup - It's time for skiing. 1.5m+ snowpacks, 40-50cms of fluffy new powder on N and E aspects, little by way of reactive slab activity* and plenty of creamy untracked pow, as I believe they call it in the 'Rado - sounds like ski season to me. Our photographic haul was pretty weak owing to the fact that the only cameras we had with us were iPhones, but even a cell phone camera can tell you that those are powder turns. Viva Noviembre!



*For more pics and test scores check out Now! Climbing here.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Winter is here in Central Oregon

Wooo Hooo! We are finally skiing around Mt Bachelor this week. Although the mountain isn't open yet, there is some nice skiing on the hill that is giving us a chance to dust off the skis and enjoy some dry light powder. In a few weeks, if this keeps up, the backcountry should be shaping up nicely.