Skiing In the Central Oregon Outback

The time was finally right for an excursion above treeline into the Central Oregon Cascades. Even office workers need to get out sometimes, and Carlos and I elected to shine our office duties in favor of sunny skies and great snow. We decided our objective to the NE Ridge of Broken Hand, a feature just to the east of our much-beloved Broken Top. Below is Carlos heading out with Broken Top in the background.
Here he is at the east col of Broken Hand, enjoying the view to the north of Middle and North Sister.


Then...things got a bit more serious with some technical climbing to gain the summit of Broken Hand. The NE ridge has some rock climbing and some steep snow. A great objective for ski mountaineers.



Straddling the ridge up high, we both felt the exposure.


Carlos is pretty excited on the summit. His first technical climb with his splitboard on his back.

We were rewarded with over 1000 feet vertical of beautiful turns down into the upper part of the Snowcreek drainage.


After that run, we skinned up to Point 8378, and skied its huge north face. What a great run!