Sunday on the Zig Zag

With just one day to play this past weekend, I kept it local and headed up to Mt. Hood to check out the conditions with JB and Ryan.  We'd received a bit of fresh snow and the temps were pretty moderate, so we decided to check out conditions higher on the mountain.  Persistent W/NW winds had scoured the Palmer, but lee slopes held some nice, windbuffed powder in between sections of an icy death crust, which sat on top of 2-4 inches of unconsolidated sugar.

Just as we arrived at Illumination Saddle, a couple of skiers dropped in off the east side, and I captured some nice images of the ever photogenic Illumination Rock.  After some lunch and a quick beer, we repeated their line and enjoyed some nice turns down the Zig Zag until we traversed back in towards the top of the Magic Mile.  The best snow was tucked away in the little gullies and depressions, where we could carve super fast turns on a smooth surface.  Good times and well worth the drive from Portland.      

Winter Sun at Smith Rock

I spent last week in the chilly confines of Barrow, Alaska, and when I left on Thursday evening the temps had dipped down to -35 degrees F.  Brrr.  When I deplaned in Anchorage, it was a balmy 10 degrees F.  Several hours later on Friday morning, I walked out into the early morning gray of Portland to find tropical temperatures hovering around 50 degrees F.  The 85 degree swing wreaked havoc on my system, and I promptly fell asleep.