Thread: 2011/2012 Central Oregon Volcano Stoke!

There are enough TRs on here these days to justify our very own thread. Unless we all want to continue to fly under the radar, in which case you should stop reading right now!

So Central Oregon mags, post up photos and let's get this baby started.

I'll start things off by sharing some photos from Broken Top on Saturday.

Enduring Ullr's Torment on Broken Top
December 17th, 2011
Skiers: Lindsey Clark, Erik Schmidt and Liam Myers



The 2011/2012 ski season has taken its sweet time getting started. After a handful of bottomless powder days, we have been suffering through an epic, extended high pressure system that has filled TGR forums and facebook walls with complaints, prayers, requests for snow dances, and even death threats to Ullr. The blindingly sunny days just keep coming. Ugh.

Rather than continue to wait for the snow to arrive, Erik and I decided to commit to skiing the little snow we've got now. We talked our friend Liam into coming along. Broken Top seemed like a great option, with a huge variety of terrain and aspects to ski. There had to be something holding snow!

Getting out to Broken Top on our snowmobiles was quick and painless. There were a few inches of snow on a firm base, which made for easy and no-nonsense travel out to the wilderness boundary. From there, we skinned out to the middle of the meadow where we ran into Schralper, who had just skied the 1:00 area in the bowl. It looked GNARLY -- his white tracks were probably visible for miles away, etched into the brown snow.



Schralper confirmed what we were already thinking: the bowl was still not really ready to ski, with rocks showing everywhere. So we climbed up the West ridge to ski one regular favorite, and one new spot we'd never skied.

The regular favorite, Lunch Bowl, is a leeward slope and probably never sees the sun this time of year. Therefore, even this short line was a great time with no sketchy rocks and plenty of soft snow. Then a short skin back up to the top put us at the top of what I deemed "Mellow Daddy Pyramid", a 800' slope that would appeal to the most discriminating meadow skipper... or Mellow Daddy.



Mellow Daddy turned out to be super fun! A couple ledges at the top, plus rocks and trees to avoid, and creamy corn snow made for a mighty fine ski. We were all wearing huge grins at the bottom. What's everyone complaining about? It's springtime in the Cascades!





We arrived back at the wilderness boundary at 4:20, just as the sun dropped below the horizon. A quick ride back to the sno-park in the dark got us back by 5. Another super fun day out on Broken Top, and a great start to our backcountry ski season!

3FJ from this past Saturday (12-17)


Photo credit: Matt Stouder

way to get at it you guys!

Since the attaching hasn't been fixed here's from today
http://www.schralper.com/index.php?o...id=25&catid=78
My bro from Breck, coloRADo, KIR on some skinny ass Totally Piste's
Nice & cold, quality hardpack & choco chips
Better than riding Bachy

Looks like snow is back in the forecast for Thursday/Friday. We will be at Hoodoo for NYE! Hoping to do some touring in the area as well, but that depends on whether or not there are puddles.

Anyone else going to be there?

Look for the sweet van (hope it is ready to go by the weekend, we got it about a week ago):

Looks super fun. I'm on the Tahoe exodus plan and thinking of heading up after the New Year if you need any BC partners for Monday or Tuesday or have any advice for Central OR. I don't have a sled though!

I'm not working Monday and happy to give you a tow! PM me your number.

Butte stoke
windhammered above treeline
bottom 1/2 pretty good

Right on Schralper! So trail 4 is rideable, I guess? We tried to get out to Ball Butte last Friday and it was BURLY. Water everywhere...

Not your sled?
Timmy got his boots filled w/ H20 & had to bail
Ball was scoured on Sat probably just as bad today
Blowing 40ish on top of kwohl

better viz today but RUFF ride out
FIRM higher up, ok lower

Thanks to linds-o-rama, we found the goods on Tumalo on day 1 of our exodus from Tahoe.



And thanks to some nice Central Oregon locals, we got to ski out of the yurts at Three Sisters.

Too-mellow (tumalo) the sickest 450'vert in Central OR

Originally Posted by Schralper

Too-mellow (tumalo) the sickest 450'vert in Central OR

Scralper, I have to agree, except in the early season when all the rocks are showing... h-atlas was too humble to post this:



h: I'm so glad you had fun!!! Would love to jump off some rocks with you in Tahoe

Tumalo is short, but it enabled us to pick a few lines and the snow was just dumping in there with the wind - and no one was skiing through or off those rocks except one dude. Seriously, you would've thought we just got dropped off on top of a 3000' pow field the way we felt about it after run one. Compared to what we have in Tahoe, 2" December, 0" January, it was awesome! Might have to come back up in a few weeks! Thanks for sharing everyone!

PS - that landing was pretty flat!

Originally Posted by h-atlas

PS - that landing was pretty flat!

Welcome to central OR, where the air looks good but the landings are flat
This would have a tighter edit but figure since I'm milking turns, this is for those that ain't

next week could be good.

Meadow skipping, 2012

Don't think this butte get much in the way of turns on it, ever
Think this is only the 3rd time I've hit it
If it consolidates some it should be good tomorrow
Nice isothermic snowpack just beneath fresh

When did willamette become a volcano?
WP is not volcano stoke, this belongs in "Snow for the PNW"

dude will pass is a volcano.

Originally Posted by steepconcrete

dude will pass is a volcano.

You need to take a chill pill lil buddy, I'm just poking fun at the whole thread thing, JEZ

Dood! No it ain't. It maybe on the crest of the cascades but it AIN'T a volcano
yes I know there's some fumaroles but that don't make a volcano
from wikipedia
A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from below the surface.
So then nearly 1/2 of OR fits your "volcano" definition.
maybe it's semantics, eh?
Volcanic isn't a "volcano"
which is why I feel uncomfortable about even posting this TR here, it's only the volcanic stoke of wake butte, not sickter volcano stoke
Guess LindsORama needs to chime in since she started this dawggone thread

please E!! how the hell do you think it was formed? dragons back is a volcanic dike for christ's sake!

Just got back from 1.5 weeks in Utah, still nursing a sprained ankle (cruising groomers on a Utah ski holiday = torture), hubby is headed up to Broken Top tomorrow with some friends, anyone have BC beta for me?

PS Hoodoo today was a frozen shit show!!! Hoping for some corn. We'll see...

Originally Posted by linds-o-rama

PS Hoodoo today was a frozen shit show!!! Hoping for some corn. We'll see...

It is Hoodoo. No corn for you,cold next week.