February 3, 2002, Mazama Ridge Super Bowl

It was another great day in the PNW. Longmire gate opened at 10:00 a.m. today, after the snow removal cleared the road from the additional 6 to 8 inches of fresh that had fallen on Paradise. Arrived at Paradise to 26 degrees, light wind and snowing, forecast was for clearing late morning/early afternoon. Ron and I decided to ski down the lower Paradise road to the Paradise Valley drainage where we would skin up to the Mazama ridge and bowl. We were able to take advantage of a great snowshoe track from a group of snowshoers, on their way out, who had spent the previous night on the ridge. It was quite amazing, since it had snowed so much the night before, the only tracks on this side of the mountain were the ones laid down from this group of snowshoers. There would be no trail breaking for us as this track took us to within 100 yards of our desired destination. With the recent 3 feet of snow from the previous week and the additional 6 - 8 inches of fresh snow overnight we skied the bowl on 30 degree slopes, staying away from the steeper aspects. There had been only one natural release on the northeast side of the bowl from a broken cornice chunk that released the top 3 inches with no significant runoff. Our first run was fantastic on the 6 inches of new light snow, cleared skies, stable conditions, and no other tracks. We ended up yo-yoing this bowl 5 additional times. On our last climb back up, the snow started to fall again and swept away all our tracks. Temps remained a constant 26 degrees all day, skied out the Paradise Valley drainage to the lower Paradise Valley Road and skinned back up to the upper Paradise lot. We did not encounter any other skiers all day, enjoying our own private "bowl" party.

FYI, a call to MRNP communications headquarters (Sat 2/02) did confirm that the previous week (Jan28-Feb1) all vehicles, INCLUDING 4 wheel drive were required to chain up."

Photos from this trip can be viewed here and also here.

Jeanette