4/4/10 Mazama Ridge Easter

Deb, Janitha and I weren't sure what to expect after telemetry showing 40" of new snow with fairly high winds (first from the east, then flipping to the west for the last 24 hours), but I remembered that a similar but smaller storm in January had left surprisingly good conditions. Others who shall remain nameless managed to out-fumble me in getting gear ready at the top of the hill (a notable accomplishment), so that I ended up assigned to break trail DOWN the road from the Paradise parking lot to get to the west-facing slopes of Mazama---the hardest work of the day. Probably would have been easier (or at least faster) with skins on. After we got to the first wide-open slope south of 4th Crossing, it was pure bliss. We graciously allowed a younger group of 3 to break trail up the hill for us, and there was more than enough powder to go around for the 6 people who spent a few hours on it. The slightly wind-packed powder was a little dense but very dry, which made for great right-brain only skiing once we got into the rhythm. I made good use of the first 2 faceplants to figure out how to ski it; I think Janitha only needed one, but at his age he's a faster learner than me. One indicator of how good the snow was---I got so excited that I really can't remember how many runs we did; each one got better and I was still up for more at the end.

Stability was remarkably good. We climbed the slope rather than dropping from the top of Mazama so we could check it out, and saw no signs of instability. Even my ultimate test of the head-over-heels faceplant couldn't get anything to propagate.

All in all, a great day that was marred only by the gathering forces of Mordor in the form of Weapons of Snow Destruction paid for by our tax dollars---yes, the Park Service in its infinite bureaucratic wisdom has begun to plow the road (which they won't open for car traffic for another 3 months or so). As of yesterday afternoon they had cleared about 100 yards down from the parking lot. A friend who's a little more cynical and a lot more knowledgeable than me says that the purpose of this exercise in burning large amounts of diesel to destroy a seasonal gift of nature (rather than letting it melt the way God intended it to, so that backcountry and X-C skiers could use it into June) is to give the maintenance crew an excuse to spend their time in heated cabs so they can't be expected to work outdoors in the cold & wind. Being a government employee myself, I think that at least part of the reason is that they're worried their equipment and fuel budgets for next year might get cut if they don't use it up. In my agency they're telling us to use the state vehicles more so we can justify keeping all of them. It's still not clear how many demerits I'll get on my annual review if I don't burn enough gas.