January 7-8, 2011, - Tombstone Pass

Left work early on Friday afternoon to get in the first overnighter of the season.  We arrived at the snopark around 2:00 pm, shouldered the heavy packs, and started skinning up the hill.  After about 30 minutes, the cloudy skies started spitting snow, and it was coming down pretty good by the time we found a place to camp on the ridge between Cone and South Peaks.  After getting the tent setup and eating a dinner of freeze dried macaroni, I snapped a few photos of the tent....



After Todd had a whiskey and I downed a beer, it was time to call it a night.  It snowed until about 2:00 am, then turned off cold.  I awoke to a view of the Three Sisters from the tent, but they were soon obscured by the clouds.  After breakfast, we started skinning towards South Peak.  The clouds were rolling in and out making for some nice views.  Here's a shot of Todd skinning......



Before long, we were standing on the summit of South Peak with excellent views all around......here's a shot of Iron Mtn and Cone Peak.....



We pondered options for a bit before deciding to drop in and not tour further.  Here's a shot from the top



The turns on the way down were pretty good, with about 3 inches of fresh over a sun crust.  After about 800 feet or so, we got cliffed out and retreated back up to the ridge, where we dropped in for another run.  Here's Todd making some tele-turns.....

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The second run was as good as the first, and we were able to ride to a nice flat spot to eat some lunch.  Here's a shot of me making some turns....

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After lunch, we skinned back to the top of the ridge and then back to camp.  I needed some more fuel, so after a quick freeze dried meal of scrambled eggs, we headed up to the summit of Cone Peak for some more fun.  It started snowing pretty hard halfway up.  At the top, it was really tempting to drop into the north side, but we elected not to due to the late hour in the day and the fact that we still needed to pack up camp.  The turns down the east face were excellent, and we rode within a few feet of our camp.  After camp was packed, we rode 1000 feet or so back down to the highway with heavy packs.  The snow lower down was less than epic, but still somewhat decent.  After a quick hike up the highway, I bode farewell to Todd who headed to Hoodoo for Tele-fest, before heading out for home.  I was able to stop on the way home before dark and snap a few photos of the South Santiam River, which is quite beautiful this time of year.  Overall, it was a good trip and an excellent start to 2011.