April 29-30, 2011, - Tombstone Pass, Or

With all the recent snowfall in Oregon, Todd and I decided do an overnight at Tombstone Pass to see if we could get a few last powder turns in before the corn season starts.  Friday morning, we were greeted to 8 inches of fresh snow in the unplowed parking lot and an unbelievable 8.5 feet of snow as a base (the area had received 18-24 inches in the last week).  Typically, there isn't enough snow to link turns to the highway this time of year, given the low elevation of the area and fighting the brush is pretty nasty.  That wasn't the case this year, however.  Shouldering the overnight packs, we made it to camp by 11am, and were off to make turns on the surrounding peaks.  Standing on top of Cone Peak, we were able to cut a few cornices and get the top layer of about 5 inches to run.  The turns were nice....



We skinned back to the top and proceeded to lap the east side of the peak several times as the snow went from nice powder to breakable crust by nightfall.  The picture below was taken from South Peak (to the east) the next day, and our tracks are visible on both the east and north faces.....

 

Skinning up for one more run after dinner, I snapped this shot overlooking Iron Mountain to the west and the Willamette Valley in the distance...



The next morning, we put in a different track to the east, ascending South Peak.  The below photo shows Todd skinning towards South Peak with some of the terrain in the background.....

 

The reward was an excellent run down, and the crust was supportable enough to make for some fun turns.  Feeling pretty spent after we made the long skin back to camp, we packed up and skied down to the highway on an excellent sun-warmed snow surface.  I imagine the turns will be pretty good for another few weeks, weather depending, but given the low elevation of the area, the snowpack might get pretty cooked.  Unfortunately, I didn't get many action shots (the weather always seemed to move in when we were making runs), but did take quite a few scenery photos.  Here's a parting pano shot....  

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