November 4, 2011, Mt. Bachelor Oregon
11/4/11
OR elsewhere
2097
1
Climbed up solo with my rock skis on my back. Followed the hikers trail which had less than an inch of snow. The snow was very dry, cold and blower. The time it took to reach the summit was 1hr 50 minutes. The Sunrise side of the mountain overlooking the high desert was clear and sunny, while the western half was socked in with clouds, fog and wind. The Summit was extremely cold, exhibiting 20-30 mph winds, and slightly snowing! My plan was to descend the bowl on a patch of snow left over from last winters epic storms. The temperature felt like 15 degrees and the entrance to the bowl ended up being extremely icy. There was a rollover into zero visibility and I didn't exactly know how much more snow had melted since I had skied in September. I decided to change my route to some patches of snow on Healy Heights. This involved skiing down icy sun cupped slopes with dry snow in-between and cinder ridges surrounding. Terrible skiing, but a great workout.
Way to grind it out. My daughter and I skied Bachelor lift-served on the Forth of July. Amazing amount of snow last year - and no Spring / Summer...
Cheers.
Cheers.
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