June 10, 2012, Mt Hood Meadows Permit Area

First TR! 4th trip to the "BC". Got a late start on Sunday Morning from Portland. Overnight Forecast had called for a low of 28, but telemetry showed an overnight low of 41. Freeze-thaw corn harvest dreams: Dashed. Oh well. Meadows website had an announcement of a special Nordic track that was prepped in the base area. That meant that the parking lot would be open to visitors, and I could save myself a few hundred yards of pavement slog. Parked next to 2 other vehicles at the south end of the lot. Shortly thereafter another car with 3 BC skiers arrived. We chatted for a moment and they took off. I lingered and adjusted gear.

Headed up from the garages over the nordic track at about 10:15. Stopped at the top of buttercup lift to adjust moleskin. Stopped again halfway up south canyon to adjust moleskin and apply duct tape. Stopped again at Cascade to apply fresh moleskin and duct tape. (See a trend here?) Massive blisters made the goings slow, but a beautiful blue sky and relative solitude made things easy. About halfway up Cascade (on the ridge above gingivitis) I Stopped to have a bite to eat and was quite startled when I turned around and saw another solo skier about 15 feet behind me. We exchanged pleasantries and he continued on at a steady pace that made me jealous of his (I'm sure) comfortable boots. I made some excuse about being out of shape :) 

Things were quite uneventful until I reached a lee slope about 100 yards skier's-right and 50 yards below the top terminal of cascade. Thats where the whoomphing started. 3 steps forward and I felt the snow for 10 feet around me shift by a few inches, and the ground let out a warning that this was sketchball. I was so set on reaching my goal of the top terminal that I had let my guard down just shy of my objective. I noticed that the snow had transitioned from occasional "clean" patches to continuous pure white, smooth, & wind-deposited. I bee-lined it for old, dirty-looking snow, which offered much more solid footing. Avoiding the freshly-deposited stuff, I worked my way past the sketchy spot and above the lift to the top of the snowfield above cascade express. I stopped and took pics for a few minutes, and headed down through the tracks of a group of 8 that had skied past me while I was navigating "the sketch zone". Avoiding all lee slopes that were 30 degrees or more, I had a great ski back to within 15 feet of my car.

Synopsis: Sun effects are real and not to be F'd with. Snow rapidly gets sticky in 50 degree full-sun. Blister-o-meter: 7. Work-o-meter: 8. Fun-o-meter (I think Joy-o-meter is Trademarked, so I measured "fun" today instead): 8. There is still a ton of snow up there, I can't wait to get back up!