Kapke Butte region, Mt. Bachelor, OR

Visiting m long-time TAY partner Lara in Bend, we decided to do a little bit of low-level exploring. We first toured up Kapke Butte just east of the Bachelor ski area. It's quite small, about 400' of vertical, and certainly could have used another foot of snow to make the descent more 'whoop' worthy. But, surprisingly, it seems remote, in the same way that Kendall Knob does when compared to Snoqualmie Summit region.  We found variable snow, from wind-affected crust to nice soft powdery snow. From that summit, we spied our next objective, an unnamed butte on the north side of the Mt. Bachelor Highway. So we crossed the road and toured up the 650' to the top. On the ascent, we noted lots of wind-scour mixed with softer but wind-buffed snow. Got to the top after about an hour, and the wind kicked up to join the sun peeking out. However, when we dove off the ENE face, we encountered about 12-15 inches of amazing pow! Not blower, mind you, but nice and soft, to aid on dodging the fairly tight trees. Found a nicely placed skin track and did it once more. We then caught the XC track part way out to Swampy Creek Sno-Park, and then veered WSW through the trees, out to the highway, and back to the car. Admittedly, it was a lot of mileage and time spent for 1500' of nice vert, but checking out new terrain worthy of short day tours, that doesn't see many folks, is always fun! An excellent way to ring out the old year. Looking forward to potential sea-level xc skiing on my return on New Year's Eve! Happy New Year, y'all...