March12, 2006, Paradise

Decided to join longtime ski buddies Bruce and Dan for a long drive to Paradise, and was rewarded with a stellar day on the big mountain.  Anticipating a crowd at the Mazama Back Bowl, we decided to head over to the next ridge east, Stevens.  We followed the track down the road to the standard Mazama approach route, then proceeded up Mazama to the high point, then traversed around the flat spot to the NE saddle through dense sun softened snow.  We found the easterly slopes to be in excellent shape and made several runs in total isolation, before deciding to head back to the barn.  We found the westerly aspect to have a soft breakable crust of 2", which was skiable but the challenge was the flat light that made determining slope angle by visual means practically impossible.  We rejoined our uptrack and descended to the Mazama bowl where we ran into the Birthday Party breaking up and heading home too, but not before they had thoroughly shredded the place.
Good work and nice meeting fellow TAY'ers.