December 15, 2007, - Oregon Cascades

Not feeling all that motivated to get out after a week without precipitation, Todd and I met up at 6:30 and headed out to our local spot  in the Oregon Cascades.  When we parked our vehicle in the lot we were the only car there and were greeted to 3 inches of fresh on top of a very "patchy" base.  As we headed up the south facing slope, the snow got a little deeper, though not more than about 10 inches.  The main part of our normal run was basically wind blown off and left with about 2 inches of ice covering bare dirt.  At this point, it looked as if we were just going to enjoy a good winter hike.  We speculated that the northside of the mountain may have skiable snow, thinking that maybe it didn't all melt off with the last week's rain, but hopes were not high.

Continuing up, the wind became harsher and it started snowing and got foggy.  We reached the top about 2 hours after we left the truck.  Once we got a view of the north face from the top, conditions looked much better.  The difference between the north and south faces were like night and day - somewhat typical of the Central Oregon Cascades.  We did some quick avy checks and found that there was about 6 inches of fresh on an old base layer about two feet deep.  Everything seemed stable so it was time to strap in and ride!  There was a little wind loading, but not enough to worry about. 

The entrance off the north face (which we have ogled in the past but not skied) is about 45 degrees and then mellows out to ~ 25 - 30 degrees for the next 800 feet or so.  After some initial caution, we opened it up to some of the best backcountry powder we've skied (both a combination of the snow and the new run).  Down lower, the fresh snow was about a foot deep.  We skinned/shoed back up for another lap before heading up and out and back to the truck.  We did find a nice little shot lower down on the run out.