TR Replies

Great pics Ron and Jeanette.  By the way thanx for not making Evan and I wear blind folds. ;D  The fog worked in your favor until our last run when things started to clear up a bit.  The bushwhack out thru the pines made the ride home freshier.  Overall a great trip with lots of surprises. 8)  Except for those loud people that we would occassionally hear from time to time.  That last line definitely completed the day.  My bunions were a little tender from kicking steps in with soft boots.  So Je...

It certainly was a great trip.
The snow on all aspects was nicely consolidated.  Surface was softened to "hero corn" consistency.  Coverage was light for May but there's still some great tours left into the basin.
Here's a shot of "snowslut" cleaning up the last line that we skied.
5/25 @ 0957... Picture change time  :) Jerry wrote the report so why shouldn't he get some "thread pic" time?  8)

Jeffey, let me know if you want company on a day trip on Hood. I'll do likewise

Will do. For the immediate future though I think I'm out of hall passes :-(

Could you define "contaminated"? <snip> (Or, heaven forbid: Henry's bottles, prophylactics, used needles etc.

On the lwr mtn there was a large volume of treebark and dirt in the snow, and the snow was just bizarrely slo...

... and it's gratifying to see that my mission, starting with "Backcountry skiing" is accomplished. Regards, Rainer Burgdorfer

It certainly should be, Rainer.  Most of us guard our dog eared copies of your original guidebook like a pit bull with a fresh bone.  I even still have the signed photocopy you made for me years ago after I called you and begged you for a copy long after the first book was out of print.
Thanks for...

There's still a lot of great skiing on Mt Hood, it's just not at the lower elevations...At this point probably the best way to ski the WyEast face is from Timberline and crossing the White River drainage. YMMV.

PS to PCX-XCD and any OR lurkers: Next year I think we should have an OR Hood Meadows TAY Ski fest akin to the WA'ers Crystal Ski fest at the base of upper/mid Heather Canyon on the first weekend after the resort closes :-).

C...

It's a kick to go on a trip where so many are kicking out photos of the trip.  It really adds to the fun... thanks to all you shutterbugs.  
That said, really, Kam's the man.
Great work, Kamster.  You really have a knack for taking a fantastic, fun day and turning it into a permanent, everlasting, warm fuzzy memory.
Thanks, mate.

Nice pics everyone and great vidy Kam. It was a pleasure to make turns with you all. Some pics I took are here.
http://community.webshots.com/album/144252847GCuvvo

Kam: Great work on the photos and movie! Thanks man. 8)

Even though the Sunday weather was somewhat a visual challenge, we were able to turn our bushel of lemons into some pretty good lemonade  ;D thanks to good navigating, a few "sucker" holes and lots of talented skiers.  ;D  

Very nice trip indeed. And I've got the best picture of RJ ;D

(Another trip report with a few pics can be found on the TGR forum).

drC

Gaper, Great tour plan.  Superbowl is certainly a screamer in good corn.  We like to tour up to the WyEast Face the last day of resort skiing and cruise down after the lifts close and the area is deserted.  I would definitely drive down from Seattle if you plan to drag a pony up to Middle Heather. :)  Zap

Here is a photo of that area that I took on Saturday.
We went up there after reading John Morrow's excellent report.  Taken from south of Long's Pass, I believe Fortune Mountain is on the left and South Ingall's Peak on the right.



Please feel free to let me know if you do not wish me to post photos in your thread.

Here is a photo from May 15.  Just South and East of Long's Pass.



This is my first try at posting a picture here.  I was hoping to have a picture of Esmerelda but apparently I turned in the wrong roll?  

Nice report, Monika.

Here's a shot of Kelvin showing us how it's done:

Several others took pics on the trip and may very well have taken shots that are more deserving of holding the coveted "thread picture" position.  

If that's the case, post a better one here and...

I didn't check the elevation, but we couldn't have been more than 100 vertical feet below Windy Pass - we could have hit it from the car with a well aimed slingshot.

One more note - the lower clearcut was mostly just skiing and not fun for turns (other than a few of the little drops off the various knolls along the way) due a minor maze of small trees and fallen logs, but it did go fast anyhow. The basin is where the fun turning is at this point.

Thanks also to Nick and Brent for the route, and John for letting us know about it.

I added a photo to Andy's TR (above).

^{How 'bout that Eastern Wa. Snow!  Even in spring conditions you can tell the difference!}

I second that - I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was, especially considering the sparseness of the approach.  The cloudcover definitely helped (though I assume the later rain did not).

Larry - to add to Chris' comments regarding what he called a "tight spot", in following the drainage below the couloir, we came upon a 5-6' bottleneck area where both bank...

Nice one, Jim.
Do you recall what elevation you parked at?

Larry-
We skied off the top of the west-most summit, which is "High Esmeralda".  Kam will blame his type-o on me anyways  :D  
Indeed a great ski run, especially on the upper slopes.  The gully skiing lower down was actually better than I had expected, withe some fun dwarf-tree skiing (the more shaded east side of the couloir is still holding adequate coverage), but has 1 somewhat sketchy "tight spot" where the snow was a bit thin where we had to cross the stream; other...

Thanks to a preview of this report (from Sir Charles), Rob and I headed over Saturday.  It's a nice short trip if you don't have time for a full day.  2hrs drive for us to the parking spot, an hour up to skinnable snow, two more to the summit at 1PM, half an hour there watching gray clouds and spitting snow, skipped yoyoing in an effort to get down before the precip arrived, back to the car at 330PM.  Conditions were the same as the Friday group found, excellent.   Next weekend this route w...

Thanks guys for the info. Very helpful-If the Park could manage to get Cayuse open earlier the best finish to the before mentioned tour would be - tour from Seymour to the false summit on Naches. From there ski the South slope all the way down to the hairpin where Dewey Creek and 410 meet (2200 vert in .85 miles ;)) avoiding the rock cliffs skiers right. Old timers I know call that run Big Bertha. That exposure has to be hit as soon as the pass opens, but rarely does it open soon enough to ski....

Joe, we were lucky to have skied after probably the coldest night of last week.  So our northfacing slopes were quite good, frozen with less than a 2 inch thaw until mid afternoon.  It seems to just need a cold enough night.  
We descended down the NW slope of 6567, where I think most people ski.  There is not solid snow to the top of 6567 on the SW slope above Dewey Lake.  Right now an over the snow entrance to the SW slope is quite a long way down the west ridge. &n...

Still closed as of 5/11 as per the FS road pg:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/conditions/road_conditions_report.shtml

It'd be worth checking to see if the gate's open and cruising up the road to see how far up the snow is.  Last year about this time the sledders were playing up there... not sure whether they're supposed to be in there or not.

We only had to carry a few hundred yards before we were able to put on skis under the Gold Hills chair.  We headed past the cabins, into pickhandle basin, up the waterfall, to Pickhandle gap, then to the point.

Creek crossings were not a problem.  Some logs have been well placed to make the major creek crossing easier.  I found it a little difficult staying on the trail.  We had to back track a short distance to find the proper route and this crossing.