olwilli

Trip: Oregon Cascades - Paulina Peak Date: 5/11/2008 Trip Report: Due to the weather our plan for an epic trip was changed to head to paulina peak, a peak i'd never skied before. the road was closed but plowed so we had mountain bikes, and headed in to where we dropped bikes, and skinned maybe 10 minutes to the base of the chutes and then cramponed up the chutes, and made two laps in the chutes and one lap in the bowl. due to lack of a deep freeze, the bowl was sloppy conditions and the chutes were very very firm which was surprising that they didn't get softer, but oh well, it was a great day and nice to get out and practice on the steeps for the spring trips! hope the pics work here, as not too familiar with posting them. /Users/chriswilliams/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2008/Roll 199/IMG_8352.JPG/Users/chriswilliams/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Modified/2008/Roll 199/IMG_8362.JPG/Users/chriswilliams/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2008/Roll 199/IMG_8413.JPG/Users/chriswilliams/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2008/Roll 199/IMG_8378.JPG Approach Notes: mountain bike

Trip: Oregon Cascades - South Sister Date: 5/8/2008 Trip Report: Great morning of skiiing today, and left from the nordic center early this morning, skated down and across todd lake, and then skinned around the ridge off broken top till reaching green lakes, and then headed up the mountain and joined the climbers trail and cramponed up about the last 1500-2000 feet! was pretty windy up top, and legs were tired today from a great day at brokentop yesterday enjoying the nice spring corn! summited in about 4 hours from leaving the car, kicked back did the traditional summit dance video:) and skied down into the crater out of the wind to get some good earth tea and pizza! the first bit was all rime ice skiing and then very very firm skiing for 1500 feet or so till the nice corn started till reaching green lakes around 6500 feet?? had i waited longer maybe it would have corned up once i got below the rime ice, but was still pretty cold up there. skinned back out to the nordic center and now nap time. what a beautiful day today though, finally getting the good freezes at night allowing for beautiful corn and fast travel, even coming out it wasn't as soft as it has been this past week. get out and enjoy the nice buttery corn in the oregon cascades! Cheers, Chris "aka the guy in the pink hat!" Gear Notes: kicker skins, regular skins, ice axe (not needed) Approach Notes: From nordic center, down century, across todd lake, and round the ridge of brokentop till summit of south sister!

no camping, but that would be a beautiful spot to camp! left bend 6:30ish i think??? and then stopped in sisters for late lunch when we were done, not too long of a day but again it's all downhill on the way out!

i'll answer for kevin, i think that it took us about an hour or so to skate in at a relaxed pace, steady as it was uphill, but with a long day ahead of us, it was very much in control/mellow. but for the most part was pretty firm, got softer in some spots up higher cheers, chris

yeah, the snow was great corn! kevin skied to the right in the photo and yes he went up the hourglass and then veered lookers right and put skis on just below summit ramp. he should post a trip report later, but he said the top 2/3 were glorious corn and the Hourglass choke was very very icy, even he was side stepping! the chute i skied on the right, had ice in the middle where a sluff had taken the fresh snow off and then perfect corn and some snow a bit too soft. actually had a small little sluff that went for a few feet when i was skiing and the snow was very heavy and pulled me downslope just for a moment. but yes we hit it perfect and from the looks of other reports things were great! i had skied brokentop wednesday (with that dry powder on a firm base) and kevin skied broken top the day before (saturday) in perfect corn conditions nice to have spring corn in february and more snow on the way, should be a great weekend!

Trip: Oregon Cascades - North Sister Date: 2/17/2008 Trip Report: My first trip report here, but on sunday my ski partner, kevin, and i headed into north sister with hopes of a great day! after a required stop at sisters bakery for the great maple bar we headed to pole creek trailhead. on the way out the door in the morning kevin said, oh, grab your skate skis and boots in case the roads not plowed all the way in..hmmmm. so we began to drive and it said 9 miles to pole creek TH and well we made it as far as 7 miles to go and close to 1900 feet of elevation gain left to the TH. so we parked and gave it a go. heading out in skate skis, with our AT Skis/boots strapped to the back made for heavy packs, but the firm snow allowed for fast travel and in no time we were at the trailhead. we left skate gear there, and skinned into the base of north sister. at the "lake" around 7600 feet we split ways. kevin has been eyeing the line on thayer glacier, route #2 (hourglass chute behind his head) in "oregon high" climbing book, a line that i'm not confident in skiing yet, so i chose the gully to the right of it. and i skied from about 9100 feet or so? kevin skied from very close to the summit and had a great ski (he'll post a report with pics later). but was very happy to see the mountain finally let him ski it after a handful of attempts. what a special day on a corn cycle in feb? can't beat that! fast travel conditions made us back to the car after leaving in less than 7 hours, and i somehow lost my ice axe while skiing through the trees (a light blue camp ice axe if anyone finds it!) hope the photos work here, but a great day to be out there and followed it up with a great meal at snocap in the nice town of sisters. (Hard time loading pics so we'll see how this works!) Cheers, Chris {img]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/515/medium/P2170059_2.jpg[/img] Gear Notes: Whippets/ice axes Approach Notes: skate skis/boots AT Skis