Winter Fun!

[luvshaker]

What are some of your best (or worst) winter adventures you have had? Where are some of your favorite winter back-country destinations in Oregon?

[ScaredSilly]

In the mid 80ss I did the Crater Lake loop over two days. That was good fun and something everyone should do once when the weather is good.

 

In the early 90s a friend and I skied across the Wallowas. We started at Moss Spring which is above Cove, OR dropped down into the Minam River, up to Minan Lake, and from there to Wallowa Lake on the last day. That was hoot as I hiked the same route as a teenager.

 

I want to head into the Cornucopia area now especially as there are some huts in there.

[mattp]

I once took a bunch of friends into the Broken Top crater for a winter camping trip. It was cold as hell, and blew like hell, and we had a miserable trip.

 

The approach started out on snowmobile trails, but it was not long before we left the two stroke exhaust behind. We had an overall OK wilderness experience and I still think you could have a good outing there, with a relatively short approach from the road, to a wild setting with a summit climb potential.

 

We missed it on that particular outing and ended up in a hot tub in a Bend motel.

[shapp]

I like sking into the Fuji Shelter. We once started at the gold lake shelter and tried to ski to fuji shelter from the east, instead of coming up the road from the west. The trail was not broke and was not obvious. It got dark before we reached the shelter, we didn't have a tent as we were going to bivy in the fuji shelter. We rigged up a haphazard shelter with a couple small ground tarps and hopped in our old bivy bags and sleeping bags just as it started to rain hard all night!. Luckily it wasn't that cold. We got wet, got up the next morning as soon as light, shelter was about 1/2 mile away. Temps dropped and it became a blizzard. Built a fire in the barrel stove in the fuji shelter and got all dried out, carved wooden spoons and drank Crown all day. Got up next morning after skies had cleard to ski Mt. Fuji. Topo map we had was not very good, there was a lot of rolling steep hills to navigate and the snow conditions were sketchy, so we turned back, packed up and skied out the road to the west down to the highway, temps rose again, snow was gone about 2 miles from the highway. we draged our sleds on the gravel out to the highway, then tried to hitch hike in the rain back up to our car at Gold Lake snow park. I hid in the woods with all the gear as my buddy thumbed it. Finally an old pickup truck stopped. The guy turned off his engine for some reason, and couldn't get it started again for about 20 minutes. Quite a time had by all.

 

While working in the little minam in NE oregon in October, I hiked down from Moss springs and I was going to hike through up and out Dobbin Creek over the ridge into NF Catherine Creek in Late October for a bull trout spawning survey. My coworker brad dropped me off then was going to drive the 40 mile trip around to pick me up at the other end. It was about a 13 mile hike or so. About 2 miles in, it started to snow, about 3 miles in it was snowing hard, about 6 miles in it was a blizzard. I did have gear and was fully prepared to bivy in the worst case scenario, I abandoned the survey and started humping out Dobbin Cr. to meet brad. The trail at the upper end of Dobbin Cr. gets real hard to find when there isn't snow (scattered patchs of trees and grass meadows with lots of elk trails around. Once I got up there the top of Dobbin a couple miles from the trail head, there was about a foot of snow on the ground and right as I realized I couldn't find the trail, brad comes plowing down the hill after me. We meet up and head back out, a little ways up his track it was snowing so hard his tracks were gone. Fun times.

 

I really like sking Angel Basin area in the Elk Horns too and Strawberry mountain,

 

And the ridge above black lake in the Elkhorns

 

We also used to skin up the hill at spout springs when it was closed for a few years and ski the back side terrain.

Edited November 26, 2011 by shapp

[111]

love skiing in to Maiden Peak shelter. ti is a long day in and out, but well worth it. Most people I know have had a mini epic getting there their first time (including myself) so you might want to bring someone along who has been there before if you go.

[corvallisclimb]

Ian is spot on with Maiden Peak shelter... pretty cool, they helicoptered that huge stove in there and it's got solar lighting. Pretty slick place to ski into and you can make some pretty good turns in the area.

 

and then Shapp is right, Anthony Lakes is the coolest place ever IMO... splurge for a day of cat skiing, that shit is so fun and lazy =) I will definitely be making at least 3 trips out there this year! Back country, lift access, what ever Anthony Lakes is THE SHIT!

 

My personal local favorite is skiing around Potato Hill neat Santiam pass, great super easy access back country 1000' runs 15min from the car. Also Tombstone Pass/Echo Basin area is good for some turns as well.

 

 

Anthony Lakes stokeage!!!

 

Link to: Anthony Lakes cat ski pics

[luvshaker]

Stats from last winters Crater Lake loop.

Average Temp-34 degrees

Rainfall-over 2.5 inches in the final 36 hours

Snow pack melt- 2 feet

First day was nice, then the wind blew in a wallop of a storm. We were really wishing we went around clockwise when the SE wind was hitting us the last day.

 

Winter favorites

-Anything on Diamond Peak

-Anywhere on Hood

-Rafting Lake creek at 11+'

-x-country skiing looking for ice climbs

-backcountry skiing at Tombstone pass

[shapp]

-Rafting Lake creek at 11+'

 

Do you mean lake creek, a trib to the West Fork Hood? If so, I can imigine kayaking it but not rafting? Where you put in for a raft decent?

[geoff]

Probably this Lake Creek.

 

[luvshaker]

That's the one. Except I did all those same tricks in my cat boat:-) Tributary to the Siuslaw.

[shapp]

keep me in mind, it is hard to find partners that are both good trad climbers and can row/paddle 4+ and have their own boats, and I am moving back to OR at the end of this year.

Edited November 29, 2011 by shapp