Brundage Catski 1/13/08

[schubwa]

There's been no lack of snow and stormy weather here in Bend and the riding has been phenomenal. But we were looking for any excuse to blow out of Dodge for a change of scene. Then I got an e-mail from Brundage, as I'd ridden there last year, announcing the opening of their cat service last weekend.
We packed up the RV and headed out to Idaho (a six and a half hour drive) with no guarantee of catskiing. You need six people to make it a go and there was just me, Debbie, son Spencer and friend Ian.
We rode at Tamarack on Saturday and had a surprisingly fun powder day there. Last year was fun, but I didn't really get hooked. This time I had more knowledge so we were at the right place at the right time. It has less people pressure than Brundage so the soft lasts a long time.
We got a call on Saturday afternoon and the trip was a go for Sunday! It was still snowing as we turned in, with clear sunny skies and no wind in the forecast for the next day. It was to be the first cat out for the year so we were in for a real treat.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Surely you've cat skied Mt. Bailey, just down the road from you? Any comparison?

 

[Sharon]

sweet!!!

 

[schubwa]

Surely you've cat skied Mt. Bailey, just down the road from you? Any comparison?

I've been to Bailey a number of times and really like it. It snows a lot there as it's near Crater Lake and they get tons in that part of the Cascades. They get good snow quality as well and the main terrain is awesome. It is kind of tough for snowboarders as it has a long flattish runout. The weather is sketchy, similar to Bachelor, as Bailey sticks up into the jet stream and suffers the consequences!
Brundage is better for boarders as you drop right down to the roads and the cat picks you up. Most of the readers know I ski and snowboard and I would always ride at Brundage, but would think hard about using skis at Bailey.
Brundage gets much better snow and it can't be anyways near as windy as it is in the Cascades. Their total snowpack is about half of what blankets the Cascades at this time. When the McCall locals are flyfishing and wakeboarding the Bend locals are hiking (or riding the lifts at Timberline) and skiing the volcanoes. Such are the tradeoffs in life.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Mt. Bailey is quite explicit about warning snowboarders of the setup. There were also 3 runs where we were rope-towed by a snowmobile to the cat pickup.