schubwa
New member
We had this weird (but not totally uncommon) little storm on Thursday that brought two feet of wind and two inches of snow. There was also the dreaded freezing mist that coats the goggles and snow surface.
I went skate skiing on Friday, and after the groomers the surface was excellent. I felt there was a chance the summit, due to open Saturday, had promise even after the medley of conditions from the day before.
Saturday I'm on my deck and catch third chair on a glorious and windless day on the Summit chair. Hey, it's never calm on top and the snow had been pounded to a perfect chalky windboard. Some areas had a light coating of cream cheese and it was amazingly well covered. Needless to say I powered seven runs down the Cow's Face (NE-E facing) bowls.
My Nordic race club, XC Oregon, had a 1000K ski-for-awareness challenge so after snowboarding I skate skied 14K for the cause.
Sunday I met up with my ski buddy (Copper) Rob. I brought up my AT setup to put some more packing into my still snug Garmont Megarides.
Rob and I had planned to AT nearby Tumalo Bowl but passed as we heard the snow was bogus from Thursday's disappointment.
We proceeded to lap the sunny side again and took some photos. I have a new compact Sony that is small but I'm still not getting as good of results as from my old Cannon A75.
We worked the sun-softened boundary line that was hinting of March surface conditions. Another great above timberline day!
At noon, I was back on my skate skis. I have a whole other group of friends over there (it's across the parking lot from the Alpine area). They happen to be, no coincidence here, the local elite athletes in their respective age groups. If you want to hang (i.e: get on the podium) in any endurance competition in the hyper-competitive Bend scene, you better learn how to skate ski! It's also a great alternative to scratchy downhill conditions if the snowstorms go away for a while or crowded weekends.
Admin, not to be outdone, I have 13 out of the last 17 days on snow. I count Nordic and BC days. If I do more than one sport a day I still count it as one.
I went skate skiing on Friday, and after the groomers the surface was excellent. I felt there was a chance the summit, due to open Saturday, had promise even after the medley of conditions from the day before.
Saturday I'm on my deck and catch third chair on a glorious and windless day on the Summit chair. Hey, it's never calm on top and the snow had been pounded to a perfect chalky windboard. Some areas had a light coating of cream cheese and it was amazingly well covered. Needless to say I powered seven runs down the Cow's Face (NE-E facing) bowls.
My Nordic race club, XC Oregon, had a 1000K ski-for-awareness challenge so after snowboarding I skate skied 14K for the cause.
Sunday I met up with my ski buddy (Copper) Rob. I brought up my AT setup to put some more packing into my still snug Garmont Megarides.
Rob and I had planned to AT nearby Tumalo Bowl but passed as we heard the snow was bogus from Thursday's disappointment.
We proceeded to lap the sunny side again and took some photos. I have a new compact Sony that is small but I'm still not getting as good of results as from my old Cannon A75.
We worked the sun-softened boundary line that was hinting of March surface conditions. Another great above timberline day!
At noon, I was back on my skate skis. I have a whole other group of friends over there (it's across the parking lot from the Alpine area). They happen to be, no coincidence here, the local elite athletes in their respective age groups. If you want to hang (i.e: get on the podium) in any endurance competition in the hyper-competitive Bend scene, you better learn how to skate ski! It's also a great alternative to scratchy downhill conditions if the snowstorms go away for a while or crowded weekends.
Admin, not to be outdone, I have 13 out of the last 17 days on snow. I count Nordic and BC days. If I do more than one sport a day I still count it as one.
