Timberline Lodge - OR - July 31, 2006

[Frankontour]

Today was our first real day at the mountain, with the closure yesterday due to sleet and freezing rain on the mountain...

Despite the freezing rain, the conditions were amazing today. A little bit hard early in the morning, but it changed to some very nice corn snow by the mid morning...

We got around 20 000 vertical feet, with 11 runs (8 on Palmer and 3 T2B)

On Palmer, all the terrain has been accessible to us, during the morning. All the time for the left lane, at 9h30 for the lane totally on right and from 11h to 1h30PM for all the center lanes, including the mogul field (hmmmm) In fact, there is only the gigantic snow parks on the lower palmer that have not been open to us...

However, on the West Palmer, the snowpark and the lower West Palmer were open, so there was 3 options for us and the snowpark really rocks !

At the end of snowpark, it was possible to ski the trail below, but to avoid going too far from the chairlift (Magic Mile) we came back to another skiable line, just left of the chair (skiers looking up), then we just had to walk 2-3 minutes to reach the East Mile, which is still almost reaching the hotel, despite the very end, where I took a pic yesterday, was not officially open anymore. The trail ends about 100' (in distance) above, but today, it was still possible to reach the same place as yesterday. I guess by the middle of the week, we will have to remove our skis where the "STOP" sign is placed actually. Even with that, we'll have over 2500' of vertical skiable with lifts...

Anyway, we're just falling in love with the place and I guess this mountain should see me back on it in the next years...

Here are a few pics that I took during the day

 

[Admin]

=D>

 

[Jonny D]

Nice Shots Frank-O :lol:

 

[Patrick]

Looks like fun...

I'm planning to be skiing there in just under one month from now.

 

[Lucky Luke]

Huummm!! Snow Imagine the same way that Homer Simpson is saying huumm! donuts! And it look's like there's plenty of icing on that mountain!

 

[Frankontour]

Yesterday night, the website jammed just when I was trying to add the titles to pics, so I will do it when I have a few minutes...

I will also try to shortly report this evening for our day of today !

It was nice, especially as I hiked 850' above Palmer to ski the snowfield just above the Palmer, just beside the White River Glacier. There was no crevasses or big threats, where I hiked & skied, it was just nice to ski on 1000 meters (3280') in 1 run ! wow ! It was the first time of my life that I was skiing that long without a stop !

more later !

If you want to see the pics in advance, our report in french is ready here :

http://forums.zoneski.com/index.php?showtopic=5912

 

[Patrick]

it was just nice to ski on 1000 meters (3280') in 1 run ! wow ! It was the first time of my life that I was skiing that long without a stop !

You don't need to buy a plane ticket to get that vertical in one run. Whiteface is just under 2 hours from Montreal. :wink:

Happy Spend Frank!!! :lol:

(from the translated version zoneski report posted in the other topic)

http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... uage_tools

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :wink:

 

[Frankontour]

Whiteface is 980 meters (or so) unless you hike to the slides...

I should go over there one day, though...

 

[Patrick]

Whiteface is 980 meters (or so) unless you hike to the slides...

Yes, but you hiked also...

From Whiteface's website:

3,430 feet ? The greatest vertical drop in the east
3,166 feet - Lift serviced vertical drop

I should go over there one day, though...

I've read that some people don't like the place, but all the people I ski with in the East love the place (more than Tremblant), including Lucky Luke.

And it's only 1:45 from Champlain Bridge.

 

[Tony Crocker]

So why hasn't Patrick talked Frank into the Alps, where he can do 6,000 or more vertical in one run?

I would also comment (as on joegm's Blackcomb trips) that if Frank likes western skiing in the summer this much, perhaps he should try it in winter or spring also .

Actually I am more favorably impressed by these reports than I thought I would be, and I'm sure I will go up there some summer myself. Snowfall at Mt. Hood this past season was only about 110% of normal, so it is very encouraging for the future to see this much recovery vs. last year.

I think Chris C.'s comments are probably right on. Summer skiing at Timberline is likely much better midweek than on the weekends. Excess skier traffic really chews up the summer snow, as I have observed occasionally at Mammoth.

 

[Patrick]

So why hasn't Patrick talked Frank into the Alps, where he can do 6,000 or more vertical in one run?

My point was a bit tongue in cheek, and that he didn't need to go so far to get 1,000 meters run (3,300 ft).

1,000 meters vert runs might be impressive in North America, however Tony is correct when he says that the Alps is the place to go for possibiities of looooong vertical runs. You can find several lift-serviced areas where you can ski over 2,000 meters in a one run. On a very good snow year, you can even make it to 2,900 meters from l'Aiguille du Midi to Chamonix.

I would also comment (as on joegm's Blackcomb trips) that if Frank likes western skiing in the summer this much, perhaps he should try it in winter or spring also

I understand the reasoning to extend the season longer or take a break from the heat (it's was 97f / 119F humidex yesterday in Ottawa). Personnally (I think I have already mentioned this) that my trip to Oregon later this month will probably be my last Western summer ski trip, next time I'll want to ski in the summer, i'll go south. Southern hemisphere, that is!!!

June is technically a spring month until the 21th.

 

[Tony Crocker]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to spend significant $ for the limited skiing available very early or late. I wouldn't have all of these June/July Mammoth trips if I had to spend airfare to do it. That's why I declined to keep my streak going last October if it meant flying to Denver for a weekend on a couple of manmade runs. I have taken advantage of business trips to tack on a weekend of early/late skiing, 3 times in the East and another 4 stopping in Denver or SLC on the way to somewhere else.

In the case of Frank he's not too long out of college and probably doesn't have a lot of vacation time. If I were him I would have used it for something like Patrick's trip in January/February rather than in July. Or if his seasonal work precludes that, try Mammoth, Bachelor, Whistler or AltaBird in April.

Patrick's case is different because his opportunity to get as good a 12 month season within North America might not recur for a long time. And his summer destinations have many other attractions besides skiing.

 

[salida]

Actually I am more favorably impressed by these reports than I thought I would be, and I'm sure I will go up there some summer myself. Snowfall at Mt. Hood this past season was only about 110% of normal, so it is very encouraging for the future to see this much recovery vs. last year.

Tony, I know you keep excellent states on snow data, and have been doing so for some time. I have also yet to look at the data for the region. But for glaciers, a cold summer is far more important than a cold and snowy winter for snow preservation. In the end a cold summer will always win out... Just looking at it from a climate view...

-Porter

 

[Tony Crocker]

Excellent point on the importance of cool summers. That's a big reason why most of North America's glaciers from Shasta to Alaska are within 100 air miles of the Pacific Ocean.

One theory for the cause of ice ages are changes in Earth's orbit/tilt that tend to make northern summers cooler. A lower tilt tends to make all winters warmer and summers cooler. A more elliptical orbit makes the northern summer/southern winter (apogee of Earth's orbit is in early July) cooler and the opposite seasons warmer. Making northern winters or southern summers (less land area available for glaciation) slightly warmer does not offset the greater sensitivity of potential northern hemisphere glacial areas to cooler summers.

Nonetheless the demise of much of Palmer's snowpack in 2005 has to be due to the extreme previous winter during which the mid-January Tropical Punch rain was followed by 2 months of rare drought for the region. I did expect the July heat wave to degrade Timberline's snow more that Frank's pictures show.