Mt. Tumalo

After a week and a half of snow, the Oregon Cascades are starting to look like their usual snowy selves. Mt. Bachelor is posting 50 inches of new snow in the past seven days, putting the monthly total for the central Cascades at close to 100 inches. Densities have range from blower to cement, which has lead to "interesting" ski conditions, and an atypical Oregon snowpack. There seems to be significant variation in snow temperatures within the snowpack, and densities are diverse as well. This is adding up to a variable and potentially unstable snowpack. There was even a skier carried in a slide on the NE bowl of Mt. Tumalo last weekend...a stalwart of mellow backcountry ski destinations. 

Well, the lady friend was in town from Denver, and we were wanting to get out and ski something in the backcountry, so despite the variable snowpack, we decided to head up Mt. Tumalo. The plan was to stay on the low-angle west slope, where there is always low risk of avalanches. It rained in the mountains yesterday. Overnight, however, temps dropped, along with four inches of low density snow. One of the beautiful things about the backcountry is it only takes a few inches to totally refresh the snow surfaces. 

 It took us a while to get going in the morning, but we eventually made it up to Dutchman Flat around 10:00 am and were on the snow by 10:30. the sno-park was a mess, as it had not been plowed since the previous storm. The weather was cool and breezy with partly sunny skies. We took our time skinning up. We reached the summit around an hour later. On the summit the winds were screaming and it was cold. We looked down into the NE bowl to find a significant cornice had formed, with substantial wind loading beneath it. To me it looked pretty sketchy, but there were a few other skiers up there lapping the bowl. By their reports they were feeling nothing but stability. I was concerned that the wind load on top of the cement block on top of the low density snow from last week was just waiting for the right trigger...we followed our plan and headed back toward the west side.

Despite the low angle, the skiing was good. The new snow layer gave a great sliding surface as we noodled our way back to the car. We skied down SW aspect, close to the snowmobile boundary, where the snow was softer and less wind-affected. This was Suzanne's first trip in the backcountry, which she handled like a pro. It's good to see white in the Cascades, but I'm looking forward to the snowpack settling down a little.

In the meantime, Vertfest is next week...it's never too late to start training, right?