Back-country skiing Guides and Trips
Trips
I got up around 6:30am and switched the heater on which woke Chris up outside. We both started getting or gear ready and making some breakfast. I made Emily oatmal and had a couple bowls of Campell’s chicken soup myself. As usual it took Emily and little while to rise from the car. After a relaxed effort of gearing up we hit the trail at about 10 of 8am skinning down the...
On Sunday Emily and I climbed Mt. Thielsen near Crater Lake. We drove up on Saturday night with the Prius and camped overnight in the Thielsen trailhead off 138 under nearly a full moon and a sky filled with stars. Once again sleeping in the Prius was a dream and waking up to the heater for changing into our gear was the best. As usual it took Emily a little bit to...
We had planned to ski Paulina Peak but the road was closed so instead we headed up Tumalo for Emily to test out her new backcountry ski setup for the first time.
Saturday Emily and I climbed Pelican Butte in Southern Oregon. It is a non-active Shield Volcano with nearly symmetrical shape besides the broad glacier cirque which makes up the popular Northeast Bowls. It is on my list of Cascade Volcanoes that I want to ski and with access year-round from the West Side road around the northwest side of Klamath Lake March seemed like an ok time to give it a...
The original plan had been for Chris and I to get up to Timberline super early and take the Magic Mile lift to the base of the Palmer and head up from there for a hopeful ski descent from the summit. Things actually started to go wrong (at least for me) when I decided to go out for drinks for Layne and Miwa’s birthday last night at the Crow Bar and...
This weekend I really wanted to go on a trip that would push my endurance to the limit after having just turned 30 and questioning how my body is holding up still. Hartz suggested that we ski the Hayden Glacier on Middle Sister and since he hadn’t been to the summit before I suggested we go to the top as well. This seemed like a great trip to me because we were...
My friend Aaron Hartz has been through a pretty rough couple months getting the shaft from the school of Oceanography at OSU and also splitting up with his fiance, so Chris Holm and I decided it needed to be a guys weekend with Hartz doing something exciting in the outdoors... with skis of course. We headed out early on Saturday morning towards Crater Lake with all of our backcountry ski...
This weekend Emily and I drove south to Mt. McLoughlin. We left Saturday evening and camped out overnight at the trailhead. It rained pretty hard overnight and we were glad to be in the tent. Thankfully when we woke up the skies had cleared a bit and I could tell the clouds would burn off under the sun. We started up the trail which was at first dry ground and then...
This weekend Emily and I headed to Mt. Bailey with my friend Ben Nielsen, Lauren Parker Ben’s friend Brian. Emily and I drove down to Diamond Lake on Friday night after I got out of work hoping that we would have reception to get in touch with the guys. We got to the lake at midnight but everything looked quiet so I decided I’d get up early and call in the morning....
After a week of planning, purchasing permits and watching the weather Quin, Ashley, Ben, Mike and I decided to attempt a ski descent of Mt. St. Helens via the Worm Flows route. Unfortunatley for us the road to the trailhead hadn't been plowed out this year because of lack of funds after such a harsh winter and high snowfall. This meant that we would have an additional 3 miles each way of...
Today was going to be Emily’s first big backcountry ski trip with me. Unlike the3-4 mile roundtrip Tumalo, this would be about 15 miles round trip and about 1700 feet of elevation gain over very flat ground... and with no reward as the summit is wooded. Although it is on my list of Cascade Volcanoes to climb it also served another purpose as it would be the base that Emily references all...
Mary's Peak Northeast Ridge
Peak (historical), Oregon, United States
Back-country skiing | 9.5 miles
Back-country skiing | 9.5 miles
I’ve only been able to very briefly try out my new backcountry ski setup so I figured today I would go check out the North Ridge of Mary’s Peak. I was able to drive all the way up to the highest trailhead and start hiking from there in my gore-tex running shoes with my Garmont boots in my bag. I ended up climbing a while with a nice couple from town. The...
This past weekend was one of the best mountaineering experiences of my life. About a month ago I got a new AT ski of Garmont Boots, Black Diamond Skis and Dynafit bindings. For those that don’t know this setup is about 15lbs lighter than my downhill setup. The backcountry setup allows me to put climbing skins on the bottom of my skis (like carpet that won’t let me slide backwards when climbing)....
About 10 minutes into our climb from Bunny Flats Chris broke down in pain because of the downhill boots he was still wearing. The metal hinges of the boots were digging through the liners and beginning to really bruise his ankle bone. We had gone through all the moleskin and duct tape but thankfully Chris remembered he had some medical tape with him. After wrapping his feet in several layers of tape...
This weekend Hartz and decided to tackle Diamond Peak after hearing great things from Quin about his trip a few weeks before. I forwarded a link to Hartz of Quin's photos but refused to look at them myself as I wanted to be surprised on the mountain. I switched shifts with a friend at Ruby's so I could get out early on Saturday night allowing us to start driving to Diamond around...
Hartz, Jon Stevens, Chris Holm and I climbed up Cone Peak in Santiam Pass on Saturday. We had no idea of how much snow was left on the mountains in the pass but we hoped there was enough to get some turns on. Chris Holm had already packed up his gear thinking the season was over.. and it sure looked like it on our way up the Southwest Ridge of Cone Peak....
Last night I drove up route 20 about 20 miles past Sweet Home to meet up with the COAS crew at their camping weekend. I arrived to find them all huddled around a big campfire listening to someone play guitar. The spot Hodak picked was the Longbow Organizational Camp. It had a nice picnic area, a well with a water pump, outhouses and lean-to’s by the river. I showed up at about...
This weekend I took off of work to head up to Mt. Baker with Tiffany and Chris. Mt. Baker is the northern most Cascade Volcano in the lower 48 and is about 10 miles from the boarder of British Columbia so we had a solid 9 hour drive to get there. At 10,781 feet the mountain is the 2nd most glaciated peak in the lower 48 (behind Rainier). Because of the amount...
