late may oregon turns: timberline & palmer
yesterday michelle and i visited mt. høø∂ with our black lab jane. the clouds played with us upon our arrival; there was a high overcast plus a lower layer of clouds that danced in and out and from a distance seemed to have the potential for whiteout. we decided to bag a tour and ride the palmer instead. oh mon dieu quelle horreur! we purchased lift tickets and brought our gear with us in case the weather cooperated and the spirit moved us to skin to illumination rock. the skiing was better than expected given the thin northwest snowpack this year. the snow was windpacked dust on crust: in places slightly grabby and others buttery smooth.
we found the best snow skiers far left of the palmer snowfield. one run we skied too low and too far out-of-bounds. the snow ran out, we picked our way across snow patches and ultimately shouldered our skis to be able to ski to our car.
skiing back to the car we spied a human pack train to our left:
this pickup was parked near our car:
i must admit that there’s a soft spot in my heart for oregon dead heads playing on høø∂ no matter how long it’s been since they’ve showered.
the snow season this year never matierialized though fortunately, at least in oregon, the drought situation has all but vanished due to amounts of precipitation in late april and all of may. winter has returned late in spring this year. we’re eager to know if late season precipitation will help the springer runs(spring chinook) which have been alarmingly low this year?