Halle’s Smooooth Words o’ Wisdom

Two weeks ago EJ and I went for a familiar short tour on Mt. Hood. I toted my newish digital SLR in order to test shooting RAW files in snow.

There was plenty of snow and as you can tell from the last of the three frame sequence we experienced typical Cascade crud. Not cement fortunately. Dusty crud. Still fun for sure.

My camera and I were covered in snow and in Speedy Gonzalez fashion(?Arriba, arriba, andale!) I wiped it down with a dry bandana. I’m still a bit nervous taking the digital SLR into weather situations where rain, snow and cold are much of a factor. Nonetheless the camera performed well and still works fine.

Read this article in order to understand the title of this post.

Bill was evicted from the property he was squatting in SE Portland. He has since purchased a beater yellow school bus for roughly a grand that he’s retrofitting into a modest living space. As soon as he gets her running he will look for a long-term parking space.

Recently a couple friends invited me on a trip to the Ogden Valley in Utah for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Skiing the ‘greatest snow on earth’ was on the agenda naturally.

Day one: I arrived a day early and drove to my bed & breakfast before heading off for a day of touring above The Canyons. If you fly to Salt Lake City and want to ski the same day you can ski for free at one of three resorts: Park City, Deer Valley, or The Canyons. Just be sure to have a boarding pass or your baggage claim tickets. Free is a good price. I met some friendly Pork Sushi, I mean Park City, locals who showed me around a bit in the backcountry off the top of the resort. Some of it looked like this:

The last shot is a spot known as Dutch’s Draw which was the site of a massive slide that claimed a snowboarder’s life in January 2005.

Day 2: We went for a tour in Big Cottonwood Canyon with Tom Diegel who knows the Cottonwood canyons inside and out:

The snow was so good, at least to the Oregonians, that I didn’t bother to set up any downhill skiing pictures.

Days 3 & 5: We skied the incomparable hill known as Powder Mountain or Pow Mow. This place is a throwback to a bygone era. The Green Bay Packers of ski resorts if you will. The Bart Starr Packers or the Packers when Brett Favre was in his prime. The terrain is moderate for the most part and the vibe cozy and friendly.

Woody, pictured above, drives the bus that picks up skiers who ski off the backside of the mountain and end up beside the entrance road where there are no lifts.

Pictured above is Lightning Ridge. You can either thigh power the ridge or cough up 7 bucks for a snow-kitty ride. We opted for thigh power with Dave Flemming leading the charge on the right.

I finally got around to snapping some downhill pictures with my point ‘n shoot. Here is Steve “CJ” Berman on bended knee following the brief hike along Lightning Ridge:

Day 4: Due to a fairly sizeable snow dump we decided to head for Snowbasin on the southern edge of the Ogden Valley. Snowbasin was the site of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic downhill run. The place is a Sun Valley resort and, needless to say, quite posh. The snow was deep and the crowds thin.

Katherine, Eric, Michelle and I spent new year’s eve weekend in Packwood, Washington near White Pass.

White Pass is a dying breed of resort that is low-key, family oriented and wholly unpretentious. An example of this is their sale of $10.00 one ride lift tickets for those who venture into the backcountry - it’s nice to get a little headstart while sitting on your butt!

The resort is surrounded by acres of beautiful terrain that includes easy access to Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the Goat Rocks Wilderness.

We were pretty much winging it on our first tour, but ran into some very friendly local folks who were quite generous with directions and secret stash beta.

On the third day of our trip, we decided to check a tour that would have been a wonderful tree ski had the snow not been mashed potato mank. The stuff was so thick it stopped this guy cold!

He survived! My wife most definitley thought it was the tour from hell.

With a good dose of encouragement, she managed to clear all the sketchy creek crossings without removing her skis.

I was lucky that she didn’t smack me with a ski pole during the mile walk back to the car.