6/11/02
Matt & I met at the Frog Lakes Sno-Park Monday evening and put the Old-mobile to bed there for the night. Arrived in town in Matt's rig for the pre-climb overnight Bend Brewery bivy. Shawn made the post-work drive down from PDX after work. Matt & I met up with Don and Deb for dinner and some beers & linked up with Shawn at around 10pm at Jon's place.
Rose early and were rolling toward the trailhead by about 5. After customary gear fumbling and trailhead location we started making our way up the boot-packed and ski-scrubbed trail. Nice to see snow all the way to the road and all the snow connectors on the way up still intact. It'd be a fun exit. The luge run that would be our descent in the trees was already well groomed by enthusiasts from the previous weekend.
| Matt & Shawn trudging up the luge run. |
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Finally exited the trees and crossed the prominent plateau above Moraine Lake. The south aspect lay before us and we started scoping some likely lines for the ski descent.
| The South Sistah'. Matt scoping out some lines - about 4000 more feet of homework to go... |
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We pounded out another couple grand of vertical and took a break near the base of a large cinder cone at about the 9000 foot level. The weather was awesome - bright sunshine and absolutely no breeze. Earlier I'd been beggin' for some warm sun - now we were beginning to bake & I was wishing it would tuck behind a cloud for a while.
| Some steep skinning on the lower slopes - Mt. Bachelor in the background. |
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| Pain and suffering . . . Broken Top looming large to the East. |
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Traversed up and over to the ridge which defines the West boundary of the Lewis Glacier and up the main scree highway that is the summer hiking trail to the top. No cracks in the main glacier yet but a prominent bergschrund and a couple of large cracks on the upper glacier just below 10,000 feet.
Shawn was definitely the fresh-boy for the day & put about 15 minutes into Matt and I by the summit. The winds were still dead calm so I really had to fight the sweat, salt, and sunscreen-in-the-eyes battle for the last couple hundred vertical feet. When we reached the top Shawn was already rubbing the summit in the nose of one of his buds over his cell phone.
| Shawn nearly to the crater rim, putting a gap into Matt & I . . . |
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It was calm and clear on the top with a few growing puffies off to the East of the crest. Unbelievable weather. I was feeling fairly crushed by this time & was definitely feeling the pummeling as we crossed the summit crater ice cap. Made our way over to the opposite side of the crater for the obligatory look to the peaks dotting northward.
| Shawn preparing to take a flyer from the crater rim. Middle and North Sisters in the distance. |
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| Matt & Shawn drinking in the view. Broken Top in the distance. |
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| Shawn and Matt still on the summit rim from across the crater ice cap |
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We made our way back to our gear and got into the queue for the 5000+ vertical foot ski dash down the south aspect. Had to manage a few small old rime-ice mounds for the first few turns but then the snow conditions improved rapidly.
| Shawn making turns on the upper snowfield. |
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Made our way down off the top to a spot where the hourglass snowfield pinched off at its middle. We descended through a fun little couloir feature at the pinch and then dismounted the sticks for a brief traverse on the scree to the top of the another prominent snowfield about midway down the hill.
| Matt making his way through the rock-garden at the pinch. |
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Great skiing on this shot - some mellow pitches punctuated regularly with long & steep rollovers which were a blast in the softening snow.
| A few choice turns on the middle section of the descent. |
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After skiing this big pitch we continued our leftward bearing to make our way to the top of the lower snowfields and more great turns. We finally made our way to the flat plateau above Moraine Lake.
| Shawn & Matt (way below) on the mountain's lower aspect. Bachelor Butte and Sparks Lake in the background. |
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| Shawn and Matt scoping the exit lines. About 2000 more feet of skiing to go. |
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After a bit of tedious travel across the plateau we finally entered into the trees for the luge ride down to the road. This part featured some excellent natural banked turns and whoopty's all the way down. The exit was hilarious. Beats the hell out of trudging the final 2 miles on foot with the skis lashed to the pack "a 'la mule."
| Back at the trailhead. Shawn doing some rapid stinky sock drying using the "easy-bake oven" blacktop surface. |
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| A look back at the day's work from the Sparks Lake basin. |
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