Christmas Eve Snowshoe Expedition

After putting in an eventless half-day at Summit, we were happy to get out the door into the snowed over streets of Hood River. We kicked off the quintessential white Christmas with good friends and Smaltzie's Crock Pot Chicken Stew for C-Eve dinner.

Since we got so much snow in town, the ladies decided to burn off the comfort food and cocktails with a snowshoe expedition around the Hood. We gathered the snowbooted troops and were off to enjoy the icicles, fresh icy air, knee-deep pow, falling snow, twinkling lights and beers in our pockets.

All the wonderment came to a screeching halt when we arrived on the corner of Old Man McCready's house—some SCUMBAG had littered a McDonald's bag that stuck out like a sore thumb against the pristine untouched fluffy stuff. I got mad and gave the litter the finger.

F. You. Litter.

After carousing around town, we headed home in hopes of an early-ish night—time to rest up for first chair at Meadows—Christmas Day shooshin'!

Gettin' jiggy wit it.

Steph, Andrea, Reggie, Vicki & Smaltz

True Summiteers

Gerry, Carley and I have a few things in common. One of these commonalities is that we all work for a small interactive agency in Hood River called Summit Projects. On April 28th, 2007, we became official Summiteers when we climbed to the top of Mount Saint Helens.

We rolled out of work on Friday afternoon with our gear packed and headed north into Washington. After an enjoyable 3-hour ride, we reached the Climbers Bivouac at 3700 feet, where we camped that night. Aaron, Gerry's husband was waiting for us. Nice guy that he is, he put our tent up before we arrived! We drank a few beers and hit the sack. Here's the crew prepping for the climb bright and early the next morning:


As soon as we hit the trail we were at the snow line. Aaron was toting his snowboard while Gerry, Carley and I rocked the snowshoes. We saw Gerry's big tongue a lot.


It was super misty/foggy when we started the climb, so we couldn't see the top of the mountain. A lot of people were carrying skis and hiking in their ski boots. We blew by them like rock stars in our snow shoes. :)


For some reason, I feel like I look like a Frenchman here. You can see the line of climbers going up the hill like ants in a pile of sugar. "We're going up there!!!???"


Below, Carley takes a load off. We really started to feel the elevation here. I think it was a combination of the altitude and the fact that the shroud of clouds would clear as you watched and you would see how high up you really were. yowza!


The route we took was a 5-mile hike from the Bivouac to the summit at 8,365 ft—a gain of 4,665 ft. It took us about 4.5 hours to reach the top. And here we are!


When we took these shots, Aaron had already floated off down the mountain on his snowboard. wheeee!

Off in the distance you can see the top of Mount Adams. The rolling clouds and mist shrouded our view into the crater. It's also extremely dangerous to get too close to the edge. Click here to see a view inside the crater on a clear day without snow.



Gerry's big tongue again.


Here's Carley looking French. We were on our way down at this point. The folks in the distance are still on their way up. There were even a few dogs summiting that day!



At this point, we decided to descend the mountain the most fun way possible—on our butts, slide-style. There were some well-worn butt-trails that really allowed you to pick up some speed. FUN!!!!!!

Once back at the site, we broke camp and got on our way back to Hood River. Carley and I stopped to pose for a photograph with our new big friend.


Mount Saint Helens, May 17, 1980


Mount Saint Helens, May 18, 1980


Mount Saint Helens, Today


I've read that in 100 years, Mount St. Helens will have built itself back up to it's 1980 pre-eruption elevation. Seems likely, since this baby is active. :)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, watch our MSH movie!

Mirror Lake

Our first winter in Oregon has FLOWN. I'm not sure where the time has gone. The snow, raging waterfalls, crisp air and clinging cloud fluff highlighted by peaks of morning sun that this winter has delivered can only be described with one word–epic.

But, I'd be lying if I said that the budding pussy willows, blue skies and t-shirt weather doesn't leave me longing for summer in all its glory. Thinking back to last June, when I first laid eyes on Oregon, I anxiously await the budding wildflowers, orchard blossoms and starry night skies.

A few weekends ago, we decided to get out for a nice, little snowshoe. I've been hitting up trails.com for the past 8 months, and it delivered once again. One of the top recommended snowshoe trails in Oregon is Mirror Lake–a 3-miler located right past Government Camp. We had a great time exploring the area surrounding the lake.


We climbed for an hour or so from the trailhead, sharing the trail with many people who were hiking their skis and snowboards into the backcountry. We stayed on the main trail for about the first mile and then veered off to play in some untracked snizow.


We climbed a bit and were rewarded with a nice view of Mount Hood.


We enjoyed some clam chowder near the top of Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain, while watching some skiiers and boarders rip it up on these backcountry slopes.


Tom admires the view of mirror lake with Government Camp, or "Govy", in the background. We slid down the hill to the lake and finished the loop. :) This will probably be one of our last snowshoeing adventures of this season!

A Great Long Weekend at Crystal Mountain

The long weekend. How come some long weekends feel like a really great break and others end up leaving you feel high and dry? Fortunately, the long weekend that Tom and I spent at Crystal Mountain in Washington was a perfect balance of adventure and relaxation.

About 2 months ago, I reserved a little A-frame called the "Crystal Carriage House" for the weekend of Tom's 32nd birthday and planned a weekend of snowshoeing, skiing and relaxation. The house is located in the one-horse, one-bar, one-home-made-hat-shop town of Greenwater, WA. We had seclusion, herds of elk roaming through our little neighborhood and a 15-minute ride to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort.

The Crystal Mountain ski resort is inside Mount Rainier National Park, in its most northeastern section. Aside from being in a National Park, the spectacular setting for the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort is also inside the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. Crystal Mountain, WA is only 76 miles away from Seattle, making this a popular site for skiers from the Puget Sound and surrounding areas. It took us about four hours to reach the house from Hood River, so we arrived around 1pm on Saturday afternoon.


On arrival, we headed straight for the Ski Area. The lifts were only open for a few more hours, so we decided to do a little self-propelled lifting to ski some fresh powder. With our skis strapped to our backpacks, we slapped on our ski boots and snowshoes and started to climb. Ski boots are definitely not choice hiking boots, but after a few minutes, you are too busy saying "wow" to worry about your feet.

The first part of the hill was steep and the powdery snow was hip-deep for me. Tom was getting a serious cardio workout because he sank all the way into the snow, even with the tails on our snowshoes. I scurried right up the hill atop the snow like a little snow bunny. Sometimes being small DOES have benefits. ;)


Tom's dad got him a great birthday gift–a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx! We used the GPS to mark our tracks on this little hike & ski and Tom used the unit to aid his exploration of the backcountry terrain at Crystal.


After we got to a place that looked good to click in, we traded our snowshoes for our skis and I had my first experience skiing in deep powder. I've been jumping in feet first a lot lately. "Keep your tips up." "Squeeze an imaginary grapefruit between your knees." "Sit back and squat". "AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T FALL!" There's a lot to keep together when you're new to skiing and the conditions keep changing. Alright, here goes nothin'. WeeeEEEEEeeeee! Wait. How do I turn? And down she goes. :) FUN!

We got back to the car and lots more fresh snow. The big flakes were not gonna quit for a while. Off to the house in the woods and some champagne (of beers)! Hot dogs and beans and girl scout cookies for dinner. Anything hot would have done the trick. We watched a really cool movie about Mount Rainier and had many beer bottles and cans to recycle the following morning. ;)



Tom the snowshoe ninja.


On Sunday, we hit the mountain for our first day of real skiing. It snowed ALL DAY. The lift rides were incredible. What a beautiful place. Check some 360 degree views:
1. The Summit 2. Powder Bowl 3. The Main Lodge & Base

I spent most of my time on the green runs. I am mostly blue at Mount Hood Meadows, where we usually ski, but I am GREEN GREEN GREEN at Crystal Mountain. Fine with me though!
Our first run was a blue one, and I had a REAL hard time with the combination of moguls, soft snow, hard snow and steeps. I kind of lost my way on the blue trail and ended up hugging lots of trees on a long black diamond. After that catastrophe, I decided to share the greens with the pint-sized and other adult beginners. Tom spent most of his time up high. I'm jealous that I can't go up there yet, but going up means coming down. Hopefully I'll be able to do that stuff in a few seasons.


A fun day out followed by some maxin' and relaxin'. Dinner at a local coffee shop/restaurant in Greenwater. I got a new party hat at Wapiti Woolies. Beers and tea in front of the fire, good music and lots of smiles. :)


Monday morning, we got an early start and were excited to ski sans the weekend crowds. I was hoping for a clear day, so we'd be able to catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier, but it was cloudy. Everyone told me that "Mount Rainier is so close to Crystal, you can reach out and touch it". No such luck on this trip! A good excuse to go back this summer and next ski season.



Small heads + lots of headgear = silly.


I heart national parks! I'll be back to crawl around here very soon! A GREAT long weekend at Crystal Mountain.

Join the PBR Snowshoe Club!

After dealing with the overcrowded trail at Trillium Lake last week, I was on the hunt for something with a little more solitude for this past weekend. I searched around online a bit and decided on the Ice Cave/Natural Bridges loop, which begins at the Atkisson Sno-Park near Mount Adams in WA.


My smallest friend in Oregon, Carley, got herself a shiny new pair of snowshoes for Christmas and this was her first time out!


After about a mile on the trail, we arrived at an intersection with the short spur trail to the Ice Cave. The crampons on the bottom of our snowshoes were key to descending the snow-covered stairs to the mouth of the cave. We de-snowshoed and got our headlamps rolling. Below is Carley posing pre-exploration. You can see her little snoot on the left.


The Ice Cave is filled with stalagtites and stalagmites of ice! Despite the slick footing, we made it pretty far back into the cave. It was fun to turn all of our lights out and let our eyeballs adjust.


After playing around in the horror movie set, we climbed back out of there to go shoosh around in the snow some more. The snow at this elevation near Mount Adams definitely isn't as nice as the snow at Government Camp, but having the place all to yourself is definitely a decent trade.


Carley climbs out while Tom shoes-up.

We went off-trail for a bit to make some fresh tracks and headed for the Natural Bridges Loop Trail. When we reached the natural bridges, we were starving and in desperate need of a rest. I'd say that a mile on snowshoes is at least two miles on your regular old feet.


We enjoyed some hot soup and flask action.


Carley was bootless so we had to rig up her sneakers.

Tom decided it would be fun to roll a giant snowball down the hill next to one of the natural bridges.


Tom starts small and Carley poses on the bridge.


Everyone is having a ball, hardy har har.


If you think this is big and funny...


Just look at the effort here. :)


1-2-3-ROLL! The grand finale included a giant snowball at the bottom of the snow-covered trench and a round of PBRs at Logs in the little town of BZ Corner.

A Blue Bird January Weekend

This weekend was marked by sunny blue skies and fun in the snow. Friday night we had a little movie night with some friends from Summit (work). Saturday morning I met up with some friends to head to the mountain for some skiing. It was only my fourth time on skis EVER. But, I'm having a great time learning to shoosh down the mountain. Most of the people we know have a season pass for Mount Hood Meadows, so you can always find someone who wants to head to the mountain, even on a weekday for night skiing.

This morning, we slept in and went for an afternoon snow shoe at Trillium Lake. The trail to the lake is about a 45-minute driver from Hood River. The main town nearby is very small and is called Government Camp. Very inventive name. ;)

The main trail to Trillium Lake is very well-worn and busy, so we went off the trail to make some fresh tracks. Snow shoeing and skiing make winter very fun. :)

Blue skies and smilin' trees.

The day I left for my trip home for Christmas with my family, Tom and I went snow shoeing around one of the campgrounds in Mount Hood National Forest and I took some photos of Tom in the snow on the picnic table.

As you can see, we've gotten a bit more snow. :) Yes! There IS a picnic table under all this snow!

After hiking in about three miles, we reached Trillium lake. I made some chili and chocolate chip cookies last night. There's NOTHING like a hot meal in the snow with a view like this, of our friend, Mount Hood.There's also nothing like chocolate after a long hike. There IS such a thing as DESERVING chocolate. :)

The drive from Triullium Lake back to Hood River demands your attention. The smilin' man likes it.Mount Hood is closer AND BIGGER than it may appear.

As you drive North on 26, Mount Hood greets you with a great view at a few choice spots.

See ya, Hood! The search for those guys who got lost up there in December won't happen until summer, when the snow recedes.

I've never seen skies with so much color and mood before experiencing Oregon skies. You really appreciate the way the sunlight changes everything.

As we get closer to Hood River, we get a peak at Mount Adams in Washington. From our bedroom and kitchen windows, we can see the summit of this mountain.

And it's soon Monday again.