Columbia Gorge Outing Reports

Groups: Columbia Gorge, Portland

Crazy Hills Ski Tour, Saturday February 19 Reporter: MGreenstreet Date: Feb 19 2011 (All day)

Ten skiers entered the Crazy Hills with some trepidation and with good reason. An area with such locations such as Loco Pass, Big Skookum, and the Crazy Hills commands respect. We were greeted with fresh friendly snow and stellar blue skies. Snow depth at Lone Butte Sno Park was maybe eighteen inches but at the 3500 foot level it was more than three feet with prominent tree wells on the beaver marsh trail which were explored in depth by some of our group. With the return of winter I hope to lead two more tours into this area in the next month.
Upper Pocket Creek and Tie Trail Reporter: LDeKay Date: Dec 22 2010 (All day)

10 skiers (Marc Leon (leader), Lesley Langon (Mazama), Pam Rigor, Tere Enburg, Bob Breivogel, Janet Liu, Lloyd DeKay, Elliot Solway, Yolanda Solway, and Tony Grosso) from both Portland and Columbia Gorge chapters met up at Pocket Creek Sno-Park. About 11:00 we headed up the Pocket Creek trail for lunch at the Upper Pocket Creek clear-cut (which isn't so clear anymore... my how those trees grew since last year). Tony broke 2" of new snow in the old tracks on the lower road, but the upper road hadn't seen traffic for awhile so Bob broke 4"+ most of that section. Elliot was the only one with the enthusiasm to do a couple of tele runs, but we all got moving quite nicely in our newly set tracks back down to the junction.

From there we headed down the Teacup Tie Trail to the bridge through some very interesting/challenging dipsy-doodles on the upper portion of the trail. We then followed the Meadows Creek Tie Trail through some more challenging dips and turns back to Pocket Creek Trail, and finally back out to the cars.

The snow conditions were just about perfect with only a few areas where sticking was a problem. And the day was just about perfect too, with no wind, temps hovering around 32, broken clouds and a few sun peeks popping through. The whole tour was something like 8.7 miles so everyone had a good workout and a even a challenge at times. It was also good to share a tour with each other's chapter, a nice chance to share stories and tall tales. Many thanks to everyone for a great day!

Groups: Columbia Gorge

White River Southeast Reporter: LDeKay Date: Jan 22 2011 - 12:00pm

It was a really great day. Shelley Baxter, Fred Stewart and Lloyd DeKay met at 11:00 and headed up the mountain. We weren't sure what to expect but we knew Teacup would be a zoo... and it was, so we kept going.

We pulled into the parking lot at White River West (East is closed by a snow berm) and half of Portland was there. But the snow was firm and soft, not boilerplate, so we headed out across the road to the southeast side. That area is generally open with broad gentle slopes paralleling the river. The snow was fast and wet; fairly easy to control with plow turns when necessary. All that's left of lots of very old snowmobile tracks now are long low ridges that occasionally caught a ski, but with the soft firm snow it was painless to fall and easy to get up.

We did quite a bit of zigzagging in places into and through the woods and across minor buried drainages that would have been tough to backtrack, but we didn't need to do that in the end. We were out about 3+ hours and probably covered 4-5 miles with all the backtracks for dead ends, thick groves, and stream-cut gullies. But we didn't see another person the whole time we were out. The day was bright and sunny with that stunning view of Mt Hood. It was pretty much Spring skiing with about 1/2" of track depth in soft to corn snow.

So not ideal powder but probably the best skiing available around here right now. I'd recommend it to anyone. The only minor fault was that it's all uphill heading back out and the skis didn't grab in the wet snow all that well, but hey, you've gotta go uphill sometime unless you're riding lifts on crowded downhill slopes.
Annual New Year's Day Clark Creek Ski and Pot Luck Reporter: oncDrupalAdmin Date: Jan 1 2011 (All day)

The Columbia Gorge Chapter skied our traditional New Years Day ski up Clark Creek in awesome conditions. 12 CGC and one PDX skiers left Pocket Creek Sno-Park in temps below 10 degrees. But that was perfect for maintaining the 6-8" deep whisper snow on a rain-flattened but solid base. Even the plow-blown snow on top of the berm was great.

We had to poke around looking for the trail into the woods but Janet kept us heading in the right direction. Much of the trail looked like snow-coverd pick-up-sticx. That required breaking a very circuitous route through a maze of criss-crossing snow ridges atop hundreds of fallen trees. Elliot and Lloyd picked the best trail they could, but it still taxed most everyone.

Janet guided us away from Rocky Trail so we followed the Kate Creek Trail to the Clark Creek Trail junction and skied to the open slope with cloud-masked Mt. Hood looming above. We took our snack break standing up on skis and taking posed pictures, then began the incredibly fun run back down our newly broken trail.

Coming down was a heavenly glide as we straightened out the trail at will and flew over the pick-up-stix with abandon. When we wanted to follow the crazy trail we took up the turns were like glory-snow turns. A couple of hours up became less than an hour back down, and the smiles were glowing. Then we all gathered around the snow bank for champagne and a 'unique' potluck while Mark and Elise Leon offered hot chocolate and donuts.

Then true to our new tradition of last year, we made a quick stop for brews and the real socializing at our favorite pizza place, The Sawtooth. By the end it was an awesome day and the perfect start to the new year.
Winter Solstice Natural Bridges Ski Reporter: LDeKay Date: Dec 21 2010 - 11:00am

For a great way to celebrate the Winter Solstice, 5 Gorge Chapter souls and a dog headed out from Atkisson Sno-Park breaking 1' deep powder all the way to Natural Bridges. Great conditions, snow coating the trees made for a Currier & Ives scene. Snow balling up on the skis on the return was annoying but not a deal breaker.

Icicles bult below cracks in the Bridges were very cool. Use this route as long as new snow doesn't fill in the tracks again.
Lava Loop Tour Report Reporter: LDeKay Date: Dec 18 2010 (All day)

11 Columbia Gorge skiers followed Randy Smith on a beautiful Mt Adams ski today.
There was more new snow on Underwood than at Snow King, but the 3" there covered
a great track groomed just yesterday before the snow fell.

The snow conditions were perfect, constant temps in the high 20's and no
sunshine to cause patchy conditions. We went CCW to get the long dowhhills with
a short section of uphill, but the snow was so good the uphill was over before
we knew it.

The 7-1/2 miles flew by in just about 2-1/2 hours including a lunch stop. Smiles
all around the apres ski stop at Husum Roadside Bar-B-Q.

A totally fine day and good to see faces we didn't see much last year due to the
weird snow patterns. Be sure to join us for our next scheduled ski on January 1
- the Annual New Year's Day Ski and Pot Luck at Pocket Creek. See you there!
Combined Big Tree / Hole-in-the-Ground loop Reporter: Dean Myerson Date: Nov 28 2010 (All day)

This loop, out of the Pineside Sno Park, is about 7.6 miles and includes some decent hills on the Hole-in-the-Ground part of it. Most of the route had some kind of packed route, either from truck tires or somebody's skis. Pretty much full coverage and only the occasional icy section under a tree. It was a partyl sunny day with some decent views of Mt. Adams.
Mt Hood Meadows Nordic Trails Reporter: LDeKay Date: Feb 5 2010 (All day)

Quiet day out alone with the dog on ungroomed trails (Nordic Center closed weekdays) but the skiing was good and fast in well set deep tracks, and a real slog when breaking trail.. Skis buried under 4-6" of new, sugary, whipped cream snow (granular, thick, wet) on hard 3' base. Sunny to partly cloudy, warm (lo 40's).