Wallowa Ski Trip - March 2008

March 10^th
On our last full day, we woke again to clear skies and a temperature of 38 degrees. We were all anxious to ski some more on Middle Ridge. The hard work of the days before was starting to take its toll. After one run, we decided to take a break and brush up on our avalanche beacon searches. We all took turns performing searches while eating lunch. It was good practice for all of us. The group then traversed north across 1st Bowl to climb up the northeast ridge below The Pyramid. Once we had gained the ridge, we skied down toward the Upper Bench. Simon and Jen returned to camp after this ski while the remainder climbed up to a moderately steep slope to practice digging pits to perform some basic snow pack analysis and shovel shear tests. Our tests confirmed what the Wing Ridge operators had told us, mainly that the snow pack was well consolidated.

Tom performing a shovel shear test

View of The Pyramid from Middle Ridge with clouds forming

View from Middle Ridge with clouds forming

Relaxing in the cook tent after a hard day of skiing

March 11^th
We make quick work of cleaning up camp this morning in preparation for our departure. Fortunately for us, we didn't need to do much skiing today since the snow surface has frozen hard, creating treacherous conditions. This forced us to use all of our survival skiing skills to get down the mountain in one piece. Thanks everyone for another great ski trip in the Wallowas.

For some more pictures of our trip, please see Jason Freed's images. Jason did a great job of capturing life in camp, not to mention the beautiful Wallowa landscape.

Heading out of camp

Here's to a great trip!