BT

Quick report

Went out to Broken Top crater side today. Trail 8 past Todd lake TH is GNARLY whoops! Heard a rumor they may be grooming tonight? Hope so, riding that was pretty crazy, almost comical. Saw Timberline guides towing clients in their “box on skis” out to the zone, did not look fun on those whoops! But once in the zone, beautiful day, great snow. Saw a few people in the crater in 3 o’clock and Tower, looked good. Spoke to someone who skied A La Mode and said it was still a little sharky. I went over towards Pucker to see what the snow looked like on that face. Skinning up it felt pretty well consolidated. Every once in a while when changing micro-aspects (i.e. more or less exposed to wind) I’d feel the previous crust maybe a foot down, but even then the new snow felt pretty well bonded to it. I booted up a slope lookers left of Pucker with Verts to get a good look at the snow. For the most part it was great, well bonded and mostly consistent. There were a couple spots where I was hitting a hard crust not too far down, but these were in areas with shallowly buried rocks (which I knew from being in the same spot last week with less snow, and said rocks fully exposed). As I topped out on that booter, a couple guys came down. They said they had looked into Pucker and that it didn’t go, and cliffed out. I thought this was odd since it clearly went looking at it from below, and I rode it twice last week with way less coverage and it still went, though there were some exposed rock bands in the middle top that I’ve never seen before (those are covered now). I now think that this is likely just folks referring to different entrances to the line but using the same name, which can be confusing. I’ve been using the naming that’s in that Oregon ski atlas, since I figure a lot of folks have that as a common base. In that book the upper entrance is called the “big balls” entrance, and I think those guys may have been referring to that entrance (which indeed doesn’t go and need a lot more snow). Anyway, dropped a couple cornices at the top of what I’ve always called Pucker, with nothing moving. Snow was great pretty much the entire line. Didn’t encounter any crusts as the other obs from the No Name side reported. Seems like it may stay good for another day but then will start to transition with warming temps. Spoke to a couple who were out at Todd lake and reported great conditions there. I thought it would be too warm at that elevation, but they said it was great. Oh yeah, I left my poles at the typical sled parking for BT crater access. There were a couple sleds still there when I left. If you happened to see my poles there and grabbed them, please contact me at jimw at pobox dot com. They are Black Diamond Expedition 3-section poles (black and green), both with the Alpine Whippet attachment on top. I’ll prolly head back out there tomorrow and see if I can find them, good excuse to get another day in the BT zone as well…