Snow Sports and/or Surfing

Love you too brother D!

In a completely acceptable, non sexual way of course.

 

@herzalot Total opposite day here at Keystone. Bluebird skies and a chilly 6 degrees…tons of leftover powder to be found but the place is empty

 

You’re not helping!!!!
So beautiful. Soooo jealous!

 

@mtbMike EPIC!!!!! Lucky guy you are!

 

https://www.bigbearmountainresort.com/

I'm pretty excited and surprised to see this. In case the story goes off of the BB home page prior to reading this, Snow Valley has been acquired by BBMR/Alterra. IKON pass holders will have access to Snow Valley as of 2/20. I've never actually ridden at Snow Valley, mainly by virtue of always having had a BBMR then Mammoth then IKON pass. It will be nice to have a less crowded and 30 minute closer alternative to Snow Summit, and I'm hopeful that it will also serve as a pressure release valve that helps disburse the crowds that have resulted from the Mammothification of BBMR.

 

I wonder what that would mean for teh snow valley bike park in the summer

 

I rode Snow Valley once. It’s small, low altitude, low angle. The layout is choppy. But it is 30 minutes closer.

I have a feeling Alterra bought it just to keep it out of Vail’s clutches, because I can’t figure out how they plan to use it. Will they keep the $30 senior citizen annual pass? Will they only open on busy weekends? Maybe they move the Bear Mtn park setup to SV? A combination of easy access for beginners plus a world class park seems like the formula?

 

From Friday. 14k of vert before lunch and home in time for my haircut. Probably should have cancelled the appointment because the conditions were good and getting better as it softened up.

 

Snow Summit today. Kind of meh, unfortunately. Snow never really softened up, and even though it wasn't particularly crowded it felt like an obstacle course of slow and erratic skiers & boarders. Never really found my groove, so kind of focused my time on jumps in the old man park. They actually have a nice line of decent sized, yet still mellow jumps.

First day on the Mercury, and I can't say I loved it. Sidecut feels kind of wonky, and I found myself futzing around with my stance, which has long been cemented, trying to get comfortable. Though I should probably give it more time, the board it would be replacing is by no means spent, and I do love it, so I may send the Mercury along prematurely.

 

Just curious if that is Paymaster as it crosses under the former Sts. John lift? (Or was it the Montezuma lift?) I haven't skied there in 25-30 years, but if that's the slope I think it is, I did my first Nastar ski race there when I was 10.

I have ridden my DH bike(s) at Keystone a couple of times around 2010. Great trails.

 

No, I am on the Peru Express Lift, a 6 person chair heading out of the Mountain House base area. The 2 person lift is named AS1 and the trail under it appears to be named I-70. The Montezuma lift and Paymaster runs are to the left off the top of the Peru Express lift and where everyone has to ho to get higher and into The Outback.

 

Went to June & Mammoth last Sat./Mon., and the snow conditions were fantastic! XC'd the Lakes on Saturday, lapped a nearly empty June on Sunday, and reveled in the Mammoth powder on Monday.

 

Another morning of Mt. High fun! This time just me and my 12 yo. Left S. Laguna at 6:40. Parked in the fourth row at 8:00 am. Breakfast burrito as we got suited and booted and ready to ride. Not crowded today - never more than a 3 minute lift line, although we quit at 11:45. Daughter had new boots, but her feet were cramping anyway. They fit right, but she thinks it was from clenching her toes. Could be.

Snow was interesting - soft in places, but ice in others. Visibility was meh. It was snowing when we arrived, but not with any vigor. Nothing accumulated.

I got 10 runs in, Ruby got 7. She was pushing herself on a few of the jumps (which means she actually left the surface of the snow for a few milliseconds). My extra three runs were on a really nice north facing black run called Silver Spur that no one rides or skis. Snow was fantabulous on that run.

Here is my overjoyed daughter on her Head Absolut Joy skis. You can see the glee!

 

@herzalot you went without me!?? I'm so butt hurt. Oh wait...

 

That's not Mt. High, Big Bear or Mammoth, now is it?

 

well duh. The Mt Bachelor was pretty epic. 3 days of diverse weather, snow and I loved it. If you characters want a trip report let me know.

 

I do I do! Lay it out there boyeee!

 

Ha! Heading back to Portland in the morning to fly back home. Will do once I get settled.

 

You will have down time while traveling. Get on it!

 

Here's my trip report from Mt Bachelor for those who are interested. It's going to be a photo dump so bare with me. The trip happened between 2/11 -2/15 with 3 days on the mountain. My friend Carla and I had been planning this journey for about a year or so. She lived in Portland for about a decade and in Bend for one season so she knew the lay of the land. Her , her friend Shell and Shell's daughter Lyla all flew from Kauai to Portland so I flew into Portland as well to make things easier. Bend is about a 3 hour drive and pretty scenic for the most part. You drive by Mt Hood which is a site to see. Anyway on to the fun stuff.

Day 1 was perfect weather with temps in the low 40s and great snow. The drive from Bend to the mountain is about 25mins so it wasn't too bad. About 15mins into that drive Bachelor reveals itself to you and what a reveal it was. This photo doesn't do it justice as to be expected.



Carla's friend and daughter didn't go to the mountain this day so they dropped us off and then took the rental car to go explore Bend. Their beginner ski lessons were the next day. Carla's other friend Brielle and her BF Sean who live in Eugene joined us for a day of shredding. Carla and Brielle are more than competent riders as was Sean on skis. That made the day a treat. The goal on day 1 was to explore as much of the mountain as possible due to the storm coming in the next day. That goal was achieved and even made it up to the summit which is rarely open due to wind from what I was told. Pretty stoked about that.

Here are a couple of shots from the Summit Chair



Fun fact about the summit chair is the loading and unloading parts of the lift are both enclosed so they can store the chairs in there during bad weather. You can probably guess why that is with the photo below showing the side of the unloading covered in wind blown snow. Pretty cool looking eh?



Here's a shot towards the backside from the summit. Notice the little dormant volcano below.



Here's our group shot from the summit. From right to left: Me, Carla, Brielle and Sean



Only took one more shot that day and it was at the end of the day from the top of the Outback chair on the eastside of mountain. If my memory served me right the two mountains in the distance are one of the Sisters and Broken Top. Quite scenic to say the least.



Here's screen shot strava of the days stats. I was worked but all smiles. My favorite area of the mountain from the day was the zone accessed by the Cloud Chaser chair. It has a bunch of gully like areas that are just a blast to rip though. Kinda reminds my of a snake run from a skate park if that makes sense.



Here's the map for reference but the strava map is rotated 180 degrees from it.





Day two was night and day different in terms of weather. It was extremely windy and in the low 20s. I had to wear a thicker merino wool base layer, northface fleece top and my insulated Volcom jacket. It's f'ing cold is my point. Balaclavas in those conditions are game changers though. The pic below shows a similar area from the day one Bachelor reveal except you can't see it obviously. Notice the snow swirling around in the wind on the road. Pretty trippy lookin man.



Hard to tell from this photo on the Sunrise chair but it was nuking (snowing hard). Had to keep brushing the snow off myself while riding the lift.




Here's a selfie of Carla and I on that same chair.




Here's what the car looked like at the end of the day. If not for the wind it would've had about 7 inches or so on it.



Most of the day was spent in the Cloud Chaser zone and Sunrise chair zone. Carla's friend Shell and shell's daughter had their lessons by the sunrise chair area so we kept checkin in on them due to the weather. Imagine taking your first lesson in those kind of conditions. They were good sports though. Carla and I had a great time in the cloud chaser zone with some pow in the trees and gullys. I was rusty in pow riding but the Capita Merc treated me quite well. That board really can do it all.



The day 3 drive wasn't too bad and weather pretty much cleared up leaving about a foot of fresh pow with barley a breeze in the air.



Here's where I should've been more selfish. The ladies were lolly gagging waayyy too much considering the conditions. As a result I should've just ditched them and went up on the mountain on my own because I literally watched it get tracked out in front of my own eyes. There where a couple of other things that pissed me off that day but I'll spare you the details.



Day 3 was cool but it should've had more fresh pow runs if I had been selfish and bailed on the ladies. Lesson learned and I won't let that happen again. Here's the last shot of the mountain from the deck at the main lodge. The lift you see on the right there is called Pine Marten for reference.



Here are a couple shots of the Air B&B we stayed at. It was a cool little craftsman bungalow. It resides in the west side walking distance to Drake Park & downtown Bend. Great area.







So in conclusion Bachelor was a great mountain experience. I loved that mountain as a snowboarder. It's so fun to ride and am glad we got 3 completely different days of riding there. I feel like we got a good broad stroke of what that mountain is all about if that makes sense. I get the hype it has in the snowboard community. It's my favorite mountain that I've ridden to date bar none. @herzalot I think you and I should take a trip up there. We'd have a blast ripping there. Anyway let me know if you guys have any questions.

 

When conditions are epic, you have no friends and no family. you just go. Powder and surf are selfish endeavors. Embrace it.

Thanks for the detailed report. The snow looks fantastic, and the 360 degree ski mountain is really unique! I desperately need to get to a real ski area this year. It's been a while - Squaw in April 2019 I believe.

 

Yup lesson learned but you shouldn't be surprised considering how patient I tend to be at the mountain.

Side note I forgot to mention is the storm that dropped a foot of snow wasn't the typical "cascade concrete" according to many locals I spoke with on the last day. It was lighter and airy which I definitely noticed navigating through some tracked out areas. The consensus seemed to be that's why it got tracked out so fast due to the unusual "powder panic" midweek.

 

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Was there actually snow on the ground in Bend? As for "places to retire", I loved Bend in the summer. I have doubts about how cold it may be in the winter tho.
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You can add tacky dirt to that list

 

Awesome

 

Tacky dirt lasts longer than powder or prime surf, and can be shared more readily. It doesn't require the same level of urgency or selfishness.

 

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What about about first tracks on Pow Dirt?
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It lightly snowed one night we were there but it melted quick. I know it can actually get accumulation though but not often from what I heard. The whole time we were there it was in the 40s to even high 40s during the day and at night in the low 20s. What tripped me out is that Bachelor could be getting dumped on while sunny and nice out in Bend at the same time.

 

Locked in my buddy’s place in Mammoth the last week of March (kids are on spring break). If anyone is going to be up there let’s ride (snow) together!

 

Cold. Like, really cold. More than likely, we'll end up in Redmond which is about 30 minutes north of Bend. This winter, it's been in the single digits. It's high desert so climate-wise, it's similar to Palmdale/Lancaster. Normally they'll get a dusting of snow, but that's about it. Of course this year, they got several inches of snow.