Eastern Oregon's Hidden Secret

Well Art and I aren't a pair to mess with. Without laying out a schedule we both get up around 7am, have our shite ready and we're out the door by 8 each day. That's just how the week has panned out. We joined a 10 other friends in the Wallowas a week prior for a four day yurtopic Presidents Day weekend, which was really fun but we didn't end up skiing the most challenging terrain. Due to orographic snow McCully Basin received +- 40CM in the last 4 days and high avalanche conditions.

Now it was our last bc ski day before we had to head back to PDX. Thursday we drove from Teton Pass we drove to Baker City to crash at my friend Ryan's apt. We explained to him that we were going to explore what Anthony Lakes had to offer. Ryan had never been there before either, but was planning to over the weekend.

It took about 40 minutes from Baker to get to the little parking area at Anthony Lakes. Driving up Art and I kept on commenting on the terrain. It looked like a playground of little drops and steep shots. The only question that we had was how was the snow and what did the stability look like. No one posts avy data for this part of the Blues (I think?.) Which is good and bad. Good because it may keep folks out of the bc and bad for us folks who do venture in.

After viewing the 1940/50's lodge we bought our $6.00 single-ride lift ticket and headed to the 8000' summit on the fixed triple.

From the top it's an easy 10/15 minute traverse to the bc. There we got a view of the upper bowl, which is not patrolled, and other shots that drop you off onto Anthony Lake.

We spent the day cutting cornices, digging snow pits and plauing chutes and ladders into the talus filled bowl.

There are lines here for all abilities- We just explored one little peak and there are 2-3 more to explore at a later date. Definately looking foward to it!

Map Here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=44.951922,-118.225594&spn=0.035109,0.090981&t=p&z=14

New AARP Benefit???

Holy Sh*t! I found out about a new benefit to seniors today! If they sign up with AARP they get a pair of reverse camber powder skis!...

Today at MHM I saw several "oldie but goodies" doing the booty swing parallel ski thang today with huge f-ing skis. What the F? Did they eat their Wilfred Brimley Quacker Oatmeal this morning and snake their kids mega-bomber-skis while they are working the 7-11 or grunting out a 14hr shift at Les Schuabs?? Hey what ever floats you boat right?..

Velvet White Room

You know that things are looking on the up-and-up when snow banks are 8'-10' as your approaching the p-lot. Thank god right?? Well I kinda got spoiled on vacation last week ripp'n bc at Teton Pass and hit up some surprisingly sweet terrain in Eastern Oregon at Anthony Lakes (future blog to come...) So my partner (lower left photo) and I roll into the HRM lot, park, do a little skin for the 'ol boy, get ready for a day of, ohhh waist high skiing. The first thing that I notice is that it is F-ing cold on the lift and may be a bit under-dressed. The air is much more humid than the air of the Tetons, even at 18 degrees F.

Rip a few mellow runs on Star but the snow is too deep to get your swerve on, you know??

Patrol was bombing in Heather at the time, which works for me because that means that soon everybody will be lining up at Star and the Reserve will be wide open.

Within 1/2 an hour the gates open to lower and I move out to Gods...
Run 1: Epoch velvet deep turns down "lower left."
Run 2: Hiked to the top of "Gods, " Dropped center left off which included a
manditory 6' fin/rock drop. Hit the drop just fine, landed with like a bomb, slid on my ass for a second and then my left ski popped off. Attempts of self arresting were feudal and I slid 40'-60'. After I stopped all I had was my right ski and my left pole. My right pole ended up an additional 50' below with the remainder of the sluff.. Luckily the crust that I slid down on was soft enough to kick into so I could retrieve my ski that was sticking out of the crust vertically above. Retrospectively this was really lucky because that ski could have ended up 500' below, cuz my teles don't have brakes or leashes... Successfully retrieved my shite and fun runned the bastard.

Run 3: One more bomber down lower left dropping mellower fins and tree pillows. Fun shite...

By the end of these power laps I was pretty much toasty and humgary which led me back to the car to meet Oly, skin 2K with him and call it a day.

Photos (from top to bottom): Dude bra who dropped the correct fin line behind me on Gods, Trying to pick my fin line on Lap 3, Self portrait, Oly dog - the only partner I could wrangle for the day.

Day One...

Its funny how things like this start. I have no idea if this blog will resinate with you, me, or anybody, but it's the fault of some library looking woman in her early 40's passing me in my work truck on 205N. Women in thier mid-40's don't usually stick with me but as she passed, in black and white, a bumper sticker read "Make Tea, Not War."

Why did this catch my attention?? It's not like I'm a tea person... Preferred drug by a long shot is coffee! BUT, I do have a thing for stickers.

This blog will be about randomness based around a passion that I tend to obsess about and live a second life around. I don't care if you tele for two days a year, use them as a tool of your trade, or if your chasing storms and terrain around the West, East, AK or Canada we all get a similar feeling when we drop a knee, find the perfect line through that class V rapid, or survive that epoch descent and burn your forarm on your mtb fork reloading it onto your rig. It's that feeling you get from that experience, which makes great memories... Soo here we go-

MAKE TURNS NOT WAR!