Ski Trip to Bend

Saturday I rode with Jeremy and two dudes. We ran Sunrise Lift and did laps on the green run, Marshmallow. Towards the end of the afternoon we ventured to the left, instead of the regular right, and took various forks leading to and around Carnival. During several of the forks we checked out the terrain park, and then next time the jumps. It was interesting to see new terrain, but I decided the Marshmallow run was longer and easier to maneuver, still holding first place in my mind.

The weather on Saturday was perfect. It was warm (60 deg) and some skiers were wearing T shirts. The snow was perfect, easy to cut, not icy nor sticky. It was a beautiful bluebird day.

On Sunday I rode with someone I hadn’t met before named Eli, who was around my age. In the morning we rode with two dudes, and in the afternoon we rode with two women, one of whom, Alex, looked and acted very reminiscent of J—. I ended the day with a longing to see J— again.

This time we started running laps of Marshmallow just to get familiar with each other and the snow conditions.

It was hovering around freezing, overcast and dumping snow. There was a blanket of fresh powder on top of hard, sometimes icy patches of snow, but on the lower parts of the mountain it was still easily maneuverable. Occasionally we would run into fresh patches of blissfully untouched powder.

After a few run on Marshmallow, I asked to explore other lifts, so we decided to venture to the right and check out the Skyliner Lift. We took the cat tracks to the lift, eventually pulling off onto a run. We took the lift, but the upper section of the ski lift was getting hammered with wind and sideways blowing ice, so we decided to do one lap over here, then head go back toward Sunrise Lift. We ran the blue square run Olympus, got back on the lift, then made our way along the cat track back to Sunrise Lift, Marshmallow, and eventually the lodge.

Coming back to the lodge we decided to take a break, to “warm up”. I could feel something was wrong, often getting full body shivers when I encountered a bump. Upon returning to the lodge and transferring back to the chair I found my leg bag ready to burst. I hadn’t been getting signals for a full bladder, but it was fortunate we decided to stop when we did. It would have been very problematic to have an issue way out in the Skyliner Lift or any of the runs.

I was already exhausted at lunchtime and contemplated bailing on the afternoon, but after resting, despite not getting my energy back, I decided to rally, telling Eli I was ready to go back out. With new volunteers, we ran a few warm up laps on Marshmallow, then decided to adventure to the far left toward the Cloudchaser Lift. There was a section on the way there which was very steep, and despite trying to slalom down the slope, it was too steep to turn the snokart side to side, and I ended up bombing the hill uncontrollably, which felt a bit sketchy. As the snokart gained speed the skis would catch edges and bounce the rig violently from side to side. The rest of the descent to the lift was entertaining and manageable.

We ran Cloud once. As we peaked the lip of a hill toward the top of the lift the wind was ripping, blasting ice and freezing wind. We settled on doing a run on this side, since we were here, then bearing the lift once more and making our way back.

The run was the most challenging one I’ve dealt with. It was a blue square run, “Wayward(?)”. There were sections that were too steep for the snokart to slalom, and I couldn’t get the speed out of the rig, just bombing uncontrollably over hard, bumpy features. It was sketchy toward the top and upper middle, but I started to finally get control of the rig around the middle of the run, then coasted the rest of the way to the bottom of the lift. It was a long run, and after having ridden all day I was really starting to feel my chest muscles strain from having to clamp the ski poles together, forcing a wedge in the skis for breaking.

The get-back to Sunrise Lift was a white out, with a severe lip on the edge of the cat track that dropped in a sheer cliff. There were a couple hidden bumps in the trail that you couldn’t see until you were upon them, which fortunately one of the volunteers who had gone ahead to lead the way was able to warn us about.

The run from the top of Cloud to the Sunrise Lift and then down Marshmallow once again was exhausting. After the trial dealing with the challenging blue run under Cloud, and the long return to the lodge, and a full day of riding, I was really starting to feel out of gas. Before coming upon the lodge we paused and I took a moment, deciding it was about time for me call it a day.

It was an extreme adventure in the snokart, the guide, Eli, calling out many first descents, from Skyline to the right, to Cloud to the far left, and a couple epic patches of powder and drops along the way.