January Jib Trip 2014 Part I Broken Top, Oregon

[jibmaster]

The search for January snow led us to Oregon, once again. Three of us made the drive from Napa Valley to Bend, Oregon.
Myself, snowblasta and JibC headed for the border.
With the low snow pack and rumors of a hellish ice crust, we were looking for some time out in the woods and mountains.
A simple multi-day trip of touring, snow camping and maybe some turns...


Day 1
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We skied down the road from the Bachelor resort heading towards Devils Lake. About a mile down the road,
we swung a right and skied up Road 370. The scaled skis were tricky to use on the ice.
There was 'dust-on-crust' conditions. A little snow had fallen the day before and dodging the ice, while trying to
stick to the dust was the goal for the day.


We headed north of the road above the large meadow above Todd Lake and set up camp.





The temps were a bit chilly. I got readings of around 10*F at night.
We slept in the first day. Our camp was situated where I thought we would get sufficient sun in the morning to
warm the tents and have late afternoon sun.
After much deliberation and consumption of high octane liquid refreshment, we decided to move camp
100 ft. to the north.


jibC enjoying the afternoon sun at our new Base Camp.




This is a heavily used snowmachine area. Underneath the ice layer was several feet of unconsolidated sugar snow.
The machine tracks made a perfect, firm base for pitching the tents without having to dig out a tent pit.
After setting up, we hung out and watched the afternoon light fade into dark.



South Sister draped in alpenglow


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Day 2

We woke up -
- not too late-not too early.
Once again, clear skies and sunshine. Very cold overnight.
With the low sun angle and stubborn ice layer, we were hoping to discover the terrain and take a look around.

We skied up to the Wilderness Boundary. Knowing that a lot of the slopes we are looking at were too icy to ski, I was
hoping to get something off the hikers right. Facing west for a January Jib down some south-west facing corn slopes.
We skied/skinned/scaled our way to the base of Ball Butte.
Our skis turned us around just below Ball Butte.
We skied down and crawled back in our sleeping bags.



Cooking up dinner

[jibmaster]

Complete photo tour:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=11744399@N08&q=broken%20top

[Charley White]

End of my monthly data-tether, but couldn't pass up your jibber-jabber, Jibmaster. So found way to turn off images. Good on you. Like. Look forward to seeing all next datamonth.

[jibmaster]

The night was cold. About 12*F.
Trees were cracking and the ice crust was fortifying it's grip on the top
of the snowpack.


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Day 3

We awoke and realized that we needed to keep going.
We had yet to ski into the crater.
So,we donned our gear and headed out.

The snow looked inviting...




After skiing Ball Butte, I wanted to get closer to Broken Top.
We had followed the meadows up to an apex where the terrain
funneled the sleds to the base of a drainage.
The sled tracks had gone up the gully and a trail led off to the left.
We followed the sled tracks yesterday, which led to Ball Butte.
This time, we followed the trail.
Only snow shoe tracks and several mt. bike tracks.
This would have been excellent conditions for biking over snow.
Very firm and icy.

The trail was a sweet line that traced out a perfect route to the center.



There was a storm coming in and high clouds were limiting our 'corn window'.
So, we skinned up to the right and caught a bit of corn facing southwest.
Some more shots of Broken Top.





We headed back to Base Camp and boiled ice for water and some hot food.
The tents were still in the shade in the late afternoon.
The only warmth was in the sun. So, we headed out into the meadow to forage
for snow to melt.



jibC enjoying the warmth


jibC sleeping

[telorti]

So...I click on the attachments and it says it won't work, contact admin.????