Sunrise Zone Photo: Snowbrains Skier: Shawn M. Clark

Report from January 13, 2020

Visibility was at an all-time low today! However, the snow was sooooooo goooood that you didn’t need to see where you were going if you had enough speed! It was a ‘point and shoot’ kind of day… AGAIN!

We headed up the mountain road early this morning and Sierra was nice enough to let us park right up close and tight to the lodge! I asked if she had anything closer and if she thought the groomers would be open? She said we were S.O.L. on both! When I requested we just head back to Bend and play checkers all day long, my lifelong friend Shawn said no. I guess we were in it to win it today!

Sierra let us park in the second parking spot. Photo: Snowbrains

We revisited the notion of tree well danger early on this morning. Shawn was caught for nearly 30 minutes in snow over his head and although he was able to breathe the whole time, what I thought was just a minor delay via news on the radio turned into a real deal rescue by these nice lads on boards. The whole situation had de-escalated by the time I was able to hike back up from the bottom of Rainbow Chair.

We had been playing ‘leapfrog’ due to deep snow conditions and Shawn was not out of sight for more than a couple hundred yards. Be safe out there! Keep your friends in close sight. Carry radios and beacons and know how to contact patrol on short notice if necessary! I’ll admit, once I understood the severity of the situation, I slightly panicked. Once I hiked up I was only 10 feet away and still couldn’t see the three of these guys just over the knoll!

Even on low angle, lower mountain terrain, don’t be that guy that left your beacon on the kitchen counter! I did, and almost learned the hard way why ‘if you own it, bring it with you’ on a powder day!

We learned a little about tree well danger this morning. Photo: Snowbrains

All in all, Mount Bachelor and Bend, OR are actually great places to visit! The trails are never groomed and the roads are super icy! The beer is always warm and extremely bland! Please don’t tell your friends until I’m out of town!