OK...I spent 5 days in a Yurt in the Wallowas a few weeks back. Here's a little trip report.
Unfortunetly the snow pack was probably about 5-6 feet lower then last years trip to the same place. If anything it defined the chutes that much more and made lines I rode last year either insane or 'un-rideable'. And the stuff that was easy last year became more 'interesting' this year.
The base of the yurt operations is out of Joseph Oregon...a lovely town that would be insane if it had a real ski area. It's all mostly back country accessed stuff. Here's a view from town:
Mountains like that *and* a nice big natural lake...the town is nice, small, and rural too. Yum.
The wildlife is amazing as well...it's everywhere:
Watch out for the bears and wolves:
The weather on the hike in wasn't so good...but that gave us a little new snow on arrival. Here my pimp ass self has got the women carrying my gear and beer in to the Yurt:
After the hike in we settled into the Yurts and then went for a tour/ride. I got to ride a cool little choke of a chute, which was entertaining for me. All the telemarkers were psyched to do laps on a 400 vert ft bench. I tend more toward the longer lines or 'interesting' lines. I'd rather not make 6 boring turns and then transition my split board.
On one of the days we were doing laps on a fairly flat bench and me and my girlfriend didn't want to do all the transitioning/hiking/boring riding so we built a little kicker.
Here's one of the tele-babes jumping off of it:
One of the better parts of this trip was summiting 3 different peaks in the area. One of them, Hidden Peak, was super wind blasted, and had some cool snow 'formations' on the rocks:
Group shot of those that climbed the peak that day:
Yours truly:
A shot of my babe, her first *real* back country trip...beyond a day off area of my local ski area, shredding it up:
Like I said...I prefer the more 'interesting' lines then simple bowls or short benches. But since I'm the only one of the ten on the trip with such 'inclinations' I was pretty much on my own to figure my own entertainment out. The 'hosts' (they're quick to point out that they're not 'guides') kind of have to cater to the group, but our hosts were cool enough to try and get me some stuff when they could.
On the second to last day we had put a very switch backy trail up about 200 vert feet on this powder field we found, since the wind had screwed the new snow the night before this was one of our better options that day. I was standing on top...letting folks go, not caring about the tracks others were putting in since I can generally get the sides and have a fresh line and the 'host' walks by (I had already transitioned out of my skins and into board mode) and he says how he's going to extend the ski track out to another depression/chute line right next to the one everyone was tracking out. SO I stand around for awhile just watching people hike up/drop down and figure I'll go out to the next chute and get a super nice fresh line. I put one foot in the board and kick my way out a bit...it's kind of up hill work so I'm exhausting myself and when I get to where i figure I should be...the 'host' isn't there. I look up and he's on top of this rock out crop and says "Wanna go higher?" Of course I say yes cause a 200 foot drop is pretty laughable to me unless it's *very* interesting. So I put my board on my pack and hike up to him. When I get there he points out where we need to go and asks me to break trail...since the first part was a sketchy step through some rocks/cliff/drop off we'd be boot packing and I already had my deck on my back. So I sketch through the little exposure area to the other side. I'm not sure what he wants me to do or where he wants me to hike...so I walk out into the open a bit to test the snow and it's obviously wind crust/glazed...I'm kind of having trouble putting in steps with my hard boots. The 'host' kind of looks at me...looks up...looks back at me...essentailly telling me that it's up to me to decide where I want to go...so I just keep going up. We get through this kind of choke area and I keep pushing up to the bottom of this cliff that's over hanging us. We stop on this little prominatory and 'relax' for a bit to get my mind right before the descent. I look over across the 'chute' and point at this little notch that looks like it leads to a cool little chute and the host says he'll go over and check it out. So he heads over, looks down it and says it's to rocky...he then says to watch him for a bit so he can descend. He promptly skis right down the line we had discussed where all the powder would be, rather then the wind pack, and at the bottom traverses skiers right so I can't see him. Suddenly I'm feeling very alone and in an unkown area with avi hazzards all around me. Oh well. I click in and ride over to that notch to look in. Suddenly he pipes up on the radio I was wearing telling me that the chute goes if I want to ride it. I unclick one foot and sketch out around the rocks that he thought were enough reason to not ski the chute. I then proceed to make jump turns in the tight chute since it was bullet proof snow and pretty darn steep in spots. Let's just say I'd rather have been wearing wool then polyester at that point. This chute and the little choke were two of the cooler lines I got to ride that week.
On the last day we hiked up to the summit of Mt. Andy. I was being stupid and not really thining about my line off the peak since I wasn't sure where we were going over all. On the hike up I only got side views of the line off the top:
It's that weird shadow line. Everytime I tried to look into the choke of the chute I couldn't see what happened and there were lot's of rocks around so I was a bit intimidated..despite how boring this picture makes it look. When we got to the summit two of the guys I was with hiked down into it to check it out and then hiked back out saying the snow was to poor and they didn't want to take a very long slide if they blew a turn. This is them hiking back out.
Unfoturnetly I let their fear get to me and I decided not to do it (most of the group was anxious about it, etc and I didn't need to be *that* guy...so I back off of it.) We rode down off the peak and I got to ride a cool little chute that was lower down. I was so bummed/pissed at myself for backing off something I knew I could do I went down this chute and just jumped off all the walls every chance I got. Here you can see the little chute I rode down (on the left) and a better view of the chute I backed off (remember that shadow line)...which after seeing the full line really bummed me out since it was compeltly do-able and no real choke involved at all. Oh well:
one of the worst parts about it was this peak is the first big peak that looms over you as you hike out frmo the yurt for a days' skiing. The next party in after our group was a writer from back country magazine and a ski model photo shoot for Black Diamond. They were hiking up as we were hiknig out from our big blue bird day of riding and the first thing they would have seen is my tracks coming off this big peak if I had ridden it...DAMN! I hate sucking.
Anyway...the hike out went fairly easily and quickly. Here's a shot of our host getting to his truck...check out *his* pack..talk about a hard way to make a living:
We spent that night in Joseph and partied pretty hard with our host as well as an old friend I knew from back in the day here that guides out of another operation in the Wallowas. it was good to see him again. We were at one of the bars for a bit and a few of the group decided to play poker. Here's a shot of the dealer wearing my cheetah print vest...that's what I call partying!
Here's a shot of *some* of the lines we skied during the week. The one dotted line is the line I *should* have skied off the top of Mt. Andy.
This trip is in the McCully Basin of the Wallowas. The company is Wallowa Alpine Huts...ask for Morgan as your 'host'...he's the man and was very accomodating of my unique 'desires' considering the folks he usually has to deal with and general trust issues with 'clients' over all.
