Deep Powder Snowboarding

So I finally got up to the mountain for a day of snowboarding. This is Willamette Pass Ski Area. It had snowed about 12 per day for the 4 days leading up to this so there was an incredible amount of fresh powder. I don't think I've ever boarded on so much. I forgot how exhausting it is. I went alone so I don't know any of the people in the pictures.

This is from the top of the main lift. I don't know which lake that is. Waldo maybe? It was an incredible view from up there.
Same place, different direction. I just sort of spun in a circle taking pictures.

As you can see I was the first person down this run. That is 8 to 15 inches of powder depending on where you fall.


Ok all the rest of these are from the peak. Side note: I am sitting in the coffeehouse in Eugene right now and, I shit you not, the radio is for some reason playing "The Yellow Rose of Texas". The old one. Wierd.

Willamette Pass was an interesting resort. The main lodge looks like many a ski lodge except for that it is so poorly designed, in my opinion, that at least 2/3 to 3/4 of the space is wasted. It has a wrap around deck that, whenever they get snow, they have to close it off to protect people from snow falling off the roof of the lodge. This begs the question, "Aren't snow days the times you need the decks open most?" Then, of course, there's the fact that the lodge could be 3 stories and if fact looks like it is from the outside. Instead, it's one monstrous room where you sit down, lean back, look at the ceiling 40 to 50 feet away and wonder "why?". Also the food sucked. This is a thing I've never understood about resorts in general. Why would you get people all the way out to your place, charge extortionate prices, and then serve crap or at the very least mediocrity? Why? Why would you want people to go home saying "well the skiing was good but everything else was painful. I spent a months worth of money but the only bit that didn't suck was the skiing. I guess it was so they could build a monstrous empty space and then spend a fortune heating it to the extent that they don't have enough money left over to buy good quality food much less prepare it in such a way that it doesn't insult the people who they just charged three to five times it's value." At the same time in an office somewhere I imagine the resort manager is thinking "maybe they won't notice. Maybe our really really big room will distract them and they'll dazedly eat their food and before they regain total clarity it will be gone and they'll think "well it must have been worth all that money cause I ate it all without realizing it". Maybe" Well this is not the case. The food is expensive and mediocre as is generally the case. The beer was good though.

And the boarding was great! Come visit! I'll take you! We'll take our own food! We'll marvel at the monstrosity that is their lodge from a distance since we can't sit on the deck cause it might kill us! We'll drink the good beer! We'll laugh at the people eating the bad food! It'll be wonderful!

Until next time. Get them pigs off the porch!