If you know me in the real world, then you already know that last spring we plucked up our little family and transplanted from Salt Lake City to Bend, OR. We moved out of Utah because the pollution, the politics, the liquor laws, the water crisis, the traffic, the and the weird LDS culture were too much to tolerate. While I miss the long Wasatch couloirs that lead right to the road, and miss being close to my parents in Park City, Bend has been an incredibly positive change.

The other boon has been the opportunity to explore a new mountain range. Things are only fresh once, and I relish the experience of filling in my own mental map. The familiar has its own appeal, but one needn’t hurry to experience it, as the familiar gradually takes over the unknown until it becomes hard to find that freshness without traveling.

There have been many new things here. Approaches are longer. The snowpack is different, the weather different. Learning the right places and times to ski under different conditions requires experimentation and exploration

A few weeks ago we had an anomalous stretch of warm weather in early march that produced a short corn snow cycle. My ER group, in addition to being a great group of providers, is also populated in large part by backcountry skiers. I made plans with two to go sniff out some steep corn on Broken Top, and when we arrived to the cirque, another two of our docs were already high on the ridge, making a total of 5 ER docs on the mountain with nobody else around.

High clouds and wind portended the closure of the springtime window, so we sniffed around and decided on the east-facing line called Pucker Up, which was sheltered from the wind. Pucker Up lived up to its name, with a 45+ degree opening pitch and committing entrance. I hadn’t skied it before, so I was given the honor of first tracks.

Good steep corn was enjoyed by all, we headed to the central crater to find more. A bootpack up the tower couloir led us to the NE rim of the crater, and we opted for more smooth corn on the 1 o’clock face.

As I write this, the weather is true spring. Yesterday was 75f in town, and today temperatures will drop below freezing, bringing snow down to 2000′. Friday may bring the last powder skiing for the year, but you never know. Then begins the corn cycle that can extend to mid-summer, a benefit sorely missing in Utah.