Hot Box

It was a hot morning in the mountains today. I almost didn’t go, didn’t bother to hitch up the sled and drag it up to Dutchman because the snow level overnight was high and the cameras in the lots looked wet and gloomy. But supposedly it had snowed some up high and the rest of my week is spoken for, so off I went.

I sledded up through dense wet cloud goop, goggles fogging and my parka wetting out. Touring into Broken Top bowl the clouds began to break and the heat came into full effect. The sun was strong, and the little bit of clouds were keeping it ricocheting around like a microwave.

This season has been so odd. I really hope that we get to count this as an anomaly and not the new normal. It’s March 2nd, and neither the snowpack nor the weather are midwinter. A better mindset for the day was an early spring outlook, planning for everything to fall to pieces once the heat ramped up.

I’d wanted to go explore on the West Face, but as I set skintrack up the East facing terrain I quickly decided that I didn’t want to return though the area after it had warmed more. After some cornice kicking and ski cutting, I decided that the instability was only within the 6 cm of new snow, and manageable at that. Hot pow turns let back into the clouds.

I headed for the only piece of shade, and quickly too. Natural avalanches were starting to waterfall off the the cliffs, and some rockfall too. Time to punch my ticket and get clear before the glue came further undone. I’d never been up 3 O’clock couloir, but it’s due West aspect and the adjacent large cliff were keeping it free from the roasting sun. Setting a careful track and bootpack to avoid lanes of debris from the adjacent face was entertaining in a not-too-dangerous kind of way.

The turns down were good. Clouds rolled back in and I couldn’t get a picture. I was running away to the sled through the glowing cloud light and made good time back to town for lunch and kid life. As usual, it was worth the trouble, a lesson that I’m slow to learn. Today was also an interesting exercise in changing plans and managing conditions that didn’t match the model I’d formed at the car. This kind of hazard is good to play with – like an avalanche sandbox.