Ryan, Drew and Scott. Photo: Black and Red Photography Backcountry skiing in Central Oregon has slowly become an integral part of my lifestyle. It is far different than resort riding. You are in the wild, powering yourself up the mountain and there is a huge sense of freedom. Freedom from daily stresses, work thoughts and pretty much everything other than the moment. After months of talking about it my friend Drew Bryant and I finally had a window of opportunity to get deep into the Three Sisters Wilderness and enjoy a day of skiing on Ball Butte and Broken Top. Our plan was set in motion the instant the head ski coach of MBSEF Freeride said the two of us could have the day off to enjoy an adventure. That Saturday Drew came up to me at lunch! "Scott we are snowmobiling into the base of Ball Butte tomorrow!" Sunday morning we rose early to get ahead of the weekend sled traffic. We met our friends Ryan Lazzeri and Paul Clark from Black and Red Photography at our home in Bend, OR, fired up the truck and rallied to Dutchman Flats. - https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.00007,-121.66370&ll=44.00007,-121.66370&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 Drew fires up his sled. Photo: Black and Red Photography After warming up the sleds, checking our beacons and tightening our loose knots we were mashing down the trail towards the forest service boundary line. We parked the snowmobiles at the base of Ball Butte. From here we would hike to the top of Ball Butte and press further to the east facing saddle on Broken Top. Ball Butte was no small accomplishment. Many people chose to stop hiking at this point - http://goo.gl/auPZO, but we chose to continue our adventure to the true summit allowing us to ski The North Face of Ball Butte. We towered the true summit around 1145AM. Obviously plenty of daylight to continue our adventure deeper into the Sisters Wilderness. After much contimplation we decided that North was a good direction to take. Are turns down Ball Butte's North Face were steep and variable. We were stoked! In the hours that followed we hiked from roughly 7000 feet to 8600 feet on Broken Top. It was at this point where we had far too many choices to make a split moment decision. After more than 15 minutes of conversation we decided the conditions were far too variable to press on to the summit of Broken Top. We settled for a few hours at 8600 feet, built a small jump off a natural feature and hiked a few lines. As a result of this session Drew Bryant From Don Bryant Painting got the shot of the day. And, believe it or not...... This shot was from his first hit on the jump. Yeah boy! The jump was sent for an hour or so then we were off. Back to the sleds we traveled. Another Awesome Adventure in the books and great learning experiences for all. Post By: Scott Rowley
0 Comments
Scott and Kirsten Rowley skied at Mt Bachelor until 330PM, rested for an hour then spent the evening climbing at Smith Rock State Park. My place of Zen is the mountains. Yours is likely somewhere else, but you can relate. Days like today make me feel truly blessed to live the life I live. I work hard to live it to the fullest, and trust me, some days are hard. Today, for example, I could have easily slept until 9am, went to work, then cruised home on my bike like usual. Instead, I opted for the early bird route. I got out of bed before the sun was up to be at the mountain at 645am; far before the chair lifts were even running. Why? Just to shred some fresh powder snow before 9 hours of work. Every moment of mental and physical agony was worth the joy I experienced on the way down. I do not know what happens in my mind, but as soon as gravity starts pulling me down the mountain I forget about everything except what is in front of me. Sometimes what awaits is a soft deep pow turn, but often it is a tree, death cookie or other obstacle that is not near as forgiving as the spring pow that just arrived at Mt Bachelor. Here’s to the early birds that get after it every day! Keep hustlin’! Post By: Scott Rowley
Lucas Waachs boosting a 360 at Tumalo Mountain in Central Oregon. Scott Rowley watches in awwww!
Scott Rowley, Lucas Waachs, Paul Clark from Black and Red Photography and Larry Mclaughlin an REI cinematographer made the most out of this weekends snow conditions in the the beautiful backcountry of the Central Oregon Cascades. There adventure started on Saturday at the Tumalo Mountain Trailhead where they checked all their gear, confirmed the weekend plan and set out for what would be more than an epic experience. The four man team skinned to the top of Tumalo Mountain, a roughly 2 mile treck. Both Scott and Lucas had a spot in mind that would suffice for both camp and one massive ski jump. The camp spot quickly evolved into a fortress that would protect them from the storm that rolled in Saturday evening. A storm that brought wind, light snow and real cold temperatures. Most of the crew was protected from the low temperatures by sleep in a snow cave that was roughly 32 degrees all night. This morning brought beautiful blue bird skies, a few inches of new snow and several hours of complete peace in the back bowl of Tumalo Mountain. Scott and Lucas hiked the jump they had built for several hours before calling it a day. Enjoy the photos and be on the look out for the next episode of the REI Member Stories. Video from our adventure at Tumalo Mountain in Central OregonI really did go skiing on Wednesday and it was partly sunny. Not mostly cloudy! Skiing with my girlfriend was truly awesome. We threaded the needle through some trees to thrash the un traveled powpow. And, trust me..... I found the un shredded powpow! It was great :) Big thanks to G5 for allowing us to thrive in the workplace and enjoy life at the same time :) I was happy to find some new wind lips on the way to NW Express from PINE Martin at Mt Bachelor. As some would say........ letttterrr buck! Have a wonderful day, Scott Rowley http://www.scottrowley.com Web Design // SEO // Google Applications // Awesome Adventures Stoked I ran accross this photo tonight. The ski photo is a switch cork 540 in White River Canyon. The other photo is of Drew Bryant and Scott Rowley during an adventure to Mammoth Lakes in California. This was two rocks stacked on top of each other. Pretty crazy! Posted By: Scott Rowley http://www.scottrowley.com Awesome Adventures |
Welcome to Scott's Adventure Blog! Categories
All
Archives
April 2017
|