All of the TAYers (as we call ourselves) were pretty worried about finding snow this summer. Well, as it turns out, when you’re mentally prepared and physically conditioned for suffering, it’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be. Or something like that.
What I’m trying to say is skiing in July, August, and September was surprisingly fun this year. To start us off on the easiest possible track, I took at look at the calendar and realized that July 31 was on a Friday this year. That meant we could take Friday off and go somewhere to ski two days in a row and get two months in a row. I don’t have good ideas often, but I have to say this one was genius!
July (45): With Friday off from work, Theresa, Cori and I loaded into the trusty Jetta and drove to Mt. Hood for a few days of skiing shenanigans on Thursday night. Between food stops, traffic, and a minor infraction my bumper experienced with a hidden parking curb, it took us 6+ hours to get there. The drive should take 4 hours.
We arrived well after dark but found buddies in a campsite, threw back a few cold ones, and set up a ridiculous number of tents for how few of us there were (4 tents, 2 bivies, and a hammock for 7 people).
In the morning we got up and drove to Hood with the crew. Three opted to skin and four of us wanted to get drunk ski on the chairlifts. All of use enjoyed some summer corn, then took to the lake to cool off when it got too hot to ski. Yes, it really did get too hot to ski.
Mik, Craig, and Cori = Team Skin.
Colin, Theresa, Kristina, and Tony = Team Beer.
This is what getting on a chairlift in July looks like.
After skiing we went for a dip. It was almost 90-degrees.
August (46): Much like July, we got up and drove 5 minutes from our campsite to Timberline Lodge for skiing. Not wanting to spend the $62 on a lift ticket (yes, you read that right. It’s really that egregious), I opted to skin up with Cori. We had SO MANY options for skinning, but we managed to get through the route finding portion of our trip unscathed and quickly met our friends and took a few laps. All in all, a very efficient and successful weekend! And funnily enough we ended up running into the same guy who took our group picture last year – so he took one again!
September (47): September got off to a great start with a dusting of snow on Rainier the first weekend. Not able to make it Saturday or Sunday, Erica, Nick and I took advantage of Labor Day to go skin the Muir Snowfield. We were socked in for the first 7k, but once we popped above the marine layer we enjoyed a sunny day and some fun summer corn! Bigs ups to Mr. Drake for coming out of retirement for this one!
I love this shot: “Rainier Tease”.
Snowfield suffering.
Always stoked to be at Muir.
Some freshies! What a great September to make turns with a few of my favorite people!
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