More winter -> spring stuff

Took a day off and dragged the sleds over to Bend... Here's the 500 with a stormy look at S. Sister


Devils hill area, our ski spot for the day...


Matt working his way up...


Wee snowmobile specks down the hill... Noooobody else around. :P


Bachelor, Sparks Lake, Lava, etc.


Snow stability exam later in the day on Ball Butte.


Weather cleared for a minute!


Day 1 parting shot. Parked the sleds right at the wilderness boundary (see our tracks behind!?) Amazing we only got stuck once on the way up here (and that was cause our "ghetto" ski rack dumped it's contents.)


Day 2 of ski/sled fest: crew multiplied substantiall in size!


Post run tour around devils lake.


Prepping for the fabled "wizard island" trip (inside joke)


Prepping on day 3.


The dog clearly getting sick of being left behind.


The two sleds together were effective at moving 7 people at the same time. Fancy! :)


The penut butter cup lotus pose.


Skinning up at Tam Mac


Tam Mac from the lake.


Next trip was a rescue training on the Deschutes river near Steelhead Falls


Our sweet camp spot!


AM briefing with the crew.


Mel and Aaron attending, Jim prepping for edge.


Again.


A shared moment of relief (for a moment we thought Jim lost a finger, was just his glove+lots of cursing)


Last weekend was a trip to meet up with our friends Chris, Amy, Andy, and Beth. Here's squirt (aka "the squiz") looking very similar to another dog we know... ;)


Basic snapshot of what the weekend activity looked like.


View from camp.


This is the Williamson River from camp. I want a canoe. :(


Dog stoke.


Okay, add some rain to the picture. That's a little more representative of the w/e.


This photo doesn't do justice to what I was trying to get: electric green lichen.


Beautiful spot to camp, even with all the extra H20.


Group shot before breaking camp. Like any album cover, something needs to be looking off in the distance...


The gorge just upstream from camp.


Bella having a little howl session, water get's her excited.


More of the insanely beautiful canyon. I need a canoe.


More. I didn't see another group all weekend, we had the place to ourselves!


The little lady with some sun (finally!)


Otis striking one of his glamour poses.

Time for a quick update: First few were from a trip that Aaron, Mel and I took over by Edison Butte... We took the sled out for a spin up to Kwolh, then took a ski lap on Edison, followed by some sled playing in this big open field. Kinda fun to try to figure out how to corner the things, although it's clear that we're still not ready for the big time... Lots of fun though! :) The dark clouds in the background were a thunderstorm!













And here are some pics from the tail end of Catherine's visit... Weather was a little iffy, but we managed to get some great backcountry turns before heading over to Sisters and Smith. We only managed to get one pitch in before it started to rain on sunday, but it was fun anyway. Great to see ya Catherine!