Dawn Patrol - In the Dark

**Tap** · 12-08-2005, 05:03 PM

I was up at 4:45, dressed and had fed the baby by 4:47, and by 4:49 was out the door to to ski the popular Mt. Bachelor "backcountry" in-bounds destination of The Cone. Located right at West Village, this 1000' vert cinder cone only asks 35-40 minutes of your time to summit its conical summit.

It's not extremo-mountain-core by any standard, but it loads up super sweetly with The Fresh whenever it blows in. It seems like this year the storms are coming in out of the Arctic, making them cold and productive.

Last night was no exception. The 1-2" Snow Advisory ended up spitting more like 4-5" (

) in Bend, and shoveling the driveway was alls I needed to know that it was some high quality, pin-dot flake.

I left the parking lot at 5:45, put the headlamp on and began to skin my splitboard up a freshly groomed run at the base of the Cone. I reached the top by 6:15 and it still was only 10-15% light out. I didn't need the headlamp, but would have to trust the sweet surface of fresh and my own memory of the Cone's roll-over to lay this one out.

The wind was still, light clouds drifted across the arms of Bachelor Butte, and 6-7" was layered nicely along my targeted flank. I dropped in on The Short Side, got my balance and rhythm and started to turn. A bit firm for 2....3...3.5 turns, where the wind had left only 2-3" of new-on-soft to play with.

THEN IT ALL GOES TO GLASS.

Silent, smooth biology turns. Organism in synchronicity. 5....6....7....8...I swing the board around left-right. Shadows coming at me. The trees. End of the run. I swing right and try to keep altitude on the cone, finding the skin track and converting the Voile system over - tractor skins and all.

WHOA - cool experience.

With the skin track in place, I' back at the top for #2 by 6:20. A sucker hole opened up on the Cirque, and I snapped this.

#2 was good. Oh yes. But #3 run was mo' mo' mo' better. I took it more north on The Cone, commonly known as The Long Side. The biggest sensation I remember was laying in a BIG toeside turn and just dragging my right fingertips in the pow, heli-style. Large, languid, and styleee, bro. Feelin' it.

And as was a Dawn Patrol, I was at my desk by 8:30. End-of-story. Word.