We parked at Dutchman Flat Sno Park last Monday and skied up the Nordic trails to Big Meadow, and then skied up snow machine trails to the vicinity of Ball Butte.
The sno mo trails were pretty convenient for speed, and not too crowded on the weekdays. They're not that aesthetic though:
We broke out of the mess of tracks at the well-signed Wilderness boundary and followed a gently rising traverse across the eastern base of Ball Butte, where I turned around to photograph Bachelor and Tumalo:
We worked ever closer to Broken Top and Broken Hand, enjoying fast spring conditions and very gentle terrain:
My original plan was to camp at the clifftop viewpoint on the trail, where I've camped before. Luckily, my partner took note of the location's denser trees and views toward the urban core of Central Oregon, and wisely steered us west, to a higher point on the rim that had better views of the Cascades.
We enjoyed the earthshadow and a gentle sunset, marred only by contrails that I worked hard to photograph around:
I actually enjoy seeing city lights from high up in the mountains:
The morning was cold and clear, with only the beginnings of wetter weather on the horizon:
We packed up and skied out toward No Name Lake. I had recognized its distinctive moraines on the way up, and we both immediately thought it would be a nice side trip on the way back down. Given the day's increasing warmth and the well settled snow conditions, it was pretty easy to contour over there from the rim:
We had lunch at the lake, climbed the moraine to the north, and then schussed back to the roads in ever hotter temperatures.
Yours truly:
