Routes: E Bowl (moderate ski descent)
Tumalo Mountain from the East in late November
Tumalo Mountain from the East in late November
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Tumalo is Mt. Bachelor's little brother across Cascade Lakes Highway. Diminutive as it may be,
it has huge advantages over its much bigger neighbors: In contrast to Bachelor it is not blessed
with any lifts, and in contrast to the Three Sisters or Broken Top it is easily accessible (from Dutchman Flat
Sno Park) even in mid-winter. Its steep eastern bowl provides about sixhundred vertical feet of
superb powder skiing, which makes it a favorite destination for a few aficionados. The only downside
is that it's open to snowmobiles. Where are Doc and Bonnie with their Karo syrup when we need them?
Routes: E Bowl (moderate ski descent)
Tumalo Mountain from the East in late November | |
Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz
Route: E Bowl
Equipment: AT Skis
Time: Dutchman Flat Sno Park - Summit 55 minutes
Comments: Good skin track to the summit
Trip report:
It had snowed a lot, conditions at Smith were so-so at best, and so Paul and I decided to
celebrate the Thanksgiving weekend by doing laps in Tumalo's bowl again. We started out by
me managing to get the car stuck in the Dutchman Flats sno park (first time ever I managed
to do that with my Subaru). I had high-centered the front axle so thoroughly that no amount
of rocking pried me lose, and neither did four strong guys pushing. It took a BIG truck to
pull me out, and even that truck was straining.
With that out of the way, we skinned up to the summit in under an hour (seems we're getting
faster every time we do it), and jumped into the bowl. The snow was excellent, and so we
skinned back up and did it again before settling down for lunch in the trees. The mountain
was drifting in and out of the clouds, occasionally it snowed, and the wind on the ridge
was cold, but overall conditions were really good for late fall, and there was a lot of good
snow. We did the bowl two more times, and then headed back down to our car. This time we
stayed farther right (west), but still intersected the snowmobile trail east of the sno
park, albeit this time only by a bit over a quarter mile. Paul swears that I'm magnetic
and therefore keep getting diverted towards the east.
Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz
Route: E Bowl
Equipment: AT Skis
Time: Dutchman Flat Sno Park - Summit 1 hr
Comments: The bowl is now closed to motorized traffic!!
Trip report:
The Thursday between Christmas and New Year was the relatively coldest day during a warm
spell, so Paul and I headed to Tumalo. We got a late start, and the driving was slow on
icy roads, and it was past 11am when we finally started out from Dutchman Flat Sno Park.
There was a good skin track, and we got to the summit in exactly an hour. We were worried
about avalanche danger, with a foot or so of new snow on an old crust, but the bowl was not
corniced, hence wind loading did not seem to be a problem, and we figured it was okay.
The first run was fun, but the snow needed some getting used to. We skinned back up and
tried again before settling down to cook lunch at the bottom. The third run was the best,
as we finally got the hang of the funky snow and visibility was still okay. While skinning
up again the mountain got whited out. We went for a fourth run anyway, but it was hard to
see where we were going. At 4pm we started back down from the summit in high winds and a
whiteout. After getting fooled by a snowmobile track we lost the skin track, and in the
near-zero visibility we pretty soon had no idea anymore which way was west. We did not
carry a compass (this was only Tumalo Mt., after all!), so we followed my (wrong) intution
that we should go farther left. We intersected the Forest Service Road that doubles as a
snowmobile trail just at sunset and started skating. The road goes up and down quite a bit,
so pretty soon we put on skins and kept going. After a while we asked a passing snow
mobiler how far it was to the snow park, and the answer was a reassuring "about a quarter
mile". By now it was getting seriously dark, and we did not carry head lamps (this was
only Tumalo Mt. after all!). An hour and about two miles later we finally reached the sno
park in total darkness and a raging blizzard. Driving home was as slow as getting there,
but actually less dangerous, as we drove on snow rather than ice.
Tumalo is always enjoyable. If you can't see anything on the way down, go right. If you
think you're way too far right, go a bit farther to the right.
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| Dietrich reaching the summit plateau, with Broken Top and South Sister in the background. | View of Broken Top and South Sister from the summit plateau. | Paul starting down the bowl. | Paul at lunch. | Paul skiing the bowl again ... | ... and digging a bit too deep. | Paul skiing back up. |
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| The third run was the best. | The summit went in and out of the clouds. | Dietrich near the top of the bowl, ... | ... in mid-run, ... | and bottoming out. | Time to go down ... | ... since it was getting dark. |
Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz
Route: E Bowl
Equipment: AT Skis
Time: Dutchman Flat Sno Park - Summit 1 hr 5 mins
Comments:
Trip report: The weather was bad all over, and there still was not a lot of snow anywhere, but Paul and I wanted to get one more skiing trip in during winter break, so we decided to do laps on Tumalo Mt. again. There was a bit more snow than in November, enough to get back down without scratching up our skis, and the weather was bearable. It was snowing most of the day and it was cold, but the wind was not as strong as on our last trip. The bowl had two to three feet of poweder on top of a crust, and was quite skied out; people must had skied there the day before. The skiing was quite good, except for some unbelievablly annoying snow mobile traffic in the south part of the bowl. The Forest Service seems to be in the process of closing the bowl to these $*@(&!# machines, as signs have popped up on the north ridge saying "closed to motorized traffic". There were no signs to the south (yet?), though, hopefully they will be put up soon. We did three laps in the bowl, and then had an enjoyable ride back to the sno park.
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| Paul skinning on the way to the summit. | Dietrich skiing the bowl. | Paul skiing the bowl ... | ... and skinning back up. | Dietrich taking a break. | Paul at lunch. | Paul on the way back down. |
Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz
Route: E Bowl
Equipment: AT Skis
Time: Dutchman Flat Sno Park - Summit 1 hr
Comments:
Trip report: In 2003, Tumalo on Thanksgiving had been a great success, so we decided to repeat this. We knew there was little snow, but the Mt Bachelor ski area was open, so we figured there should be enough. It was cold and windy at Dutchman Flat; Bachelor was thoroughly socked in, and Tumalo was drifting in and out of the clouds. An hour's worth of skinning on surprisingly little snow got us to the summit and the wind-loaded bowl. There was fresh powder on a hard crust, and skiing in the bowl was good. The first time back up we went up the ridge, since Paul has been paranoid about avalanches ever since he got swept off of Oberservation Rock on Rainier in September. The ridge felt amazingly alpine: Windswept rocks and ice, spin drift all over, air temperature maybe 20 F, and wind speed around 25-30 mph. After our second run we had some lunch and then skinned back up on the lee side of the ridge. Two more runs made for a total of close to 4,000 vertical feet; we were getting tired and it was getting late, so we headed down. We managed to ski all the way back to the sno park, but not without adding a few bad scratches to our skis. Nice trip, but a bit more snow would not have hurt.
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| DB skinning off of the sno park | DB skinning up through the forest | DB starting down the bowl ... | ... picking up speed ... | ... and enjoying the ride | PB against a very pale sun | Our skin tracks during a rare sun break |
Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz
Route: E Bowl
Equipment: AT Skis
Time: Dutchman Flat - Summit 1 hr
Comments:
Trip report:
Paul and I were eager to get some Thanksgiving skiing in, and in order to find decent snow we headed east.
We toyed with the idea of sneaking up on Bachelor, but the prospect of having to break trail for miles to
get around the groomed slopes made us settle for Tumalo. Paul pushed up the South slopes at a fierce pace,
so that I could barely keep up with him, all the while being chased by a woman who seemed to be in even
more of a hurry to get to the top. I offered to let her pass twice, but she declined, mumbling something
about not wanting to leave behind her friend, who had no chance to keep up, however. There was a storm
moving in, and the wind on the summit was commensurably strong. We dug a small shelter to brew up and have
lunch, then we got going on the bowl. There were three or four feet of fresh powder, and the skiing was
fantastic. By the time we started skiing the woman who had chased us was already on her second lap; she
could not believe that we had had the patience to fire up our stove, with this kind of snow waiting!
Soon we had a decent skin track, and kept doing laps until our thighs gave out. What a great way to spend
Thanksgiving Day!
Party: Dietrich, Paul, and Monique Belitz
Route: South Slopes
Equipment: X-Country Skis (DB,PB), snow shoes (MB)
Time: Dutchman Flat Sno Park - Summit 2 hrs 15 mins
Comments:
Date: December 24, 2001
Summit - Dutchman Flat 1 hr