Bring On the Girly Fun Ski Time!

Have you heard of SheJumps? We are a national organization with the goal of increasing female participation in outdoor activities. SheJumps offers a variety of programs around the country, including outdoor education, youth initiatives, and lots of fun activities to get the girls out!

I had the opportunity to host two Get the Girls Out events in Oregon last season: winter and spring ski days at Mt Bachelor. They were both incredible! Fun, empowering, colorful, giggly, and amazing. Read all about them here:

Winter '13 Get the Girls Out Mt Bachelor

Spring '13 Get the Girls Out Mt Bachelor

For the next year, I'm taking my involvement with the organization even further by being a SheJumps/Isis ambassador for 2013! I am SO HONORED to be a part of this new ambassador program, and look forward to planning more great events for the ladies of central Oregon!

I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, including some ladies' backcountry ski days! Counting down the days until the snow starts flying again : )






xoxo
Lindsey

Skiing the Prettiest Mountain in Oregon: Mount McLoughlin

May 10th, 2013

Roll Call: Loren Griswold, Erik Schmidt, and Lindsey Clark

A very romantic-looking NE bowl

Every time I see Mount McLoughlin my heart skips a beat. Taller than anything else for 200 miles in every direction and almost perfectly symmetrical, McLoughlin has a distinctly Fuji-esque essence. Maybe we should start calling it McLoughlin-San!

Erik had the opportunity to climb and ski it a few years ago, but I had never been closer than admiring it from afar. Fortunately, it somehow rose to the top of potential objectives for our busy spring summit season. Our awesome ski buddy Loren from Utah happened to be in town, so we swooped him up with Rumble Vanskin and off we went to Southern Oregon!

We slept for a few hours in the van at the McLoughlin trailhead. A leisurely 6 AM-ish start afforded us cool weather while walking up the McLoughlin trail with shoes on our feet and ski gear on our backs.

After a little over an hour, we found continuous snow and were able to start skinning. The sun was out and the weather was warm... it was a classic spring ski day in the Cascades! We took a break at an excellent lookout close to the top, where we were able to see our ski objective for the first time. It looked rad!

Our ascent route followed the McLoughlin trail more or less all the way to the summit.  The climbing was easy and straightforward; dealing with the relentless, blazing sun was probably the biggest challenge of the day.

As we neared the top, clouds began accumulating. First, they popped up around the summit of Mt. Shasta, then they started gathering around McLoughlin. The forecast thunderstorms were on their way!

Erik nearing the summit

We didn't linger too long on the summit with weather on the way. As usual, Erik beat me to the top so he was hanging around while I was transitioning my gear:

Note the boots on my pack! Photo by Loren Griswold

Imminent thunderstorms or not, we made time for a quick summit photo:

Photo by Loren Griswold

And then we were off! Erik and Loren dropped down to a lower spot to scope out the slope:

And we each took our turn skiing down the Northeast bowl. The snow was super soft, with warm temperatures and rain in the recent past. Fortunately, the bowl was steep enough to manage the giant, wet sluffs we let loose while making our turns. No stopping!

Erik skiing the NE bowl

We made a mess of the bowl!

We admired the mountain after our descent. What a gorgeous place!

The views were over the top.

Continuing our descent, we skied until the snow became too patchy to proceed (which means different things to different people for sure), then eventually met up with the PCT and followed it back to the McLoughlin trail, and then to the trailhead.

Cheers to a successful climb and ski of McLoughlin!

Epilogue: As we drove out of the trailhead parking area, rain began to fall...