Mount McLoughlin (OR) - North Bowl

I often tell people that the NE Bowl on Mount McLoughlin is one of my favorite ski lines in Oregon, and for good reason, it's nice & steep and gives ~2,000’ of quality turns. The SE Face is a bit more mellow, but provides 3,000' of fun turns and is a great option during Winter and early Spring. While standing at the summit I’ve peered down the north bowl and wondered if it would provide just as good of a descent. Unfortunately, Mount McLoughlin is pretty far from Eugene and takes about 3 ½ hours (by car) to reach the start of the tour. This usually means that it takes a backseat throughout the season to other tour options a bit closer to home. Now Memorial Day weekend and with the best weather forecasted for the Southern Oregon Cascades, my Buddy Andrew and I decided it was time to give it a go.

Since it is a long drive and it was a holiday weekend, we decided to combine it with some mountain biking at Spence Mountain, in Klamath Falls. I had heard really good things about the trails there and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Shout out to the Klamath Trails Alliance and Dirt Mechanics for building a great network of trails -- finally some technical riding somewhat close to home! After our ride, we headed toward the Mount McLoughlin trailhead, where we’d start the tour the following morning.

Andrew takes in the view on Spence Mountain

The author on one of the many fun drops on the North Ridge trail of Spence Mountain
(photo by Andrew Boes)

With cool temps forecasted for the day and being a northern aspect, we were able to sleep in a bit and didn’t hit the trail until 9am. For the first part of the tour we A-framed our skis on our packs and hiked up the relatively snow-free trail. The higher we climbed the more snow coverage we encountered. Shortly after the intersection with the PCT and at an elevation of ~6,500’ we were able to ditch our shoes and start skinning, which was certainly welcome.

Gearing up

Starting off the tour on the trail

Our first sighting of Mount McLoughlin

This was also the spot where we decided to divert from the summit trail (which climbed the southeast ridge), and instead, head over to the southeast face, which we believed we could skin the entire way to the summit. At around 8,000’ we crossed over the treeline, where the skinning became a bit steeper but also easier to navigate. As I made my way onto the SE face, I could see another group of skiers ascending via the ridge, with their skis strapped to their packs.

Traversing over to the SE face

Nice views of Brown Mountain (foreground) and Mount Shasta (background)

Another group of skiers closing in on the summit of Mount McLoughlin, via the SE ridge.

The skin up the face was pretty straightforward. The higher we climbed the steeper it became, but luckily the snow was soft enough to get traction and the slope wide enough to switchback up with relative ease. After 3 ½ hours and ~4k feet of climbing I finally reached the summit, where I found two other groups of skiers. The wind was a bit strong on the top, so I only spent a minute or so at the true summit, before hiking back down a little ways and waiting for Andrew.

Andrew, skinning up the SE face

Reconnecting with the ridge near the top of the climb

Before long, Andrew showed up and we readied our gear for the descent of the north bowl. Looking down into the north bowl, we saw a really nice looking line, on skier’s right, which appeared to snake down through a cliff band on either side of it. My original thought was that we’d drop around the skier’s left side of the bowl, but it was pretty torn up with rock and slide debris. Another thing we found was that the initial pitch, for either line, consisted of a breakable rime layer on top of 6” to 8” of dryish powder -- I’m not sure I’d ever come across this type of layering before.

Booting up the last view steps

Andrew takes in the view from the summit

Looking down into our line. Note the rimey first pitch

After we were both locked into our skis and ready for the descent, I dropped in for the first turns of the day. The initial 50 to 100 vertical feet off the summit were quite steep, with a slope angle in the high 40’s. The snow was also quite tricky -- not quite breakable crust but it did require some extra energy to make turns. Luckily it was soft enough that an extended fall wasn’t super concerning, but sluffs certainly were. Andrew dropped in soon after and before long we were below the rime/powder snow, where we found a much more skiable surface.

Andrew drops in for his first turns of the day

A beautiful day to ski!

Looking back up at the entrance -- steep!

Looking back up again, from further down and on more solid ground.

We were now at the top of the chute that split the cliff bands, and it looked really good -- nice & steep with sloped sidewalls. Once again, I dropped in first and headed down to take photos from below. I found some nice corn snow intermixed with some icy bits, depending on whether or not the surface of the snow had been sufficiently warmed by the sun. Although the skiing was pretty damn good, the atmosphere within the chute was even better! Once I had set up, Andrew dropped in, ripping turns as he made his way down to and past my position. For the rest of the run, we leapfrogged our way down, linking many turns and taking in the amazing surroundings.

Andrew looks down into the chute

The author prepares to drop in
(photo by Andrew Boes)

Entering the chute
(photo by Andrew Boes)

A beautiful sight!

Andrew drops down into the goods

More steeps

Andrew finds some banked turns

Still plenty of skiing left

The author enjoying the line
(photo by Andrew Boes)

Finding some good corn down lower
(photo by Andrew Boes)

Andrew drops the next section

Widening up a bit

The author
(photo by Andrew Boes)

A little firm in spots
(photo by Andrew Boes)

Exiting the chute onto the apron
(photo by Andrew Boes)

Andrew finishing up his line down the north bowl

Once we had left the confines of the chute and dropped onto the apron, we started traversing skier’s right, toward the saddle separating the north and northeast bowls. We could have milked a few more hundred feet of low-angle party turns, but since we were also planning to ski the NE bowl, we decided to preserve our energy.

The traverse to the saddle between bowls

Checking out some cool rock formations along the way

Looking back up at our line down the north bowl, from the saddle.

As we skied onto the saddle the NE bowl came into view. The last time Andrew and I had skied it we had perfect corn conditions. This time around it looked like it wouldn’t be quite as optimal, as there was a fair bit of icefall littering the slope. Undeterred, we skinned up and started making our way toward the summit once again. As with the south side of the mountain, the skinning went fairly well, but we did have to boot up the final few hundred feet due to the steepness of the run. We actually stopped short of the summit, since the skiing didn’t look that great above us and we wanted to hit the slope before it started to refreeze.

Entering the NE bowl

Lots of ice fall in the NE bowl, and a sun halo!

Heading up the NE bowl

Booting up the last bit

Once we had transitioned over we dropped in for our second and final descent of the day. Even, with the icefall scattered across the slope, the skiing was still pretty good -- certainly not the quality that we had the last time, but well worth the effort nonetheless. Toward the bottom we veered east, where we exited the bowl.

Staring of the descent of the NE bowl

Andrew finds some more steeps

The Cliff band that separates the two bowls

Finding some good snow on the left side of the bowl

Andrew picks his way through the scattered icefall

Andrew

The runout of the NE bowl

Still having fun

Getting in a few last turns

Hippy turns!

Taking in the beauty of the NE bowl

Now below the treeline we wrapped around to the south toward our uptrack. Luckily the trees were well spaced, which made it pretty easy to navigate back to where we’d left our shoes. We quickly traded out our ski boots for hiking shoes, A-framed our skis, and started the hike back to the car. The hike out went well enough, but I was feeling all the climbing we’d done and looked forward to drinking beers in the parking lot. Nice hours after starting the tour we reached the parking lot, where we changed into our street clothes, packed up my truck, and started the drive back north.

Some nice glade skiing on the way out

Nearing the end of the skiing

Hiking out

Conclusion:
Once again, Mount McLoughlin proved itself as a prime backcountry skiing destination. Although we did have perfect corn conditions, the snow was certainly good enough to provide thousands of feet worth of fun turns. The line we skied down the north bowl was pretty amazing and had conditions been a bit better, it might have been one of my new favorite lines in Oregon -- Nice & steep and very aesthetic. Combined with the fantastic skiing on the other bowls and faces forming the mountain, there is more than enough skiing to fill a weekend!

Our tracks:

The full tour

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