Two hours before the tour I got an email saying I was brave to be leading a tour into the white fog that had settled on Santiam Pass.  My response was that often when things don't look promising, you have your best tour.  And so it was on Sunday February 15... well maybe not the best but pretty good!  It was basically warm when we got out of our cars at Ray Benson, but we were on two or three inches of fresh (very wet) snow.  

  

No one had sticking problems as we headed south on South Loop towards Big Lake.  We diverted onto the snowmobile trail under partly sunny skies.  We did not go out on Big Lake, only on some firm, presumably shallow inlet with a view of Mt. Washington.  This is always the highlight of a Ray Benson tour for me.  Then we headed back north on the east part of South Loop, past the PCT.

 

And that is when we got into low snow conditions.  On some sections we were on bunch grass, while in others we were on sticks and twigs.  But everyone took it in stride; particularly when we broke out into one of the several Santiam meadows that had plenty of snow coverage.  We even tried our hand at turning on a slope or two!  What more can you ask of a ski tour?

Photos by Keith and Liz