With only this weekend left in the ski season, Mt. Ashland Ski Area officials expect to end the season with about 10,500 more skier visits than last winter.

TODD LAKE — We finally crested the ridge, and it was time to remove the skins and put our snowboards together.

When people say skiing is a lifetime sport, Ray Redpath and Judy Allen know exactly what they're talking about.

They come every year at this time, a costumed coterie of cold-weather congregants. They descend on the Mt. Ashland Ski Area for the Screamin' Tele Lizard Classic, which is billed as a telemark race.

It would take more than a broken leg to keep Kevin Schilling away from Mount Ashland.

From easy, gentle slopes in the trees to steep, technical couloirs high atop Cascade peaks, the Central Oregon backcountry offers something for every skier or snowboarder willing to venture beyond the chairlifts.

Nordic skiers have descended on Diamond Lake over Presidents Day weekend for 27 years now to compete in the John Day Citizen's Cross-Country Ski Race.

When I agreed to be a blind skier's guide, he assured me I needed no special training. "The key thing about being a guide is communication," Wade Kuntz said. "You've gotta tell me where to go left or right."

Freestyle skiing and snowboarding evolve at a breakneck pace. A maneuver considered impossible last season is suddenly the trick everybody is trying to perfect this season.

Telemark skiing is harder than it looks.

Art is where you find it, and this winter you can find it in the ski lodge on Mount Ashland.

Lift one foot off the ground and stand on just one leg for 10 seconds. Feel the muscles in your foot working to keep you upright.

Average is usually not much to get excited about. But when average follows hard on the heels of downright dismal, it looks pretty good by comparison.

The cover of a ski magazine does not usually portray a typical day on the mountain.

High atop the Santiam Pass in the Cascades, 85 miles east of Eugene, the 75th season of winter fun at one of Oregon's iconic ski areas is under way.

There were big smiles all over Mount Ashland Monday as skiers and snowboarders frolicked in 10 inches of fresh snow.

The Medford Ski Education Foundation will hold its annual Ski and Snowboard Swap next weekend, Nov. 9-11, in the multipurpose room at St. Mary's School, 816 Black Oak Drive, Medford.