For the third time in as many months, I headed out from work a couple of hours early and drove up Highway 126 with Andy to get some evening turns in at Hoodoo. After watching the webcam all week, it appeared there was still some skiable lines on the mountain, though the snow was melting fast with the recent warm weather. This time we packed the portable grill and planned to stay for some apres’ ski since it was Friday and we wouldn’t need to be back to work early the next day. Arriving at the parking lot, we parked over by the sledding hill since the main lot was closed. Here’s a shot of the hill from just beyond the car…
Looking at the mountain, I made a quick decision to leave the skins behind since it looked like it would boot easily. It did appear that we’d be able to ski most of the way down when we were ready to return to the car, but would have to walk across a few bare patches. Within 40 minutes of leaving the car, we were at the top and decided to make a couple of runs down the northwest face, as it looked rather enticing.
Booting back up went quickly, as we only rode down about about 400 feet. Within a few minutes, we were working on lap number two, which was as smooth as number 1!
After run two, we hung out on the summit for a few minutes, soaking in the views of Mt Jefferson & Three Fingered Jack to the north, and Mt Washington and the Sisters to the southeast. Here’s a shot of the view looking towards the south and Mt Washington…
We dropped into the main bowl and the turns were really nice. The snow was firmer and the pitch a bit steeper, which overall made for some good riding. Here’s a couple of shots……
We booted back up to the top one more time for a last run, and then made turns from the top back down to where the snow ended. I walked across a patch of bare ground about 200 feet long, then made some final turns back down to about 400 feet from the base area. Here’s a couple shots looking back at our turns….
Back at the car, we fired up the grill and grabbed the beers. Andy brought a couple of Ale’s from Whistler Brewing Company which turned out to be pretty tasty. Sitting in the sun eating turkey burgers with all the fixings and drinking some suds never felt so good!
It looks like Hoodoo is done for this season, but with luck, the snow will return early again next fall (as it did this year) and some fresh cold powder will await! Here’s a parting shot from the road home…
