Category: Mt Hood

I was wanting to get a second day in during December, which seemed pretty dismal considering during a normal December I’d have 7 or 8 days of skiing, but given this year a second day was a nice treat. Conditions were looking good up at Mt Hood, so Joe and I made plans to head up and see what we could find. We met early at the Cop Shop in Albany, and after piling gear into Joe’s truck, we headed up the freeway, making it to the mountain in time to see the sunrise over the hills to the east.

There were quite a few folks already gearing up, given both that it was winter break and that the sun was out after a bit of fresh snow. We geared up quickly, and hit the skin track with the masses, working our way up towards the top of the Mile and then on to the Palmer.

I got a text from Rich, who I’d ridden with a few weeks earlier, that he was about 20 minutes behind us, so we stopped at the top of the Palmer to enjoy the views and eat a snack while he worked his way up. A few minutes later, Rich showed up, and we headed on up since the snow conditions were conducive. I donned ski crampons above the Palmer, which made for smooth traveling. Joe had the wrong bindings for his crampons, but made do without too much issue.

The traveling above the Palmer was smooth, with the snow being somewhat smooth and wind buffed. The weather was gorgeous, and I snapped several shots as we worked our way up, including several below. The rime on the steel cliffs was particularly beautiful…

A few hundred feet below the White River headwall and the Devil’s Kitchen area, the snow surface became icy, and we switched to booting with crampons. Joe had an issue transitioning in a difficult spot from skins (without ski crampons) to crampons, so we lost a bit of time. Rich continued on, and we caught up with him later at the Devil’s Kitchen area…

At the Devil’s Kitchen, the fumaroles were puffing out sulfur as usual, and we enjoyed a quick break in the warm sun. The temps were quite warm for mid-December (an omen of the warm winter to come, unfortunately), and I stripped down to just my base-layer before we headed up towards the Hogsback ridge.

After our quick rest, I headed up to the Hogsback with Rich, and enjoyed the views while waiting for Joe. Rich was keen to tag the summit, so he headed on up, while I chilled with a view to the south as well as of the upper fumarole and waited for Joe to arrive. 

Joe arrived 20 minutes later or so, and after some discussion, I decided to forgo a summit climb and instead enjoy a beer at 10,500 feet along with the excellent views. My beer of choice for the day was a smooth drinking and aptly named White Mountain Porter from the Big Island Brewhaus that I’d picked up while vacationing in early November with the family on the Big Island. It hit the spot, and it felt good to enjoy the tasty beverage in the warm sun with the good views. 

A bit later, we readied to enjoy some quality December turns. Before heading down, Joe snapped a shot of me on the Hogsback, and then it was time to step into bindings and get our ski on. I dropped in first, and enjoyed some quality wind buff down towards the Kitchen, and then stopped at a suitable spot to shoot a few shots of Joe as he dropped in.

The turns were fun, and we worked our way through a couple of spicy spots and then headed out towards the White River Headwall, traversing hard right to ski the Zigzag side, which held fairly smooth snow.

Once we worked our way into the Vietnam couloir, Joe grabbed the camera and fired off several shots of me enjoying the turns, including the four shots below…

We continued on down, and I captured some pics of Joe enjoying the smooth snow in the late December sunshine. Once we made it to the top of the Palmer, we took a quick break to catch our breath and contemplate our best path down.

It looked like about 500 people had been up to the top of the Palmer judging by the number of tracks on the snowfield, and it wasn’t surprising given the weather and winter break time frame. That said, skier’s left looked to be mostly untracked with smooth snow, so we clicked into our bindings and headed down. Indeed, the turns were creamy and smooth.

We continued left, and were rewarded with good quality turns. As we scoped things out further, it appeared that the Salmon River canyon was untracked and filled in enough to link turns all the way down. Score! We headed in and made some of the best turns of the day. I snapped a bunch of photos of Joe on the way down, and we milked the turns right down to the Climber’s Lot.

At the lot, both of us were stoked on the day and really happy to get an additional, and quality, day in December. We hung out for a few minutes after de-booting, and then it was time to hit the road. Unfortunately, the traffic in Govy was absolute shit, and it took over an hour to go a couple of miles with all the people out and about. Eventually, we made it out of the traffic jam, and the rest of the drive home was smooth sailing. All in all, it was another good day on the mountain, and one I won’t soon forget.

After thoroughly enjoying a two week vacation with the family in the Hawaiian islands, I was eager to get November turns in the books, which would mark a milestone Turns-All-Year month for me at 240. Joe was game to ski as well, so we made plans to head to Mt Hood to get get what little snow there was on the mountain. We met early at the cop shop and made the drive up I5, arriving at the climber’s lot to find the mountain pretty bare but plenty skiable.

We started off in trail shoes given the lack of snow down low, and before we departed the climbers lot I snapped a photo of my truck beer for later in the day – a smooth tasting Xplorado IPA from Xicha Brewing. A few minutes later, we shouldered packs and headed up the road towards Silcox.

A few minutes and a thousand feet later, we were up at Silcox and enjoying a quick break along with the view before we continued up towards the Palmer. The firm snow made for easy traveling, and our hopes were that it would turn to corn a few hours later.

The coverage became a bit better as we worked our way up to the top of the Palmer, and from there we made the decision to head up to the White River to check out the snowfield, which held the smoothest looking snow that we could see on the mountain.

As we worked our way up towards Beer Rock, something didn’t look quite right with the snowfield. The snowfield looked more like a valley rather than the traditional level field of snow we were accustomed to, and it was then we realized just how much residual snow had melted over the previous summer.

At any rate, we skinned almost to Beer Rock, and then switched to booting for the final section where we decided we’d climbed high enough for the day and would call it. The snow higher up looked more wind effected and firm, so we enjoyed the views and a beverage while removing skins and getting ready to ride. My beer of choice for the ski was a easy drinking Living Daylights IPA from Scuttlebutt Brewing that I’d picked up back in late summer while in Everett, WA to attend the pacific northwest ski patrol convention. It hit the spot and after finishing our beers we were ready to ride.

As we readied to drop in, Joe offered to take the camera and shoot some pictures of me as we descended, which was awesome, so I handed it over and once he was a few hundred yards down slope I started down while he fired off some shots, including the three pictures below…

I skied down to him, enjoying some really excellent November snow, and headed further down slope before stopping. The turns were great, and by the time Joe made it down to me we were both pretty stoked on the conditions. From there, we continued on down the snowfield, enjoying the nearly perfect snow and taking some more pictures along the way.

We enjoyed every skiable foot of the White River snowfield before traversing over and liking up with the Palmer for some more skiing. The upper Palmer was holding in quite nicely, and although not as smooth as the White River, still afforded some quality turns. 

We worked our way down into the Palmer Canyon, and continued enjoying the smooth turns until we ended up back at Silcox. From there, we elected to ski the Mile Canyon. Conditions in the Mile weren’t the best, but it beat walking and we were able to slide to within a few hundred vertical feet of the lodge before running out of snow.

Once the snow ran out, it was time to throw the skis on the packs and head for the truck. While packing up, we met Lucas and Mallory who had also been up skiing. Turns out Lucas knew a few friends of mine from Bend, and we enjoyed some chitchat on the hike back to the parking lot together. A few minutes later, we were back at the truck, and it felt good to get out of ski and snowboard boots, and into some more comfortable clothes. Neither Joe nor I were in the mood for brats (even though we packed ’em), so decided to get a jump start on the drive home and hit the road. All things considered, it was a pretty great day on the mountain, and I was more than happy to have my November turns and my 240th month in the books. Below are a couple of parting shots from the day.

The dog days of summer we experienced in July and August were finally over, and that meant it was time for some September turns. Dan, Joe and I made plans to head out on Labor Day to Mt Hood, and check-in on the snow conditions since they were rapidly deteriorating, at least from what we could see on the Timberline webcam. I met Dan early as usual at the Harrisburg exit on I-5, and we carpooled up to the cop shop and picked up Joe in Albany. After a brief stop in Sandy to charge, we pulled into the Climber’s Lot a little after 8:00 am.

The mountain was looking pretty, and the Palmer was looking small, but there were turns to be had, so we got our gear together, shouldered packs, and headed out. Instead of heading up the road to Silcox, we headed over to the Mile Canyon to walk up that way. Joe had skied the canyon a few weeks prior, and was able to ski down quite low. Unfortunately, given the recent warm temps, the snow had melted quite a ways up and we were stuck in approach shoes for quite a ways.

A little over halfway up the Mile Canyon, we were able to get on snow and start skinning. As we donned skins, we met a few other skiers, including one who looked familiar. Turns out it was Silas Wild of Turns-All-Year fame. We chatted for a bit about TAY streaks and the good-old days of TAY past, and then continued on. Once we made our way to Silcox and the top of the Mile, it was a short hike on dirt and then back to skinning in the Palmer Canyon. The Palmer Canyon was also quite melted out on the top third prior to the mid-station, and then it was a longer than normal walk from the mid-station to where the snow remaining on the Palmer was waiting.

At the bottom of the Palmer, we donned skins once more and headed up. As we made our way about halfway up the Palmer, a bunch of other folks emerged below and it looked like, and sure enough was, the same crew out of Washington that we saw last year in September. It didn’t take long, and we were at the top of the snow on the Palmer, about 50-100 feet below the actual top station. The first order of business was to get the beer on ice, which I did promptly. A few minutes later, it was cold, and the Good Vibes Only hazy IPA from Baerlic Brewing hit the spot. 

After a few sips of beer, we took the skins off the sticks and enjoyed a sandwich before getting ready to drop in. Our friends from Washington headed down first, and we watched as they slid down the Palmer, enjoying some nice turns.

I headed down first after most of the Washington crew disappeared below, and enjoyed some nice corn snow before setting up to shoot some shots of Joe and Dan as they dropped in. Both of them made perfect turns, thoroughly enjoying a perfect September corn harvest.

At the bottom of the snow, we regrouped and donned skins to head back up for another lap. As we were getting ready to head up, a group of three skiers and riders came down, and one of the skiers was Naoto, a friend of Joe and Dan’s and former patroller from Willamette from many years back. We hung out and chatted with him and his buddies for awhile, and it seemed like the perfect time to snap a picture of my second beer I’d brought up the hill. It was a refreshing Johnny Utah Pale Ale from Georgetown Brewing Co. After capturing the picture, I put it back on ice to enjoy later when we were done with the Palmer.

A bit later, we bit Naoto farewell and headed back up the Palmer for a second lap. At the top, the other half of my hazy IPA was waiting, and it was nice to be able to enjoy it along with a good view. Before we dropped in, we had to get the “sponsor” shot from the top, which was somewhat ironic given that I was riding a homemade split with no sponsor gear whatsoever. Nevertheless, the name “sponsor” shot has a good ring to it.

Eventually, it was time to drop in. Dan took the camera and headed down, and then snapped off a bunch of photos of me enjoying our second lap, including the four-shot sequence below.

About halfway down, we regrouped and I grabbed the camera, and slid down to shoot a few shots of Joe and Dan as they came down. I managed to capture a few shots with both of them in the frame that turned out pretty well…

The skiing was really good on the second lap, and not wanting to be quite done, we decided to ditch the skins and packs and head back up for a half lap to the mid-section of the snowfield where the snow was skiing the best.

We did just that, and after about 15 minutes or so of booting, were in position to make turns once again. I slid down first, enjoying several nice turns, and snapped a few more pictures.

We made our way back to our packs and gear, and after a brief break, enjoyed a few turns on a small but skiable strip of snow. 

From the end of the snow, it was a longer than normal hike back to the mid-station. It was a bit depressing how much snow had melted since August, and it was beginning to look like getting October turns on the Palmer might be quite a challenge. Below is a picture of Dan looking quite small as we made our way over to the Palmer Canyon.

Once we made it to the Palmer Canyon, it was a short hike down to the snow below, and soon we were back to sliding. The turns were decent all the way down, and we had to pull the skis a few hundred above the Silcox and then walk down to the last patch of snow in the Mile Canyon.

The Mile held good snow for a few hundred yards, and we were able to link patches down and ski a bit more than we initially thought. Dan grabbed the camera and snapped several photos of me, including the pics below…

About halfway down, we saw another skier heading up and it was a familiar face – fellow turns-all-year enthusiast Amar Andalkar. We stopped and caught up with Amar for a few minutes, and chatted about our last outing when we skied together on the Avalanche Glacier Headwall on Mt Adams. After awhile, we continued on down while Amar continued on up, and made our way down to the final patches of snow before the turns were completely through.

The hike down to the Climber’s Lot went quickly, and soon we had brats on the grill and were enjoying some chips with fresh tomatillo dip. Both offerings absolutely hit the spot, and it felt great to hang out in shorts and flip flops after a great day of turns. 

Before long, with the food gone and the hour growing late, it was time to pack up and hit the road. All in all, it was a great day of September turns on the mountain. Here’s a parthing shot of Dan and Joe on the Palmer enjoying some more of that great corn.

 

The year was flying by as usual, and July was quickly approaching, and Dan, Joe and I wanted to get out early to get our turns in. We decided to head to Mt Hood to take advantage of the fact that we could ski back to the car on groomed snow, while also venturing out of the area in search of wild snow as well. As usual, I met Dan early at the Harrisburg exit on I-5 and we headed up the freeway to pick up Joe in Albany. An hour or so later we were in Sandy, charging at the Supercharger before making the final leg of the drive up to Timberline.

The mountain was looking more like August 1st than July 1st, but we were happy to be getting out on the snow. We shouldered our packs and made the walk up to Silcox on the road. Several cars past us on the hike up, and when we got to the hut, we found out there was a promo shoot happening for some clothing outfit.

At the Silcox, we traversed over to the west side of the Mile/Palmer, and found a lane of snow to skin on just alongside the area boundary. Joe and I didn’t get hassled, but Dan did at the very top of the snow near the top of the Palmer. We were way west, on what I thought was well outside the area boundary, but there was a cat track out there that was damn near all the way out to the Zigzag!

Eventually we made our way above the top of the Palmer and found a suitable spot to enjoy a rest, eat some food, and soak in the views. The clouds above the mountain were really pretty, and Joe and I enjoyed our lunch while waiting for Dan, who was lagging quite a bit behind us after not getting any sleep the night before. Eventually Dan caught up with us, and we headed on up.

We worked our way up and over to the Zigzag, and skinned up to a point above Illumination Saddle that afforded a good view. The snow on the Zigzag wasn’t the best quality, being a bit runneled, and it was quite warm. We called it near the base of Crater Rock, and it was time to step out of our bindings and get a beer on ice. My beer of choice for the day was a whopper of a can – a 32 oz. hazy IPA from Mighty Pine Brewing that I picked up a few weeks earlier in Port Angeles while on a trip there with family to visit the Olympics and surrounding area. I snapped a picture of it, but then put it back in my pack to enjoy for later at the top of the Palmer. If you are in the Port Angeles area, it definitely worth checking these guys out — their beer is awesome and they are super good people.

After changing the skis over to board mode, we were ready to drop in. We traversed to the west a ways, looking for smoother snow, and ended up finding some snow that provided for good turns above Illumination Rock. It was a bit sticky, due to the warm temps and the fact that a few inches of fresh snow had fallen a week or so ago, but nevertheless we enjoyed the turns. I snapped several pics of Joe as he came down, and he grabbed the camera and returned the favor for me lower down.

Dan came down after us, after climbing up behind us, and I was able to snap some photos of him as well as he descended. He started out looking pretty tiny high above us, then worked his way over to Illumination Rock, and eventually made his way down to regroup with us above the Zigzag.

We party skied down the upper Ziggy to our usual entry point around 8500 feet in elevation. From there, given the stickiness of the snow and the warm temps, we decided to forgo skiing lower down on the Zigzag and instead head over to the Palmer. Getting off the Zigzag required taking off the skis and doing a bit of booting, but nothing like the usual booting later in August or September.

On the short hike over to where we could traverse back to the Palmer, I noticed something shiny sticking out of the snow on the Zigzag. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a full ski with Dynafit bindings. I decided to haul it out, and it reminded me of several other items (including a half of a splitboard) that I’ve found on the Zigzag over the years.

A few minutes later, after a quick traverse, we were back at the top of the Palmer and it was time to cool the beers and enjoy them. My beer was super fresh and great tasting, and I’m ready for a return visit to Mighty Pine. Our timing was perfect — we made it to the top just as the lift quit spinning, and we enjoyed the views while sipping our beers. I managed to down most of mine, although I gave a few ounces to Dan, and then it was time to ride. The Palmer didn’t disappoint, and the snow conditions were really nice. 

We stopped in the middle of the Palmer to get a quick rest of the legs, and then continued on down to make more turns. At the mid-station, we headed to the west to enjoy some of the groomed terrain west of the lift, and that turned out to be a great choice. I fired off several shots as Joe and Dan skied down, including the ones below. 

We milked the turns all the way to the bottom of the Palmer, ending up at the top of the Mile where we’d ditched our shoes behind some rocks earlier in the day. I fired off a few more shots of the boys as they skied that way….

After a brief stop at the top of the Mile to collect our shoes, we set off again, dropping into the half pipe before skiing out the Mile canyon back to the parking lot. It was a pretty swell treat to be able to make turns right back down to the car.

Once at the car, it was time to enjoy some Apres’ activities, and I was really looking forward to the fresh garden salads I’d made the day before. They definitely hit the spot, and sitting there in flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt, enjoying fresh eats from the garden while basking int he sunshine, it reminded me why summer turns in the Oregon cascades are so special. All in all, it was a great way to kick off the month of July and the summer ski season!

After enduring a long, hot summer, I was happy to see the calendar approaching October, which is one of my favorite months of the year. The transition to fall is something I look forward to each year, along with getting October turns in early in the month. This year was no exception, and Dan and I made plans to head up to Mt Hood and ski on what was left of the Palmer patch. I’d been watching the Timberline webcam for the past couple of weeks, and the snow was going fast, but it looked like it would hold out for turns in the first few days of the month.

We met early along the freeway at the Harrisburg exit, and made good time to Sandy, where we got a quick charge for the Tesla and a coffee for ourselves before heading up to the mountain. Pulling into the parking lot revealed a much different scene than a month prior, and there were only a few other cars around. After getting our gear organized and packs loaded, we headed up, and made good time up to Silcox.

Just above the Silcox, we found snow in the Palmer canyon, which allowed for some easy hiking, but the quality of the snow was just a notch below hideous. Neither of us were too stoked on the extremely bumpy and filthy snow, but held higher hopes for the Palmer above.

We worked our way up to the mid-station, and after negotiating a mix of scree, glacial till and dirt, we were able to don skins a couple hundred feet higher and skin the to within about 50 feet from the Palmer top shack. Once at the top, it was time to get a my beer on ice (after the obligatory photo). My first offering for the day was a tasty Big Juicy IPA from No-Li Brewery that I’d picked up in Washington a bit earlier in the summer on a trip with the family to Mt Rainier.

We sat around up top for awhile, enjoying the views while the snow softened some. A bit later, we got ready to head down for a first lap, and Dan snapped a “sponsor shot” picture of me before we clicked and strapped into our bindings and headed down.

I headed down first, and setup to shoot a few pictures of Dan as he came down, before he grabbed the camera to return the favor for me. The first hundred feet or so was “ok” snow, but after that both of us were surprised by how smooth and fun the turns were. Several pics are below…

We skied down a finger of snow on skier’s left, milking it until it ran out, and then donned skins to head back up for a second lap.

A short stint on the skins brought us back up to the top, and we ran into a fellow turns-all-year enthusiast and ski patroller from Utah named Darrell. As it turned out, Darrell had a one-month longer streak than Dan, at 349 months. The three of us chatted for awhile, and then Dan and I headed down for a second ski.

The snow on the second run was nice enough to warrant heading back up one more time, so we decided to make one more climb. As we were getting ready, Darrell came down and I snapped a few pics of him enjoying the turns, including the shot below.

Before we headed out, I pulled out my second (and final) beer of the day and snapped a picture of it, before placing it into a snow hole to make sure it would be chilled and ready when we returned after skiing a third lap. I’m generally not a big fan of pilsner’s, but I have to say the Phil’s Pilsner from Wild Ride Brewing was a beer that I would go for again.

For our third climb, we elected to forgo packs and skins, and booted up to a couple hundred feet below the top of the Palmer with the intent of enjoying the smoothest snow on the patch. A few minutes later, we did just that…

We skied back down to our packs and gear, and after loading our gear and approach shoes, made a couple of final turns down to the end of the snow. I caught a picture of Dan making the final slide on the Palmer patch, as well as a picture looking to the south towards Mt Jefferson. The Bingham fire, which had blown up in the last few hours, created an all-too familiar scene 

At the bottom of the Palmer, we elected to head down and ski some of the smoother looking snow in the canyon below us, rather than returning immediately to the Palmer Canyon with it’s rough and dirty snow. A long carry through scree and till brought us to a couple of dirty but smooth patches of snow, and we made some enjoyable turns.

At the second, longer patch, we found some really dirty snow. A short section of it proved to be too difficult to slide on, so we booted across it. Dan snapped a couple of pictures of me showing just how filthy it was…

Below our dirty snow, we managed to eek out another hundred feet of turns before calling it and making the traverse across the scree to the Palmer canyon. We both agreed that the final couple hundred feet of snow in the Palmer canyon was some of the most unenjoyable turns we ever made in our lives, but we managed to get down without injury or wipe out.

A short hike brought us out to the Silcox, and from there it was an easy stroll back down the road to the parking lot. As usual, it felt good to get the packs off our backs, and get the brats on the grill. While we waited for the meat to cook, I pulled out some of the season’s offerings from my garden, including some hot salsa as well as a new batch of tomatillo sauce made fresh a few days earlier. Both were great, but the tomatillo sauce was excellent and might become a new staple on the menu for fall ski trips. 

A bit later the brats were ready, and we enjoyed them after a fun day of burning calories and making turns, before packing up and making the long drive back home to the southern Willamette Valley. All in all, it was another great day on Mt Hood, and it felt good to have October turns in the books. Below are a couple of parting shots from the day…