High pressure was in the forecast, so Joe, Jack and I made plans to head up to Mt Hood for a day of turns. The plan was to tour out of the White River area and head up from there. Joe and I met at the cop shop in Albany early and headed up I-5 and then highway 26, making our way to the White River Snowpark around 7:45 am. While waiting for Jack to arrive, I walked a few few from the truck and snapped a few photos of Hood in the early morning light.
Jack pulled in around 8:00 am, and a few minutes later we shouldered packs and headed out. Although we didn’t have a specific objective in mind other than “up,” it was pretty obvious where to head — one could just look at the mountain and walk towards it, or follow the thousands of boot prints made by day hikers in the last few days.
The snow conditions were firm, which made travel easy and fast, and soon we started gaining some elevation. After a few creek crossings, we determined it would be better to approach via the easterly fork of the creek, and started up. Along the way, we traversed a couple of slopes that looked like they would be fun skiing a little later in the day.
We worked our way up the canyon, to a point where we needed put the skis on the back for a short carry across a melted out steep pitch. It looked like it probably went a week or so back, but at this point in time there was a gap between the snow of about a hundred feet. Adding to the challenge, there was quite a bit of rockfall coming down the slope. It looked like we could climb downward at a 45 degree angle, and cross at a narrow spot to minimize the risk. Our plan worked perfectly, and soon we were headed back up the hill…
Once we navigated through the steeper section, it was back to skinning. As we ascended, the weather was staying really nice, and it became clear that our objective was what I call the “finger.” The finger has a south aspect, which was what we were looking for in hopes of scoring some corn, and also is a feature that I’ve been looking at on Hood for over 20 years but for one reason or another hadn’t yet skied.
We skinned up to the base of the finger, then took a quick break to eat lunch and get re-hydrated. It was a well-timed break, and we were feeling refreshed as we headed back out. Joe and I elected to boot up the finger, while Jack opted to skin. The booting was pretty easy, and to top it off the snow was corned up pretty nicely. Our only worry now was to get to the top of the finger in time to turn around and ski it before it firmed up.
About an hour after we started booting, more or less, we topped out on the finger, and decided to head on up for another few hundred vertical. The snow here was lower angle, and a mix of wind buff and firm crust. Continuing on, we made it to about 9000 feet before calling it. From this point, it looked like it would be an easy traverse over to the Wy’East face, but given the hour, the conditions and our tired legs, we decided to call it.
We transitioned to ski mode, and took a few minutes to enjoy the view. It was quite windy at 9000 feet, but otherwise sunny and beautiful. I brought out my beverage of choice for the day, a tasty winter Ill-Tempered Gnome from Oakshire Brewing, and snapped a few photos. After that, I put it back in my pack to drink at the bottom of the finger, and we stepped into our bindings and started off.
The first few turns were a bit scratchy as we suspected they would be, but were still fun. Things really got fun however when we crested the rollover onto the finger proper and were able to rip the perfect corn…
I set up to shoot some pictures of the skiers as they headed down, and continued shooting as they skied by me. The snow was so good, both of them kept going, and skied for what seemed like forever before stopping about halfway down the slope. Once they were stopped, I rode some of the best (if not the best) December corn I’ve ever had on my way down to them…
The finger is much bigger and longer than it looks from below, and I headed down another several hundred feet and snapped some more pics of the skiers as they headed down. Everyone was thoroughly enjoying the turns, and really ripping the slope…
Towards the bottom of the finger, Joe offered to take the camera and snap a few shots of me, so I handed it off and he captured a few shots of me enjoying the action…
We skied the finger out to the bottom and then back down to our lunch spot, and stopped to regroup and admire our tracks. Looking back up, we were all stoked on the run, and staring at our tracks standing out in the corn reminded me of good days making turns in the cascades earlier in the spring…
Our lunch spot also turned out to be a great spot to drink those beers we were packing around, as well as toast Jeff (inside joke). Having not eaten a whole lot and then downing a 16 oz beer that was over 7% alcohol content left me feeling pretty good. Once the beers were gone and our break was over, we headed back down, retracing our uptrack on the slope below…
We skied down to the sketchy snow-free rockfall crossing from earlier in the morning and decided instead of skiing back down the way we came, we’d drop into the main canyon proper to milk the best turns in the afternoon sun. Doing so would require a longer traverse back out at the bottom, but proved to be worth it as the turns in the sun were soft and nice…
The turns down the canyon wall were excellent, and the pitch and the setting reminded me of an earlier trip several years ago to Mt St Helens, and I made a mental note to head back to St Helens this winter if the opportunity presents itself.
At the bottom of the canyon, we started the long traverse back out downstream. We were able to slide for the better part of a mile or so, before getting pinched out between the canyon wall and the open creek. After looking unsuccessfully for a snow bridge to cross, we elected to climb back up the canyon wall for about a hundred feet and them make a short traverse back to our original skin track…
Once back on our skin track, we made some fun turns down to the flat part of the canyon below, and then were able to slide the rest of the way out to the car, sans the one mandatory creek crossing.
There were quite a few folks out and about a few hundred yards from the snow park, but we were able to ski by them and slide right to the car door, always a treat. At the cars, we changed out of ski boots, and celebrated with a well earned Mike’s Hard Lemonade — thanks Jack, I owe you one!
All in all, with low expectations to start the day, everyone agreed the day exceeded expectations, and we were pretty stoked to get a rare December corn day. A bit later, Joe and I bid Jack farewell, and headed back down the highway to the southern Willamette Valley, already looking forward to another adventure.
