August turns were on the menu and Joe, Dan and I were ready to make them, so we made plans to head to Mt Hood early in the month and ride the snowfields above the Palmer. As usual, my wife dropped me off early at the Harrisburg exit on I5 where I met Dan, and we cruised up the freeway to Albany to pick up Joe at the cop shop before continuing on. After a short charging session in Sandy, we pulled into the climber’s lot a little before 8:00 am and found the mountain looking pretty.
After gearing up and loading my pack, I headed up to the usual spot to snap a few photos of the mountain ass well as the berries and flowers that were quite colorful and in mid-summer form.
A few minutes later, we headed out and began the hike up the road towards Silcox. As we made our way to the overlook into the Mile canyon, we were pretty happy to see the snow extended way down towards the lodge, which meant the return trip would be a lot of fun!
A bit later, we made our way to Silcox and enjoyed a quick break, and took a few minutes to get some water and a snack. We contemplated heading up towards the middle of the Palmer, and decided that would be the best course of action. Once the dirt path gave way to snow around the mid-station elevation, we worked our way to the east side of the snowfield and made a quick skin to the top, before continuing on up towards the White River triangle.
Dan was dragging behind a bit, so Joe and I continued up, making our way to Beer Rock. After a brief break, I called Dan and informed him of our plan to head up higher above the White River headwall and possibly descend via the Vietnam Couloir.
As we climbed higher, the mountain became inundated with California Tortoiseshell butterflies. There were so many the air was thick with them, and it reminded me of the big migration from several years back on the Middle Sister at the end of July/early August.
Eventually we worked our way above the headwall and up to the ridge separating the White River and Zigzag snowfields. As we approached the top of the Vietnam Couloir, I was happy to see the snow was smooth. We found a suitable place to access the snow, and settled in for a few minutes to soak in the views and get ready to ride.
Our vantage point also presented a good spot to snap a couple of pictures of my beer of choice for the day, which was a NW Nights IPA from Barhop Brewing that I’d picked up a few weeks earlier while vacationing on the Olympic Peninsula with my family. After firing off a few shots, I stashed the beer back in my pack in order to enjoy it later before dropping in on the Palmer lower down.
Before we dropped in, Joe snapped a few photos of me in the usual “sponsor” shot pose, and then we spent a few more minutes enjoying the millions of butterflies before stepping into skis and board to harvest some August corn.
I dropped in first, and weaved my way through the butterflies before stopping at a suitable point to pull the camera out to shoot a few pics of Joe as he came down. After verifying the camera was in shutter priority mode with autofocus turned on, I fired several shots as Joe skied down by me. Below are six shots of Joe enjoying the couloir.
About halfway down, Joe took the camera and returned the favor, shooting a few shots of me enjoying the near-perfect corn. It was near-perfect only because the surface was just slightly bumpy, but the quality was outstanding!
Towards the bottom of the couloir, we discussed heading down further onto the Zigzag, but elected to ski down to the usual spot where we cross back to the Palmer to meet up with Dan who skied the White River triangle. The final turns in the couloir were nice, and then it was a quick traverse back to the Palmer, where we arrived just a few minutes ahead of Dan.
At the top of the Palmer, we got the beers on ice and enjoyed the views. The lift had closed down a few minutes earlier, and within 10 minutes or so there was nobody around except for a few patrollers, who we chatted with for a few minutes. After that, we enjoyed the beers once they were cold, and then it was time to drop in.
As usual, the turns on the Palmer were excellent, and we all had big smiles on our faces by the time we reached the mid-station. I snapped several pics of both Joe and Dan that captured the action on the descent.
From the mid-station, we dropped into the Palmer canyon and enjoyed more perfect corn on our way down to the top of the Mile.
The Palmer canyon gave way to the Mile canyon, and we continued on down, enjoying turn after turn in the afternoon sun. Eventually we skied down to the cats at the bottom of the Mile and then kept going to the end of the snow, which was just a few hundred yards above the lodge!
From the end of the snow, it was a short hike down the canyon and across a short trail back to the climber’s lot, where the car and some more cold beverages were waiting.
After our fun but long day, it felt great to get out of ski and snowboard boots, and I was really looking forward to the fresh garden salads I’d made the day before, along with a Patagonia Provisions organic lager from Deschutes Brewing that tasted just right.
The salads and beer hit the spot, and soon they were gone and it was time to hit the road, so we loaded the gear back into Dan’s Tesla and pulled out, satisfied with another excellent day of August turns on Mt Hood.
