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.
