Category: Lift Served

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.

I was pretty amped to head up to Mt Hood and traipse around the north side of the mountain in July for the second year in a row, as were both Joe and Dan, so we firmed up plans a couple of days earlier. I headed out on Sunday with my gear and family in tow, and we headed up to Sherwood to visit my uncle. It was a warm morning, so we enjoyed hanging out in the backyard for a couple of hours before heading out to lunch in town. A couple of hours later, Julie dropped me off at a Starbucks in Wilsonville and headed out, and a few minutes later Joe arrived and picked me up. We met up with Dan in Sandy, who had the hair-brained idea to see if he could bring his Tesla up the Cloud Cap road, and headed out.

The drive up highway 26 and then around and up to Cloud Cap was uneventful. Dan drove the Tesla up the road with precise skill, and even managed to make it all the way up without touching a rock. We found a nice campsite adjacent to the road, and after parking the rigs proceeded to setup camp for the evening. As usual, it wasn’t long before it was time to head up to the Inn and enjoy the views.

To our surprise, the Inn was open since one of the Crag Rats was camping there for the night with his family. He offered to show us around, which was an awesome experience. Even though all of us had been up to Cloud Cap on multiple occasions, this was the first time we got were able to see it up close from the inside. I couldn’t help but think about the experiences of the guests enjoying the inn during the late 1800’s and how much effort it took just to get there!

We were quite amazed at how large it was and how many different rooms/areas there were. From the outside, it looks pretty cool, but getting a first hand tour of Inn was definitely amazing. The photos on the wall showed some of the history of the mountain and the Crag Rats, as well as the much bigger Eliot glacier that, although greatly reduced in size, is still Oregon’s largest.

We hung out in the inn for a half hour or so, enjoying the views, enjoying the opportunity, and taking it all in. On the back deck (or front deck I guess since it was opposite the mountain and what you see as you first approach the inn), I had to get a few photos of my Cloud Cap Amber Ale from the Mt Hood Brewing Company while hanging out at the namesake for the beer :). I’d picked the beer up a month earlier in Govy while attending the annual Nuts & Bolts patrol function at Timberline.

After snapping some pics of the beer, we enjoyed the views off the deck of the north side of Mt Hood before heading back down to camp to eat dinner and get ready for the following day.

Dinner for me was a tasty Pad Thai freeze dried meal, which hit the spot. Unfortunately however, I spent too much time preparing it and organizing my gear and I missed heading back up to the ridge to shoot some pictures of the sunset by about 1o minutes. Nevertheless, it was a super successful Sunday spent visiting family, getting to the mountain and enjoying good company inside the confines of Cloud Cap. Not long after the sun went down, we hit the sack in anticipation of making some fun turns on Monday.

The morning dawned early, and like the year before, I enjoyed the view looking down towards the Columbia and beyond while brewing my coffee. It didn’t get very cold overnight, so we made breakfast early, loaded our packs and were on the trail by a few minutes after 7:00 am.

It wasn’t long before we gained the ridge and followed the climber’s trail up towards the Eliot Glacier. The wind was quite blustery, and was blowing a lot of dust across the Eliot canyon. I had my doubts about how high we’d be able to make it on the ‘Dome, but was hoping conditions would calm down a bit as the morning wore on.

Soon, we made our way to the high point on the ridge and dropped down onto the Eliot. The wind died down a bit by the time we worked our way down into the bottom of the canyon, and after working our way across the scree and rocks covering the glacial bed, we found our patch of snow on the far side of the canyon and donned crampons to work our way up.

After working our way above the first steep section, we did an end run around a few large crevasses and then headed out onto the Eliot proper. From there, it was a short hike over to a section of snow that provided access up to the snowfields below the Snowdome.

We continued up the snow fields to the base of the Snowdome, and then set a boot track directly up the ‘Dome. Magically, by the time we headed up the ‘Dome, the wind died down, and the weather and snow conditions were quite nice. The three of us were pretty stoked on the conditions, knowing we would likely get some good corn on the descent. Topping out around 9,400 feet, I snapped several pictures of the surrounding beauty, including some of the glacial features on the Eliot and Coe glaciers.

Traversing over to peer off directly into the Eliot, I took care not to fall in any holes. The view down onto the Eliot was impressive as usual, and I couldn’t help but think what it must have looked like 150 years ago when the Langille brothers were leading guests up the mountain from Cloud Cap Inn far below.

A few minutes later, Joe arrived at the top, followed by Dan, and we enjoyed the view together. I got my Cloud Cap Amber ale on ice, and we started reminiscing about last year, so we put on some Bob Marley and listened to “We Jamming.” 

After drinking our beers and hanging out up top for a half hour or so, it was time to drop in and do what we came to do – enjoy some high-quality corn turns! We stepped into bindings, and I dropped in first, making some of my best turns of the summer down a few hundred feet to where I set up to shoot pics of Dan and Joe as they came down. 

Dan dropped in first, and carved up the slope while I fired off several shots, and then Joe dropped after Dan. Dan skied down to my left, affording some nice pics of the Eliot while Joe headed to my right, and I got some good pics of him skiing above the Coe drainage.

We skied the smooth snow down to the base of the “Dome, and it was so good we ditched some of our gear (Dan ditched his whole pack), and headed back up for another lap. The views climbing back up the ‘Dome were superb, and looking north, Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier and Mt Adams were clearly visible.

Once back to the top of the Dome, we headed down again to score some bonus corn, and Dan grabbed the camera and fired off a bunch of shots of me coming down. Below is a 5-shot sequence of some pretty glorious mid-July turns on the Snowdome…

We skied back down to the bottom of the ‘Dome, then collected our gear and headed out for the rest of the ski back down to the Eliot. 

This section of snow below the Snowdome didn’t look as smooth as the Snowdome itself on the ascent, but it actually skied really nice, and we enjoyed a bunch of quality corn on the way down to the Eliot.

We worked our way all the way down to the rock crossing above the Eliot, and then carefully crossed the rocks to the snow below, before ultimately making our way back down to the glacier for the final turns of the day.

The lower sections of the Eliot served up ample doses of good corn, and after crisscrossing around a few crevasses and jumping over a few others, we milked the final finger of snow to the bottom.

Back at our shoes, the ski boots came off and went on the packs with the skis, and we worked our way across the jumbled boulder field over to the ridge. Climbing back up to the ridge went without incident (I always worry about a loose rock taking someone out), and soon we were staring back at the northside and admiring our work!

The hike back down the trail to Cloud Cap went without incident, and we fired up the grill and enjoyed a round of Cloud Cap Amber Ales and some brats with the campground manager who was more than happy to chat us up and eat the extra brat we had. We weren’t parked in a suitable place for me to take out the tripod, and I was being kind of lazy, so no shots of the apres’ ski were taken on this day, but below is parting shot of Dan and I from Sunday evening at Cloud Cap! At any rate, once the brats and beers were gone, we loaded up our gear and headed down the road, stoked on another awesome trip to Mt Hood’s north side!

For one reason or another, I’d watched the better part of the month of November slip by without finding a worthy opportunity to get our for some turns. I’d missed an opportunity early in the month due to work, and the weather after that was pretty bad, so when finally another storm system moved through I jumped on the chance to get out.

I called up Joe, and he was game to get out, so we met early in the morning at the cop shop in Albany before making the drive north to the mountain. We pulled into the climber’s lot around 7:00 am or so, and after donning skins and packs, we headed up. It was a treat to be able to skin right from the parking lot, and soon we worked our way up towards Silcox under blue skies and sunshine.

We made good time on the approach to Silcox, stopping for a brief break and then continuing on up. Coverage on the lower Palmer was sparse, but there was plenty of snow for turns. Both of us had our hopes on climbing higher than the Palmer however, but weren’t quite sure what the upper mountain would offer in terms of conditions.

We continued on, making good time to the top of the Palmer, where we stopped to hang out in the sun for a few minutes and enjoy the views. After refueling with a quick snack, it was an easy decision to keep climbing, and see what the conditions above would give us.

We navigated our way through a maze of rocks, rime and firm snow, and skinning was bit difficult at times. Neither of us were sure if it would warm enough to produce corn for the ride down, but I had a feeling we’d be in good shape. We continued on up and worked our way towards the Vietnam couloir, and in places the snow was pretty nice wind buff. In other places though, it was pretty slick and sketch.

We met a solo skier named Nikki who we climbed part of the route with. Eventually, we switched to booting, which proved to be much more secure than skinning. I kind of regretted leaving the crampons in the car, but after a few hundred feet kicking steps it was apparent we’d make due without them.

It started to warm considerably by the time we reached the bottom part of Crater Rock, and I had to take off my Pendleton wool shirt as we traversed above the White River headwall and continued climbing towards the Devil’s Kitchen and Crater Bowl.

Eventually we worked our way to the Hogsback ridge, and decided to call it there. Both Joe and I were a bit tired from the climb, which was more taxing than it should have been without crampons, and the upper mountain was basically out of the question without them as well. Sitting at the saddle and enjoying the views was easily a great consolation prize to continuing up.

Since we’d reached our high point, it was a fitting time to snap a picture of my beer and get it on ice. The beer I’d brought for the day was aptly named Devil’s Churn Imperial Stout from Yachats Brewing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it while watching the sulfur steam vent from Crater Rock and the Devil’s Kitchen below.

The temperatures had warmed considerably, and it was amazing to sitting there in just a base layer without a breath of wind. I spent several minutes watching and videoing the sulfur coming out of the rocks behind us, and eventually we figured it was a good time to step into the bindings and prepare to head down. It’s always bittersweet leaving the Hogsback — it takes considerable time to get there and the views are so special, however the turns beckon and the pull to put down some smooth tracks is strong.

I dropped in first, and enjoyed some smooth wind buffed turns down a few hundred feet before setting up to shoot some pictures of Joe coming down. The slope didn’t disappoint, and Joe ripped some nice turns down to me and beyond…

Once we descended down off the Hogsback, we continued on down past Devil’s Kitchen and then enjoyed some really nice turns above the White River headwall. The fresh snow was smooth, and with the deep blue sky as a backdrop, it provided for some pretty nice photos.

Once down to the Vietnam Couloir (so named because it looks like that in the summer), Joe and I both agreed that we definitely needed to ski it and continue down to the Ziggy. As soon as I made my first turn in the couloir I knew we were going to have a few thousand feet of sweet skiing….

The couloir was a “take your pick” between chandelier corn on skier’s right and wind buffed pow on skier’s left. It was baby butt smooth, and Joe and I ripped it from top to bottom. I’d say it was easily some of the smoothest November snow I’d had (at least since last year on Hood hahaha), and we both had huge smiles on our faces by the time we reached the Ziggy below.

Once down to the Ziggy, we continued descending and the snow conditions continued to be perfect. We worked our way down to the normal summer get-back spot, and ended up hitting it perfectly so that it spit us out right back at the top of the Palmer after a hard traverse.

Back at the Palmer, we enjoyed a well earned break and talked to a few rookie splitboarders who were up for their first ever spiltboard outing. The conditions continued to be beautiful and warm, and it felt good to soak up the rays and enjoy the views. Eventually, we started down, and Joe grabbed the camera and took several photos of me enjoying the turns on the upper Palmer.

The snow on the Palmer was in pretty good shape — not quite as nice as the upper mountain but still really nice nonetheless. We continued on down and I took a few pictures of Joe as we worked down towards the Mile chairlift.

Once down to the Mile, we elected to head skier’s left and followed our noses down some fun lines towards the car. The snow had melted out quite a bit down low from earlier in the day, but there was no need to take the skis off and we enjoyed some pretty nice turns that spit us out right at the climber’s lot.

Once back at the car, it felt good to get out of ski boots and take the packs off. Joe and I were looking forward to some apres’ grilling, so Joe fired up the grill and we got them cooking as soon as it was hot. A few minutes later, we were enjoying some tasty ‘brats along with some garden fresh chips and salsa to put the cap on what was a pretty great day of riding.

All in all, it was a perfect way to spend a late November day, and a day that neither Joe nor I will likely soon forget. Until next time, here’s a parting shot from the day…