Category: Lift Served

Dropping in above Memorial Bowl, April 2009……..

Andy and I made several weekend trips to Mt Hood Meadows during April 2009, and had a variety of conditions and weather. Most of our time was spent in Heather & Clark Canyons, accessed from the Cascade Lift. In April, there are generally less people at Meadows, but the riding is still excellent. Here’s a shot of me ripping through some wind packed powder in the Silver Bowl in upper Heather Canyon….

Later in the month, conditions were sunny, and a few inches of snow had fallen the night before. Upper Heather Canyon was in good shape, and there were some large cornices which were begging to be dropped. This one in the Diamond Bowl was especially fun…

Following each ski day, we either had a beer in Govy, or better yet, listened to the live band on the deck at the Meadows base while enjoying a frosty cold one in the sunshine. For lift served in April, it’s hard to beat Mt Hood Meadows!

Andy and I left the southern Willamette Valley early in the morning and headed north to Meadows hopeful to get in some powder riding. The weather was pretty nice when we pulled in the parking lot, and the mountain had received a pretty good dump of snow the night before. As usual, there were hoards of people running around, but we found pretty good solitude off of the Hood River Express Chair on Private Reserve. We made laps in the trees around Elk and Yoda bowls for most of the day, and found plenty of face shots and deep powder. We took some video, and I pulled this still from one of the videos. Gotta love late March in the PNW!

Mt Hood was the destination for Todd and I as we looked to get August turns in for 2007. We didn’t really feel like hiking that much, especially after the massive snow melt off which has occurred recently so we opted to head to T-Line. Plus, my wife and I had our first child (Shaun – whom I’m hoping will become a member of the TAY club some day) on Sunday the 5th.

The snow was surprisingly good for most of the day, and the place was vacant after about 12:00. There were several public “lanes” open and the lift lines weren’t bad. We made so many laps I lost count. It was nice to get tons of lift served turns in, as opposed to the usual summer slog of hiking with only the return trip down.

At the end of the day, we were able to ride down to about 300 yards from the lodge. There was a long finger of snow out towards the Zigzag glaicer that was still skiable for anyone interested in getting some “non-lift accessed” turns in on the south side of Hood. It’ll probably be good for a few more weeks.

To complete the day, we stopped at the Ice Axe Grill (Mt Hood Brew Pub) in Govy and had a few beers on our way home. Their summer Hefewizen was excellent! I will likely be stopping there in the future!

I met Todd at 7:30 in the Timberline parking lot and we headed up for some lift served turns. Given all the hiking we’d been doing lately, it was nice to get some lift riding in. It had snowed down to about 6500 feet overnight, and there was a little wind sift on the east side of the Palmer that measured several inches in places. By doing a power slide, I could actually get the fresh stuff up in my face. The cold smoke hitting my warm face was like a dream.

The snow corned by about 10:00 and fog drifted in about 11:30. Here’s a shot looking down towards the lodge at about 9:00……..

We climbed out towards the White River Glacier for a rest and some GU, and admired the large ice field complex. It looks good for some climbing, but the seracs are big and most likely unstable. Several more runs followed, and we got several thousand vertical feet of riding in for the day.

We quit riding around noon, and headed down to the Ratskellar in Government Camp, where the Monkey Face Porter hit the spot. You can ride down to within about 200 yards of the lodge. I’m amazed at the coverage up there still. The Zigzag Glacier looks decent, and might be worth the hike. Get out and enjoy it while it’s good. It won’t be too long now until winter returns!