Category: Mt Hood

Somehow the summer had blown by, and before I knew it the calendar said August, which meant it was time to head up to Hood for some turns. Joe and Dan were game, so agreed to give Saturday a go. Dan and I met Joe at the cop shop in Albany a few minutes before 6:00 am, and we headed north on I5. We made a quick pit stop for some breakfast items at Joe’s Donut shop in Sandy, and arrived at Timberline a little after 8:30

We organized gear, loaded packs, and set out up the trail from the climbers lot. The climbers lot was as packed as I’d ever seen it, and it was nice to get away from all the commotion. I snapped a picture of Mt Jefferson to the south before we headed out, and then a pic of Hood with some wildflowers shortly up the trail… 

We worked our way up the trail, putting some distance between ourselves and the parking lot below. The morning was warm, and any concerns we had about the snow turning to corn were pretty much gone by 9:30. The wildflowers were readily abundant, indicating it had rained some in the past couple of weeks, and made the hike really pleasant.

We made it to the top of the Palmer in just under two hours, and hiked a few feet above the area where a few folks were practicing self arrest as part of a group. We pushed on a bit further, then decided switching from tennis shoes to boots would be a good idea before heading further up the snowfield.

It didn’t take too long to hike to the top of the White River triangle, near the base of the White River headwall. From there, we decided we may as well hike further up towards Crater Rock and see what type of condition the snow finger was — if nothing else it would make for a long descent down onto the Zigzag…

We crossed over the rocks towards the finger, and soon got a glimpse of the snow —- and it was pretty rough. There were quite a few rocks on the surface, and it was dominated by large suncups. We hung out for awhile up top, taking a needed break to refuel, and then decided there was no way in hell we were going to hike back down, so we dropped in…

There were a few decent turns, mixed with mostly garbage, but it was still better than hiking down. That said, none of us were considering heading back up for more. Eventually we worked our way on to the Zigzag snowfield, where the snow smoothed out and the turns became pretty nice…

We continued down the slope, ripping turns on the perfect corn. Ironically, given all the unconsolidated snow we’d skied this season, this was some of the best corn of the year. I snapped some pics of the skiers as they came down by and below Illumination Rock…

The lower we went, the better the snow became. From 8,500 feet on down, we found the best snow of the day, and were stoked to keep on going. Dan snapped a few shots of me as we continued on….

We milked turns down to the bottom of the snowfield, near 7,700 feet — not bad, considering we’d started around 10,000. I caught a few shots of Dan and Joe skiing down the last sections…

At the bottom, the clouds were starting to build higher on the mountain, so we wasted little time transitioning over and started hiking back up the snow. The hike up the Zigzag is always a bit on the mundane side, but soon we were ready to make the traverse back over to the Palmer…

As luck would have it, we were able to ski a short pitch before the traverse, so we made the most of it. I snapped a shot of the skiers heading down, and then it was a short hike back over to the top of the Palmer for a well deserved cold beverage….

While sitting at the top of the Palmer and enjoying a new favorite hazy IPA from Deschutes Brewing, we heard the familiar hum of a couple snowcats coming from below. Soon, one of the cats was moving a healthy dose of snow a few feet away from us on the road above the top of the Palmer. 20 minutes later when his work was done, he headed down and they began grooming the glacier for the next day of skiing — score! We headed down and ripped the smooth snow, enjoying every turn!

Below the mid-station, the corduroy was extra nice — pretty much hero snow. It didn’t take long to make short work of the groomer and get down to Silcox Hut…

The snow in the Mile Canyon was tracked out by the snowcats, but it still skied pretty nicely because it was plenty soft. We were able to ski down below the cats, and ultimately to a few hundred feet above the lodge, making for a pretty decent sum of 5,000 feet of vertical on the day…

At the end of the snow, we shouldered our packs and made the short trek down the trail and back the car, where cold beer, garden fresh chips and salsa, and fresh garden salads were waiting. Sitting in the parking lot enjoying the feast, all of us were stoked on the day, and already looking forward to what September would bring. Until then, here’s a parting shot from the day…

 

The days in November were starting to slip away, and I needed to get some turns in. The weather forecast was calling for sun on Friday, so I headed out solo since both Dan and Joe had skied the week before while I was stuck at work. The drive up I5 went smoothly, and I soon found myself cruising up Highway 26 with Mt Hood poking through the clouds…

A few minutes later, I pulled into the climber’s lot at Timberline and was the only car there until a friendly hiker pulled up while I was organizing my gear. The mountain was looking pretty, with a thin coat of new snow still remaining from the previous week’s storm.

 

Once my boards were strapped to the pack, it was time to set out on the road up to Silcox. I stopped at the usual spot to snap a picture of the mountain, and then continued on up. The road had a few inches of snow on it, but I booted for a quarter mile or so before switching to skins.

I made good time up to Silcox, and was happy to have been able to skin the entire way. After working my way over a few bands of rocks, I was out onto the Palmer. The Palmer looked similar to when Dan, Joe and I had skied it in October, but had definitely melted down since then. I stopped for a couple of minutes at the top to eat a snack and snap a few pictures.

The new snow from the previous week looked pretty skiable above the Palmer, but there was a heavy cloud layer flirting around 9500 feet. I decided to head up, not wanting to pass on the opportunity to ski some wild snow above the area boundary. As I skinned up, the clouds below continued to creep up the mountain, ultimately engulfing the bottom of the Palmer lift.

The snow on the southeastern exposure was starting to corn nicely, so I climbed up to about 9000 feet and decided to call it there, given the dense clouds above me and the fact that the coverage above was pretty sparse. I pulled the tripod out of my pack, snapped a few shots of myself with the remote timer, and then hung out in the sun and enjoyed a beer I’d brought with me.

I scrambled across a few rocks and got a good view of Illumination Rock and out towards the Zigzag Glacier, where some pretty fun summer turns were had a few months earlier. The skiing looked decent out that way, but given the aspect and the likelihood that the snow would be firm, I decided to pass and ski down the way I came up.

Being solo, I didn’t get any action shots on the ski down, but the turns were pretty fun. The snow above the Palmer was excellent corn, as was the first half of the Palmer. From the mid-station down, I had to ski in the dense clouds, which was quite a contrast to the sunny slopes between 8000 and 9000 feet. After the Palmer, I was able to link snow fingers down to Silcox, and then ski the road to within a couple hundred vertical of the parking lot. Once I was back at the car, I hung out for a little bit to enjoy some late season chips and garden salsa before heading home.

All things considered, it was a pretty great November ski, and worth taking the day off work. Now however, it’s time for the powder to fly…..:)

The stoke for fresh snow was running high, and with October turns looming for the weekend, dreams of powder turns from 10,000 feet back down to the lodge at Timberline were in my mind. Unfortunately, the storm came in warmer and drier than forecast, depositing only a few inches of fresh snow at the higher elevations of the mountain. Not to be denied, Dan, Joe and I made the best of it, and met up on Sunday morning. After meeting Joe at the Cop Shop, we headed up I5 and pulled into the climbers lot around 8:30 am. 

Unlike the previous months of August and September, the air had a chill to it and the skies were a cloudy gray instead of sunny blue. After milling about the parking lot for a few minutes sorting gear, we shouldered packs and headed up the road towards Silcox.   

It didn’t take too long to reach Silcox, and once we did it was time to start up the dry Palmer Canyon. A few hundred feet above Silcox, a several hundred foot long “snow” patch allowed booting on snow. A couple of snowboarders were descending as we were heading up, and the firm, icy snow made the turns look like shit. After chatting with them for a bit about conditions up higher, we continued up.

As we neared the top of the Palmer, the sun tried to poke through the clouds, and the icy firm snow appeared to soften ever so slightly. After a few more minutes of hiking, we topped out at the top lift shack and the impressive views looking out to the south.

The skies started to sock in higher on the mountain as we readied ourselves to drop in, and soon started to spit snow. I dropped in first, found my way through the rocks and onto the snowfield proper, and set up to snap a few photos of the skiers as they came down. Joe came down first, followed by Dan…

We skied down a bit further, and Dan grabbed the camera and snapped a few photos of me. The snow quality was firm but softening, and so smooth that it skied awesome. We skied down to the “road” at the mid-station, and all of us were stoked on the conditions.

At the bottom, everyone agreed another lap was in order, so we threw the boards on the packs and booted back up. The weather held nicely, and soon we were enjoying another round of October turns. This time the snow was even softer, and skied like perfect corn…

At the bottom, it was time for a quick break and a well earned cold beverage. My beer of choice for the day was a Fresh Squeezed IPA from Deschutes Brewing Co. After discussion, we agreed it was drink half now, head up for a third lap, and drink the remainder when we got back down….

Our third climb and ski went quickly, and the turns down on the third lap were probably the best of the day. Once we were back down to the beers, we loaded up our gear and skied down the “road” to the mid-station in preparation for the down climbing to the “snow” patch below…

The hike below the mid-station down to the “snow” patch below was longer than all of us remembered on the climb up. Eventually we worked our way down to the “snow” and it was time to “ski” again. The turns were challenging, and we skied down way to far — all the way to the end of the filthy dirty snow. At the bottom, I looked at my base and it was in definite need of some TLC.

At the bottom of the patch, we collected what was left of our skis, loaded them onto packs, and made the hike back down to the parking lot below. At the car, we enjoyed some of the season’s offerings, including fresh garden salsa, salad and of course another round of cold beers.

Sitting at the car, watching the fog roll in and out, we all agreed it was an excellent day of October turns. Furthermore, we all agreed it’s time for the snow to fly and for the new season to begin!

“I wonder how much snow will be left in September” was the question Dan and I were discussing over the phone a few weeks prior to the month arriving. With August being a scorcher of a month, we were both curious to see if anything would be left on Mt. Hood after our visit in early August. We made plans to head out over Labor Day weekend and find out. Joe was game to go as well, so after meeting at the cop shop in Albany we headed up I5 and arrived at the mountain a few hours later. Significant melting had occurred over the previous month, but it looked like there would still be plenty of turns to be had, so we loaded up our gear and headed up the trail.

The temperature was warm as we started climbing, and it didn’t take long for the convertible pants I had on to be put into shorts mode. An hour or so after we started climbing, we came up on ridge overlooking the White River Glacier. The glacier had looked pretty paltry in August when we observed it, and it looked even smaller now.

After a quick snack, we continued climbing the ridge, eventually making our way to the top of the Palmer, where we met a few other TAY folks who were riding lifts. After a quick chat, we headed for our intended destination — the Zigzag snowfield. After 20 minutes of scrambling, we made our way to the snowfield. It looked pretty good so we stashed a couple of beers in the snow, and kept climbing…

Around 9200 feet, we reached the top of the snow and were ready to drop in. The last couple hundred feet was a bit roughneck, but we figured it would be worth it. Dan dropped in first, and Joe and I followed. After we made our way through the rough patch, the snow surface smoothed and became premium September corn…

We worked our way down towards our beers, and snapped a few pictures along the way. After about 800 vertical feet of sliding, we arrived at our spot, and paused for a quick break to enjoy our chilled beverages.

Once our brief beer break was over, we headed on down for more fun. The lower half of the snowfield was in excellent shape, and Dan and I took turns with the camera and snapped photos along the way…

As we worked our way a little lower down on the snowfield, I setup to snap a few photos of Joe and Dan. One spot in particular caught my eye…it was overlooking Mt Jefferson, and there was also a very large boulder in the canyon that had melted out of the snow. I wasn’t able to get setup to get both features in one photo, so I settled for a couple of different shots….

It was striking how much snow had melted on the Zigzag since we were there a month earlier, and the canyon was really showing. Dan and I estimated as much as 10 feet of snow had melted over the past month. We were able to ski down to within a hundred vertical feet or so from where we did in August before the snow yielded to rocks, but had to stop short of the rollover that Dan likes to ski…

When there were no more turns to be made, it was time put skis on the packs and start the boot out. Hiking up, I saw what looked like a few remnant crevasses in the ice up towards Illumination Rock. It made me think of how big the glacier used to be — I remember reading about mules being lost in crevasses that were a couple of hundred feet deep while packing fireworks out to Illumination Rock back in the 1880’s…

Eventually we worked our way back to where we’d stashed some of our gear, stuffed it in our packs, and headed back towards the Palmer. It was around 2:30 or so when got there, and the lift was shut down for the day. One of the best things about the summer season on Mt Hood is having the Palmer all to yourself after the lift shuts down. We snapped a few pics, strapped in and headed down…

We skied down to the mid-station, and the snow was great. Wanting 4000 feet for the day, and having skied a couple thousand on the Ziggy, we made the decision to head back up for another lap. This time, we took a longer break at the top, enjoying the views to the south and the warm sunshine. A bit later, it was time to ski again.

We ripped turns down the main Palmer, and skied until our legs burned. We didn’t pull the camera out until we were in the Palmer Canyon, and Dan and I both snapped a few shots 0f the action…

We enjoyed the turns down the Canyon until the snow stopped, just a short ways from Silcox, and then it was a long hike down a dusty road back to the car in the parking lot. Like the month before, it felt good to change into shorts and flip flops, pull out a cold beverage, and enjoy a fresh garden salad along with chips and freshly made salsa. As we sat back and reflected on the day, the three of agreed that it exceeded expectations, and was probably one of the better September ski’s in recent memory!

After one of the hottest July’s on record, August finally arrived and Dan and I decided to head up to Mt Hood to get some summer turns in. We left the southern Willamette Valley early, and arrived in the Timberline parking lot around 8:30 am to find conditions on the mountain looking more like September than August.

It was already warm in the parking lot as we set about getting our gear organized, and a few minutes after 9:00 am we shouldered packs and headed up the trail. Conditions were dusty, but we made good time up the trail, eventually working our way up to the ridge over looking the White River Glacier.

The White River looked smaller than in previous years, and it was obvious the warm summer had taken it’s toll on the glacier. Dan and I both mused what it might look like in September or October if the weather didn’t change. We kept booting up the ridge, and soon came to the top of the Palmer. Another 5 minutes of hiking put us on the lower section of the White River snowfield, where we switched out of hiking shoes. The spot we stopped was adjacent to a large crumbling crevasse, which may have been melting from the inside out, and it made for a good shot to shoot a few pics….

After snapping a few photos and catching a quick bite to eat, we booted up the White River snowfield, staying on climber’s left to steer clear of the crevasses. The snowfield itself didn’t look to fun in terms of skiing, being dirty and rather bumpy. Around 9300 feet, we decided it was worth traversing west across the rocks to see what the Zigzag looked like. 15 minutes later we found the answer…..it was money!

Dan clicked into his skis, and I strapped into my board, and we dropped in. Dan snapped a few photos of me ripping the corn, and I returned the favor shooting a few pics of him a little further down…

The snow was pretty sweet on the upper slopes of the snowfield, but as we descended, it became even better and turned into some of the smoothest, most perfect corn we’d shredded all season.

We continued to milk turns, skiing down around the bend of the Zigzag to an elevation around near 7000 feet for a total vertical on the run of somewhere around 2300 feet. Not bad given the overall snow conditions in the Oregon cascades this summer.

At the bottom, we enjoyed a well earned beer — my choice was a Pineapple Kush from Cascade Lakes Brewing Co. — and then started the long boot back up. It didn’t take too long, and we worked our way over to the top of the Palmer for an exit ski out to the car.

The lifts had closed an hour or so earlier, and we sat around up top for a few minutes to enjoy the views before dropping in for some more turns. It’s always fun ripping the summer snow on the Palmer snowfield, and I snapped a few pics of Dan as we cruised down.

The snow below the Palmer in the Mile Canyon was a bit on the slushy side, but we weren’t complaining. Both of us were stoked that the snow extended down to a few hundred vertical above the lodge, and took full advantage…

Once we made our way to the bottom, it was a short hike back down through the tourists to the climbers lot where cold beer, garden salads and fresh salsa was waiting. Changing out of ski and snowboard boots sure felt good, and it was nice to sit in the parking lot in flip flops, shorts and t-shirts. All in all, both of us were stoked on how the day exceeded expectations, and were already looking forward to September and what it would bring.