Category: Trip Reports

I was visiting family in Gresham over the weekend, and got a hall pass from my wife to head up to the mountain for some turns. My original plans to climb the Wy’East face didn’t come to pass, so I headed up to the Palmer snowfield and rode the lifts for several hours while the snow above corned. Once conditions were to my liking, I grabbed my Voile Mojo splitboard and skinned up the White River Snowfield to about 9200 feet, where I switched to boots and ‘pons. I reached the Hogsback ridge about 12:30 and was treated to this view….

I contemplated heading up to the summit, but decided against it due to several climbing parties clogging up the old chute. So, I headed out to the end of the ridge for some nice views and relaxation at 10,400 feet. Here’s a shot of my board, with Mt Jefferson in the background…..

After eating a Clif bar and a Gu, it was time to strap into the bindings for the long ride back to the truck. The snow on the upper pitches of Crater Rock and the Hogsback was great corn. The turns were fast! Here’s the view looking back up towards my first several dozen turns…..

I rode out onto the Zigzag Glacier to check things out. Nobody had really been out there and the snow was in very nice shape. I rode down the Glacier quite a ways, then traversed over back towards the ski area around 7000 feet. I ended up making a few portages over rock bands to get back to the Mile run, and was able to link turns all the way down to the lodge. This line will still be good for a few weeks, but the snow is going fast. In my assessment, the summit pitch isn’t really worth riding anymore, though it would still be “doable” for a few weeks. I missed the beer at Govy on the way down, but had a few Terminator Stouts at McMenamin’s later in the evening with the family to make up for it. Overall it was a great day, the weather was perfect. Get some while it lasts! Here’s the parting shot from the Timberline parking lot….

I was up in Gresham for a visit with family, so I took the opportunity to get out on Mt Hood for some test riding on my new custom made Never Summer Titan 164 splitty. I left the Timberline parking lot a little after 8:00 am, with the goal of taking it easy and skinning to the top of the Palmer Snowfield. The skin up the Mile went fairly fast, though the snow was a bit hard. The weather was beautiful and temps were hovering around 14 degrees with no wind. The sky was a deep blue and the mountain as white as I ever remember seeing it – just a gorgeous day in mid-Winter.

I reached the top of Palmer around 10:30, aided by split crampons due to the icy conditions. Recent wind activity had pretty much scoured off any of the remaining fresh snow from a few days earlier. Not wanting to descend just yet, I continued climbing above the Palmer lift towards Crater Rock. Snow conditions deteroriated quickly, becoming very icy. Here’s a shot of a couple of climbers ahead of me climbing towards Crater Rock ….

Around 9500 feet or so, I could tell that making turns was mostly out of the question, at least any fun turns. So, I wandered out towards the Zigzag Glacier to soak in the views. The snow conditions on the Zigzag weren’t any better – mostly wind blown ice sastrugi. Illumination Rock did look really beautiful though.

At noon, I decided to call it a day and foolishly strapped my board to my feet. After a few hundred feet of rickety turns, I pulled the board back off my feet and donned crampons to walk back down to the top of the Palmer. Once on the Palmer, I rode the nice groomers back down to the lodge, thoroughly enjoying my new splitter. After a quick car trip down Highway 35, I was back in Gresham enjoying the company of family and a frosty beverage.

I headed up to Mt Hood solo for some early November turns, since my buddy Todd was sleeping it off after the big Duck football game the night before (at least that was my suspicion since he didn’t answer his phone in the morning). I was suprised at how much snow had melted from a few weeks ago. I ended up buying a 5 point flex pass for $109 and used 1 point today. I rode the Palmer chair about 10 times and the turns were pretty nice. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so as the snow started to corn I decided to head up towards Crater Rock for some out of area turns.

The snow on the lower WR snowfield was pretty suncupped, but the upper snowfield yielded to perfect corn upon my arrival. I was surprised by the fact that I pretty much had the mountain to myself, aside from a few climbers. I climbed up to the top of the gravel ridge just below 10,000 feet and decided to turn around at this point, given that the snow above this level was intermittent and frozen solid. Prior to strapping into my bindings, I checked out the snowfields to the east towards the Zigzag Glacier, but elected to ride back down the way I hiked up since the snow had corned on the White River side.

The ride down the White River snowfield was nice corn, making the hike from the top of the Palmer worth the effort. The snowfield should be in decent shape for several days as long as the sun is out, but hopefully a large storm moves in soon and pukes all over the whole mountain so we can get on with winter!!!  All in all, today was a fun day of riding and marked my 24th month of consecutive turns – about 15,000 vertical feet of lift served and 1,400 vertical backcountry. Here’s a parting shot of the upper White River Glacier and mountain a few hundred feet below my turn around point…..