Mt Hood

[zachp13]

I am heading to mt hood this weekend and was wondering what the carving conditions were like. Also, this is my first time to Hood and was wondering what are the best runs.

Zach

[jason_watkins]

My girlfriend was up on wed and said it was hardpack, and freeze levels have been high since then, so expect to run into some pretty hard packed snow. The weather forecast says a couple inches tonight and freeze levels going down, so hopefully the weekend will be better, but you never really know.

Which resort(s) are you going to?

[zachp13]

I was thinking Mt Hood meadows, but wasn't sure yet. I guess which ever one that has the best runs and snow.

[Mike T]

The best carving terrain at Mt Hood Meadows IMHO would be the runs off of Cascade Express, probably followed by the main drag on Hood River Meadows on weekdays. (On weekends it's often a "slow zone" with speed patrol on ytour case) Cascade has yet to open this year and HRM has very sketchy cover as of last Sunday, probably worse since then.

You can always do laps on North Canyon but it's pretty flat and often littered with beginners.

Over at Timberline, Palmer is where it's at, but probably closed all winter unless we have an extended drought (it's mostly a spring / summer / fall thing - too far above the timberline to keep de-iced in a winter with even average snowfall, so they just shut it down). Magic Mile is not bad either if its open, visibility is good, and the wind hasn't screwed it up. Given the snowfall situation, expect a lot of rocks on Mile right about now, and with no sun in the forecast for this weekend, expect it to be closed as well.

There are a couple of runs at Ski Bowl that are good for carving - Lower Bowl is again a bit flat but very wide, usually something on Uppoer Bowl is groomed, and while to osteep for me to carve on, it might work for you igf you're more advanced than me. I personally enjoy doing laps on Lower Bowl. Cover is thin there as well and it's probably too low to pick uip any snow this weekend.

If you can change your plans and head to Bachelor, you might have better luck there this weekend. If you do go to Hood, *bring a rock board*.

P.S. Hey Beavis - I'm a full-fledged Member now! Heheheheh

[jason_watkins]

Timberline should have better snow, but it's small and a bit flat on the lower half of the resort. Meadows, in general, has more variety of the terrain. But since most of it is a bit lower on the mountain, there's bound to be more refrozen snowpack. Last weekend I was at meadows and a lot of the coverage on the good terrain was thin.. I expect it's about the same this weekend.

As for good runs, at timberline, the stuff off Palmer, Mile and Norman is the good stuff. Palmer is the best for carving, and Mile is almost as good, just not as steep. If those are closed, which is very likely, there's 3 ok runs off Norman, and there's a surprising amount of interesting stuff in the trees skiiers left of Norman if you get bored of wide open. On the whole timberline is a small, fun place, but if the upper lifts are closed there's not much variety. It doesn't look like they have any park gear out officially, if you're into that stuff.

At meadows, I'm learning new territory this season (not done much day ski there before). So far I like the terrain off Shooting Star lift. There's penty of spots steep enough to scare me around there, and mostly just rolling varied terrain, creeks beds, etc. I'm told the real good stuff is in heather canyon, but it's not likely to be open till later in the season. The upper lift at meadows, Cascade, looks great, wide open and comparable to mile at timberline, but it's never been open when I've been there. The main lift, Hood has 2 good fairly open runs for carving, but they can be a little crowded. Directly under the main lift there's some great steep sections (look for "bowls" and "face" on the trail map) but last weekend the coverage there was a bit thin. If you want to nab runs on the main lift with no crowds, check it out mid afternoon after most of the morning crowd is sipping a spanish coffee and the night ski herd hasn't shown yet. I remember there being a few run spots under the Daisy lift, but as it's not an express, I haven't ridden it much. MikeT says the Hood River lift has some great carving runs, but it's also a designated slow speed area so don't try to set any records if patrol is around.

Ohh, and if you wanted to do a nice lunch/dinner with the miss or something like that, I'd give you a thumbs down on meadows. The food isn't that good, and the service is consistantly horrible. Expect very long waits eating at meadows. I'm told dining at the hotel/lodge at timberline is great.

I'll be at meadows on saterday with a couple friends, most likely doing laps on Shooting Star. Sorry to say, it's probibly not the best conditions to be checking out mt hood... but that's the way it goes :rolleyes: .

[zachp13]

Thanks for the info, I wanted to know the snow coverage so that I could decide whether I should bring down my new coiler or break out the rock board.

[Mike T]

Originally posted by zachp13

Thanks for the info, I wanted to know the snow coverage so that I could decide whether I should bring down my new coiler or break out the rock board.

Definitely the rock board. I took out a "good" board last Sunday and while I dind't ding it up, I had to be really , really careful. They've lost considerable base since then.

[Dan]

If the cascade chair is closed, then it's Shooting Star Ridge off the shooting star chair all the way.

-Dan

[jason_watkins]

even the expatriat likes meadow's terrain better :D

[P06781]

I like meadows also.... I went thrusday and it was harder like conditions but perfect for getting the ice/hard technique down. I rode laps down north and south canyon and did 4-5 on shooting star (down the chair line) and it was great. The grooming was smooth but had the early season rolls which are kinda fun. I used the good board (volkl rt178) and switched to my mistral sonic to test some new (used) td1's out. There were some bare spots but overall coverage was good. I would go sunday as the snow level should drop enough to provide some new good new powder by sunday . I might go on sunday if the snow looks good but have to do the 2pm-mn shift at the hospital. I plan definately to ride tuesday ....

forecast .... http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/ORZ011.php?warnzone=ORZ011&warncounty=ORC027

[Mike T]

Jim - if it snows a bit tonight I'll join you at Meadows tomorrow morning. I've gotta leave by noon so I'll try to get there for 1st chair. I'm also planning on riding Wednesday. FRS channel 5/12.

[jason_watkins]

Hey guys, conditions are better than expected. Coverage is better than last weekend... there's still the odd stump and rock, but most runs are filled in now. The snow is suprisingly good if stay off the grooms. Somehow the groomed snow has refrozen hard, but there's quite a bit of loose dry snow elsewhere. Anything on the shadowed side (skiers left) of the ridges on shooting star was really quite good, enough powder to feel floaty in.

Cascade was open. Again, anywhere the groomer went was ice, but once you get off the ridge tops snow was surprisngly good. It's the first time I've ridden up there, very fun to just point down the fall line and reach silly speed on the wide open smooth powder field.

Weather forcast says snow tonight, but the ski is still clear as I type, so I think that's unlikely. I don't see any reason why conditions would be worse tomorrow. If there's new snow, I'll definately be up there. If there's no new snow... call me a maybe.

Ran into one guy using hardboots on a freeride deck... asked if he was zach but aparently not.

[zachp13]

I went up on saturday and was surprised by the snow and coverage. I was expecting much worse, as long as I stayed on the groomers it was pretty good, not bad for the first day up this year.

Thanks for the info.