Tag Archives: Mt Hood Meadows

Mt. Hood in December

Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I last updated the blog. After a very busy summer of biking (over 3300 miles this year!), it’s now time for ski season again.

Mt. Hood Meadows opened Thanksgiving weekend, and the last half of December has been marked by an impressive series of storms. By December 15, we had a 49″ base, and as of right now (December 27), it’s up to 107″!

It is really amazing to have over 100″ before January. Looks like it should be a great season!

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Main Canyon at Mt. Hood Meadows from the Blue lift on December 8, 2012.

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View of Mt. Hood from the top of the Shooting Star lift on December 14, 2012.

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Beautiful view of the clouds below from the top of the Shooting Star lift on December 14, 2012.

Tuesday, December 18, was one of the best powder days I’ve ever had at Meadows. Waist-deep in many spots, and the snow just kept dumping all afternoon long. Hard to ask for anything better (well, maybe having Heather Canyon open, but that’s since been taken care of).

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Deep powder day on December 18, 2012.

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Untouched powder (waist-deep in many areas!) on December 18, 2012 (untouched except for me!).

I can’t wait to get out there for some more!

It’s summertime (and time for a ski season recap)!

Sorry for the seven-month gap in postings! Ski season happened, and then spring quarter occurred…

Anyhow, the ski season got off to a slow start (except for the massive December storm), and we were left skiing on ice for almost a month. At one point, it got up to ~60 degrees at Mt. Hood Meadows…in January! Fortunately, though, things improved in mid-to-late February and continued to get better and better from there. The skiing at both Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood Meadows was awesome – lots of late-season powder days. Here’s hoping that next year is just as good!

The first photo below is from Mt. Bachelor at the end of January – it was nice and cold, but there had been very little snow for almost a month – you can see the blue ice beneath the Summit lift! The last two photos are from late-April at Mt. Hood Meadows. The snow really piled up at the top of the mountain – you can see that the traverse to Upper Heather was really built-up.

Summit lift at Mt. Bachelor on 1-29-2009Cascade Express on 4-25-2009The Route to Upper Heather

In fact, this year was so good that I’m looking into buying some new powder skis. The Line Sir Francis Bacon skis from last year are a pretty good deal right now, and all the reviews have been really positive. If only El Niño wasn’t strengthening right now!!!