I haven't really been paying any attention to the weather beyond the Great Pacific NorthWest. Like so many folks, I get caught up in what's happening in my life or immediately around me and just don't look up. So, for those of you suffering with floods, power outages, freak freezes or blizzards, I hope your troubles end soon. For those of us in the Great Pacific NorthWest, Summer switched to Fall and then to Winter rather quickly. I'm going to talk about my trips to the mountain over the past few weeks today, and take a short break from my postings about the bus.
November Snow
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| view out bar window |
Mt. Hood is home to as many as 6 different ski areas. At its peak, there is a glacier providing a surface for sliding nearly all year 'round at Timberline. Sliding on the glacier (Palmer Field), though, is really not that great, unless you like sliding on a sheet of ice pellets. Yuck. Still, if you want to slide in the first week of November, you have few alternatives. We have been fortunate, though, and the top of Mt. Hood got a bunch of snow the last week of October and the first week of November, so it wasn't all ice. Boo and I only took a couple of lifts before they closed them for the day, but we got to try out our new passes and her new skis.
Timberline Lodge
The ski-part of the resort wasn't really open yet. We walked through Wy-East Day Lodge on the way in, and it was still actively being remodeled. The entire food court area was a construction zone. So, once the lifts closed, and we took our final slide down, we visited the main lodge. The main lodge was in the movie The Shining as its greatest claim to fame. It was built as part of a WPA (
Works Progress Administration) in 1936. The woodwork is pretty amazing, with exposed timber structures across the ceilings. There is a massive central smokestack serves 8 fireplaces on 2 floors. We hit the Ram's Head bar on the upper floor, found a table by the window and watched the snow.. with a couple drinks. Great way to end a day of sliding.
7 Days Later
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| Timberline Hwy |
A week later, we took the boys up for a day on the mountain. Unlike the prior week, this time the wind was so strong at the top of the mountain, Palmer Field was closed. In fact, the only open stretch of snow (and corresponding lift) was the bunny slope between the parking lots. Had it been mid-season, and SkiBowl was open, we would have gone there. Instead, since the season wasn't even open yet, we played on the bunny slope. C strove for the highest number of times around and counted 29 runs in the 2 hours we were there. Clearly, C got very comfortable with his new skis. T used his old board, but felt like he was back to mid-season form by the end of the day. They shut off the lifts at 2:30 again.
Uno Mas
The following Saturday, this past weekend, Boo and I went up again. This time, Timberline had a 54" base including over 10" of fresh powder. Almost half of the runs were open and one of the other major resorts (Meadows) opened. The opening of Meadows probably accounted for the light crowd at Timberline. The snow, though, was incredible and the visibility was fantastic. I hadn't really seen much of Timberline's runs, and even now I've only half. Still, the sliding was amazing. I fell a bunch of times, so I was clearly trying hard enough. After 3 hours, my legs were burning.and I had to call uncle. It wasn't until I het the gym yesterday that the pains finally went away.
White Friday
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| looking down the valley near Govt Camp |
In years past, my boys and I would celebrate the Friday after Thanksgiving by going to the snow. We call it White Friday, in a response to the Black Friday capitalism-on-steroids media circus which seems to lock-grip so many Americans. Rather than "fighting prices", we'll be fighting gravity. I strongly encourage you to do the same. The crowds are smaller, the air is better and it'll probably cost you less.
Anyway, thanks for following along. I'll follow up next time with a bus update.... and probably more stories from the snow.
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