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Mount Hood MeadowsSubmit a report
07/06/08 I got a late start, had to play my first round of golf for the year
in the morning (9 over for the first 4 holes, 3 over for the last 5
holes :-)). I left the car at 12:30 and hiked up to the top of the
first run above Mt. Hood Express, then put my skis on for the slog
up under the hot sun. Four Bowl still had snow on it, but I decided
I wanted to head up and ski One Bowl. SO I slogged up, set my pack
down in some trees at the base of the Face and headed up. I went right
up the gut and stopped just below the cliff face under the old Blue
Chair - I guess this is actually the Face. I headed down, a bit rough
at the top, but the snow was nice and firm. Great turns down the steep
upper part and then the roll over to the slope to the base of the bowls.
Instead of stopping for lunch, I decided I should ski all the bowls
today and I headed up for a run down Two Bowl. My favorite shot had
started to melt out, but there was still a good, long, steep shot
right next to it. The snow was a little cleaner on Two Bowl as well -
another excellent run. I then stopped for a sandwich and a beer and
then headed back up the Face, this time topping out at the entrance
to One Bowl. I decided that I would ski One Bowl, traverse over to
1 1/2 Bowl, side step down a short melted out section and continue
down 1 1/2 Bowl. The top of One Bowl was excellent, steep turns on
firm corn. I then traversed over to the top of 1 1/2 Bowl - or at
least as close as I could get as the roll over was melted out. Some
more nice, steep turns down to the bottom, then side step down over
the melted out part - of course a little larger than it looked from
below. Then nice smooth turns down to the bottom. Next I headed up
Two Bowl again to get to Three Bowl - I had seen that there was a
continous route on the way up which looked like a nice challenge.
Three Bowl was a little lower and had gotten more direct sun so was
softer, which made for really sweet turns. It was especially fun to
nail the turns as the snow narrowed between melted out spots. Near
the bottom I found what looked to be the partner of the ski I found
on the way up, so I moved it out to the main run to check on the way
out. Back to the pack and head down. A nice run down the lower Face,
unfortunately the 2 skis didn't match. They were both Salomon - X500
and X400. I'm guessing some expletive deleted jerk stole them from
the rack (where people leave mismatched pairs to prevent exactly that
from happening) and abandoned them up on the slopes. Too bad. Anyway,
it was a great day on the mountain, I got a great work out, sweated
a ton, skied for 3 1/2 hours on excellent, steep terrain. I was still
able to ski out all the way to the lodge - in July!
TeleMurray
06/23/08 After taking my family to the airport (they're off to visit my in-laws)
I headed up to the mountain. It looked like there was still enough
snow to ski the big clear cuts at Bennett Pass, but I suspect that I
would have to take my skis off to cross some bare patches, so I headed
up to Mt. Hood Meadows to look for something steeper. I headed up from
the lodge and up Daisy onto Ridge Run to look for turns on the bowls.
As I got up to Four Bowl, there was a 50 yard gap in snow on the run,
so I set my pack down at the top of Four Bowl and headed down. Very
steep, maybe the steepest of the bowls, kind of bumpy, a fair amount
of debris, but not too bad. A great first run. As I headed back up
I recalled skiing a nice slope between Four Bowl and Five Bowl (4 1/2
Bowl?) so I headed up through the trees to the left and took a nice
run down this slope, almost losing it on the steepest part as I got my
ski stuck - had to bail out with a parallel turn. I headed back up to
my pack for some lunch and beer. Just short of my pack I saw a
beer bottle, I thought "well, I'll toss it up onto the main run so
someone can pick it up later". But then I noticed it still had the
cap on, hmmm, a full bottle of Mirror Pond Ale - I guess I'll have to
pack it out. Just one of the sacrifices we have to make for the
environment. :-) I thought about booting up to the upper bowls for
some cleaner snow, but decided against it and headed down Four Bowl
again. A much better run, tighter turns, more in control, feeling
better all around. On the way back up I took another run on 4 1/2
Bowl, no problems this time, a fun run in the open area between the
trees. As I headed up Four Bowl again I headed over to the right under
the cliffs looking for another route, hoping for smoother snow. It
was all about the same, but I took another run from the top just at
the edge of the cliffs, this one leaving me gasping for breath at the
bottom. On the way up I again took a nice run down 4 1/2 Bowl. What
a great shot. There actually was continuous snow from up above (and
I've skied this excellent line in powder), but it was steep, narrow
and covered with debris between the trees. At this point I decided
to head back down, it was still fairly early, but it had clouded up
and gotten a lot colder, so I headed down the lower part of Ridge
Run (Beaver Tail I think) then headed through the trees to hit
Waterfall. Lots of debris on the run, but a very nice finishing shot
for an excellent afternoon of turns. There's still lots of snow, they
could easily be running the lifts if there were enough interested
skiers. I hope to make it out again before the Glisan Glacier trip
in July, but things are getting busy.
TeleMurray
02/03/08 As hoped, Superbowl Sunday was not crowded. We headed up to Meadows
little sister, Cooper Spur, base elevation 3500'. An excellent snow
pack for Cooper Spur, 5 feet, with several feet of fresh. Rachel is
finally starting to hit her toe side turns on the snowboard, maybe a
trip to SkiBowl is in out future (with a 13 foot base - wow!). An
excellent day, there was enough coverage for me to spend most of my
day in the trees between the runs and my wife and daughter to take
many runs at this small resort. The trees off the run at skier's far
right had some nice knee to thigh deep shots. Another one of the
pitches had 3 or 4 really nice steep turns at the top before it
mellowed out. It was all good, the trees pretty tight - whacked my
hand squeezing through between some large trees, got whacked
by some branches in some tight spots, tried (and failed) to blow
through a tight clump of small trees and ran my tips into the far side of a ditch next to upper tubing area (path to the lifties sheltered safety break spot?). Ski amigo Stu was there, but
he was skiing with his girl friend and her daughter, so didn't see
much of him. An all around excellent, thigh burning day at a very
nice family ski hill. Watched the superbowl on tape, and as hoped
for, the Giants D dominated :-).
TeleMurray
01/11/08 An actual entry for Meadows. I went up for night skiing
on Friday night, arriving a little after 3 pm - 32 degrees,
snowing and blowing. I headed up for a run on Shooting Star -
O Ring I think. Pretty steep, maybe steeper than the bowls,
it was all wind packed powder - not too bad. The wind was
howling on the Shooting Star lift so I decided to head back
to Mt. Hood Express, hitting Roach Bowl on the way. Again,
wind packed powder, but less travelled, very nice. On the
way down I sampled some nice powder in the trees between
runs as well. I think my first run on Mt. Hood Express was One
Bowl - very smooth wind pack. Usually the top of One Bowl
is all bumped out, but it was really nice. I think I took
about 10 runs in a row down One Bowl, hitting the various
shots either side below the steepest part of One Bowl. One
really nice shot was a narrow chute between some rocks and
trees in the 1 1/2 Bowl area - I've seen people hit this
before but it was always a bit too scary for me, I guess
I'm still learning and getting better. Also the shot below
the trees in the same area was really nice - these are
about the steepest shots in bounds. Everything was
consistent wind packed powder. Coverage is excellent,
there's a good mid to late season pack right now. Around
6:30 my legs started to give out so I took a lunch and
beer break and headed back up around 7, figuring I'd maybe
last another couple of hours. Back to One Bowl for some
more thrashing steeps, cut over down the narrow chute,
poke through some trees looking for some freshies - didn't
find them, but found more good steeps. As I was getting
more thrashed I got to the top of One Bowl and saw a couple
tele skiers, one heading down and catching some air off
to the side, so I figured "I got to show 'em how it's done"
and headed down. I'm not sure what I did (cross a tip or
just trip), but I went down the top half on my face (face
first) and about half way down I somehow flipped over or
around and ended up on my skis and skied the rest of the
way down with snow filled goggles. It had stopped snowing
so I just removed my goggles at this point and decided maybe
it was time to check out Two Bowl - my favorite shot is on
the left side between the light pole and some trees - hmmm,
they took out the light pole, but the shot was awesome.
Smooth, steep wind pack. I took a bunch more runs on Two
Bowl, then headed back to One Bowl for another shot - the
2 tele skiers were at the top, so I headed down and this
time nailed some really good turns before I crashed and
burned near the bottom :-). I helped a lady get her ski
back (took it down to her - my good turn for the day :-))
and headed over for another chute shot :-). A couple
more runs down Two Bowl, legs going fast. I usually
take my last run down Daisy to ski to my car, but I
just kept hitting Two Bowl until they closed (10 pm). An awesome
night of wind packed powder. I'll have to make it up
for some more night skiing this season I think.
TeleMurray
01/06/08 I was more or less recovered from being sick, so my daughter and I
headed up to Cooper Spur so she could work on her snowboarding - I'm
hoping we'll be able to hit SkiBowl at some point. Cooper Spur is a
nice little area - about 3400' base elevation. Snowing with several
inches of fresh when we got there around 10:30 am. It snowed all day,
probably added another 6 inches while we were there. The runs are all
blues, with some trees in between. I started out by hitting the trees
next to the run Rachel was boarding, hit some nice powder, but it was
kind of tricky as there was a bumpy hardpack underneath. Luckily, the
crowds weren't bad - never more than a couple of minutes wait all day.
At lunch, I adjusted Rachel's bindings as when she tried a toe side,
her toes would hit - I moved the heels all the way back. I think she
is still having problems with this, so maybe we need to spring for a
private lesson for her on the lifts - I think SkiBowl would be ideal
for this :-). Anyway, I traded off taking 2 fast runs by myself and
then meeting Rachel at the bottom and taking the next run with her.
Cooper Spur is a really family friendly area, kids ski by themselves
all the time. We both had fun, towards the end I was getting bored
so I headed into the trees again and found some really nice powder
shots, some tight turns and even a few small steep shots. It was
enough that by the last few runs I was really getting that thigh
burn. An excellent day of turns with my snowboarding daughter in
outstanding conditions. Hoping to hit the backcountry next weekend.
TeleMurray
12/30/07 Another trip to Cooper Spur - Meadows Annex. I was
disappointed that they were not open for night skiing,
so after the family got up we packed our stuff and headed
up to the mountain to at least try and get a half day in.
We arrived at Cooper Spur resort just before noon, lot was
full and they were shuttling people up to the ski area.
We got our boots on and ate our lunch as we waited for the
bus to come back, and finally arrived at the ski area around
12:30 or thereabouts. Lines didn't look too bad, but by the
time we got our tickets and were ready to ski, the lines
were fairly long. - probably about 10 minutes wait for
the first hour we were there. This was Rachel's second
time up on her new snowboard, she was much more comfortable
and only requested my help getting off the lift the first
time up. As the afternoon went on, she seemed to be picking
it up more and more - still mostly heelside, but she was
actually heading straight down the hill some of the time
instead of zig zagging back and forth. Conditions were
excellent, snowing hard the entire time we were there. Kiyomi
and I took turns skiing down with Rachel and taking runs
on our own. There's not a whole lot of variation in runs,
but I was able to catch some fairly deep turns in the small
patches of tree between runs. I took my resort skis (Super
Stinx) and was able to float down the deeper shots in the
trees and rip the runs. There was about 8 or 10 inches of
dry powder on the edges of the runs. The lines thinned out
pretty good after about 1:30 with the longest waits after
that about 5 minutes. I can imagine what a zoo it must of
been up at Meadows. I think if we hit up Cooper Spur one
more time Rachel will be ready to ride the chairs and hit
the runs at SkiBowl. We got back to the car at around 4:30 -
there was a good 6 inches of fresh on top of the car in the
4 hours since we parked. A great day at a small family resort.
TeleMurray
12/24/07 No Cooper Spur entry, Cooper Spur is run by Meadows so the
report is under Mt. Hood Meadows. The forecast assured us the
rain had turned to snow, so we headed up, arriving after some
minor issues (a stuck car blocking the entry way, then I backed
into a snow bank) at around 11:30 am. The lift was wide open,
the parking lot only half full, so we bought tickets, got Rachel
a lesson for her first outting on her new snowboard and hit the
slopes at noon (after eating our lunch). There was about 4 or 5
inches on top of the hardpack left by the previous days rain and
the weather was cold sun and snow flurries. Rachel ended up with
a private lesson, as she was the only one there and we hit the
slopes while she took her lesson. Not a whole lot to say, the
snow was great, all the runs are essentially blues, I took my
light, waxless backcountry skis and had a blast. After her lesson
Rachel rode the lift with us, I helped her unloading and she
was able to make it down the runs pretty well - but was really
only able to make heelside moves. We skied until they closed
at 4 pm, a great day with excellent conditions. We're hoping
to head up again for night skiing on Friday if they're open.
Once Rachel gets a little more competent, then we can hit up
SkiBowl and I can ski some interesting terrain :-).
TeleMurray
10/21/07 Reports of 10" or more had me putting on my snow tires to head up to the
mountain on Sunday. I took my Rock skis, which meant I took my leather boots
as well. I was thinking of going to Bennett Pass, as there was about a foot
of fresh at pass level, but the snow park wasn't plowed and there was a
snowmobiler parked along the road, so I headed up to Meadows lot. There
looked to be well over a foot here, they had plows out clearing sections
of the parking lot and there were skiers and boarders heading up to sample
the runs. As it turned out, I didn't need my rock skis and would have been
much better served with my plastic boots and slightly wider skis. There
was a good 2' of heavy, manky snow at the base. I tried heading up the gut
but found the snow too deep and heavy to make much progress - I had to stop
and put some gaiters on and shed some layers. I found out just how heavy
the snow was as I came back down, so I decided I'd look for some trees to
ski in over on the South side of the area. I found a track heading up and
followed it up to the top of the old Red chair and found some trees to
head down in - discovered that the snow was just as heavy here, couldn't
really turn as my boots weren't stiff enough, but it was a little easier
skiing in snow that wasn't quite as deep.
I got back to the cat track that heads around the South boundary and
tried skiing down in the trees here, but the trees weren't open at all,
so I headed back up to the cat track and headed down towards some nice
open glades which I've skied in the past, just out of bounds of the area.
I headed slightly up from the boundary run to the top of the ridge and
set my pack down for lunch and a beer. After lunch I tested the trees
and found that while still difficult to turn I could weave through the
trees down to the track - this would have been much easier with my other
skis and boots! I took a number of runs and then decided to head over
a little to where the trees were a little more open - ahhh, if I just
point my skis down and make very long turns it was actually pretty nice!
So I took a couple runs here and then moved further over to an open run
I've skied in the past - pure bliss, cruise down at speed, making small
adjustments based on the terrain. With the added speed my skis were even
floating on top, allowing me to make a sharper turn at the bottom to avoid
a drop off which would've buried my tips in the deep mank. I took 3 runs
on the open slope and then headed back to the car. A good 4 hour ski
tour to start the season.
TeleMurray
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