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06/23/10 Meadows has long since closed, but they still have plenty of snow. I had a great day on the Bowls, skied the Face, 1 1/2 Bowl, Two Bowl and Three Bowl in bright sun, warm temps and soft snow. An awesome final ski day for the season. Report should be up on www(.)telemurray(.)info (summer hikes link) as soon as I can connect to the web site - it seems to be down.
02/07/10 We figured that Meadows wouldn't be crowded during the super bowl, so we headed up for some night skiing. We arrived to sunny conditions and a notice that said MT. Hood Express would close at 4:30 (maintenance I heard). Hmmm, we bought tickets anyway, it wasn't crowded at all, no lift lines all night on any of the lifts. I met my friend Sam who had brought his kid for lessons, but he was on backcountry skis and hadn't bought a lift ticket ($69 for a day ticket - that's why we're night skiing). He said conditions were still good in the trees, so we headed up and hit North Canyon. The snow on the groomers was quite good, on my second run I lost track of the family so I headed into the trees on the South facing slopes - it was still pretty good, though finding untracked shots required some pretty tight turns. After a couple runs I decided to check out Four Bowl while it was still light. Not nearly as good as I had hoped, it was chewed and had started to set up already, so I headed off into the trees between Four and Five Bowls. I hit some pretty nice shots, avoided some sheer drop-offs that would be skiiable with more snow and hit some more chewed spots as well. A real workout and not that rewarding. We did a couple more runs on North Canyon where I ventured into the trees on the fringes, but I couldn't keep up with Rachel anymore - she's booking down the runs a lot faster than the last time we were here a little over a month ago. On our fifth ride up the lift - just before they were planning on closing it - Rachel dropped one of her gloves (too busy texting her friends at the base) so we hurried down and caught one last ride on the express (the glove was there). 6 runs in 1 1/2 hours - pretty darn good - both my wife and I were pretty thrashed by then. We headed over and took a couple runs on Daisy, but the snow pretty much sucked over there - already pretty icy. We hit the green trail around the perimeter from the Easy Rider lift (used to be Red Chair) - the snow was much better - but the trail was pretty boring, but I had some fun cutting down through the trees. After a few runs, we decided to head over to the main area and take the slow ride up Blue Chair to get the good snow again - and it was getting cold making short runs and taking slow lift rides. It was a long cold ride up, but the snow was still really nice on the upper parts of the run. We ended with a couple of runs down here and decided we would just head out afterwards. We had lots of runs, but with the express not running it's hard to stay warm on a cold night. Coverage is pretty good, I did scrape a rock on the upper part of Five Bowl, but I need bigger skis and sharper edges to ski icy conditions. My wife is loving her big Dynastars though, says she can just power through whatever she hits. I'm hoping we get a week of dumps at some point so we can take our annual ski trip. TeleMurray
12/30/09 Since snow levels were forecasted to go up over New Years, we decided to go night skiing - originally planning on heading to SkiBowl we decided to head up to Meadows instead (since we drive by on our way to SkiBowl anyway). We arrived to a completely full main lot (with available parking spaces from day shifters leaving) at about 2:40 pm - snowing heavily and windy. we made a pit stop, picked up our tickets and headed onto the long line at the lift - which moved pretty quickly - probably our longest wait of the evening at about 3 or 4 minutes. We headed down North Canyon as it brings you to the side of the lift with the shortest line. The snow was excellent - squeaky dry powder - visibility not so great with the wind blowing the snow around. The run was excellent, I played in the powder in the trees along side and Rachel and Kiyomi skied down the run - Kiyomi trying out her new phat skis. We did a few runs here and then I checked out Two Bowl - excellent up top, a completely scraped section at the steepest shot, then big chunks and wind blown below - not all that great. Went back to North Canyon with the family, with a run down South Canyon/Daisy to the car to get sandwiches mixed in. After dinner we headed up Daisy and I found a few turns of really deep, wind blown powder on the side of the run and Kiyomi and Rachel went into the lodge to get hand warmers for Rachel. Then back to North Canyon, I was still able to dodge in and out of the trees and Kiyomi was starting to really like her new skis. I was seeing people head down The Face and One Bowl and it looked really nice, so I headed down The Face on the next run. Wonderful wind packed powder the whole way. I did several runs there and then skied North Canyon with the family as they were ready to leave - I was totally thrashed by then as well. They then skied out via South Canyon and I took a run down One Bowl - again, excellent snow, not completely filled in at the top but all powder. I then sweated up the ridge under the chair to catch some untracked - but I was totally exhausted and the powder was more like heavy cement - I crashed and burned at slow speed and had trouble even getting my skis to move down the hill. Then a final burner down South Canyon and Daisy to the car - skied almost to closing - I got on the chair at about 8:40. Pretty thrashing first resort day of the season - lots of runs - probably surpassed my turn total for the season after my first 2 runs. Excellent base, almost everything covered, a few small trees sticking out and some rocks, but the main runs have full coverage. TeleMurray
06/07/09 I wanted to get at least one more good ski day in this season, so I headed up to Mt. Hood Meadows to get some turns. I arrived at around 11:30, cloudy and 50 degrees. There were 3 or 4 other cars and one group of skiers had just come down the mountain. I headed up - since it was cloudy up high I thought the bowls would be the best choice. I set my pack down in some trees near the bottom of 4 Bowl and headed up. The snow was pretty soft with some firmer areas - enough to make the climb up somewhat challenging as 4 Bowl is probably the steepest of the bowls. The top part was pretty challenging as the snow was somewhat firm, but it got softer (and less steep) as I headed down. A sweet first run. I stopped for lunch and some homebrew IPA and headed up for another run down 4 Bowl. I felt warmed up and ripped it all the way down. I stopped back at my pack and picked up a drink and headed up the lower Face to the other bowls. I was thinking 3 Bowl or 1 Bowl, but 2 Bowl looked really sweet so I took 2 runs on 2 Bowl. I drank my juice and headed back up and skied over to 3 Bowl and ripped it down and then down the Lower Face back to my pack. I was thinking of heading out, but it wasn't even 3:30 so I headed back up 4 Bowl and cut over to the open shot between 4 and 5 Bowls (4 1/2 Bowl I assume). One more ripping run down the steep slopes of 4 1/2 Bowl and I picked up my pack and headed down to the car. By the time I got back to my car it had cleared up, revealing Mt. Hood in all its glory. I think it's the most beautiful of all the Cascade peaks. A couple AT skiers came back about the same time, they had skied Wyeast face and said that it was completely clear up higher and the snow was excellent. With my lighter gear the bowls were a most excellent choice for me. Most likely my penultimate ski day of the season, I'll probably day hike the North side for our annual Glisan Glacier trip in July. There's still a lot of snow at Meadows, I was able to ski right from the parking lot - they could still be running the lifts if there were enough skiers. TeleMurray
02/26/09 My friend Sam wanted to meet for night skiing, after a bit of whining my wife said I could go. I was working at home, so I headed out around 4:30 and arrived at the parking lot just after 5:30 pm. It was sunny, or had been sunny, windy and around 20 degrees. Lot not too full, but the lift line was pretty busy for a week night. I think it was the busiest I've ever seen it on a non weekend night. Anyway, I could tell it had been a really busy day, despite the fact they have had about 4 feet of snow in the last 4 days, it looked like every square inch was tracked. The snow was cut up, but pretty soft, with a mix of wind pack and soft piles and tracked out areas. I headed down 2 Bowl to start, the wind was blowing the snow down and covering the tracks, so it was pretty smooth and creamy and the lower Face was nice as well. Next run down the Face, or maybe I should call it Face Plant as I did one right under the lift as I caught a pile of snow - ripped my goggles off and filled them with snow. The Face was pretty nice on top, big cut up piles down lower. I stayed mostly on 2 Bowl as I got my legs under me. Headed down the lift to meet Sam at 7, but he didn't show, so I kept skiing. I did a couple runs down the Face in hopes he'd see me - maybe he did - he got on the lift at 7:45, says he yelled at me, but I'm not sure it was me he yelled at :-). Later on I found a few deep piles between 2 Bowl and 1 1/2 bowl - just below some trees on a really steep section. I hit those on my last 3 runs - not a real long shot, but truly thigh deep turns in pillow soft, light dry powder. The snow was really dry and light, it was squeaky dry. As Sam opined in email, we should have gone to SkiBowl, I think we would have had a much better chance at untracked shots with shorter lines. Oh well, it was a pretty great night, I made about 12 runs maybe in around 3 hours - on the DDK scale that's about 14k. Enough to get my legs cramping on the last few runs, especially in those deeper piles. It was 10 degrees when I left at 9 pm. I hope I can hit the backcountry before it warms up. Willamette Pass pics should be up on my website later tonight (www.telemurray .info). TeleMurray
11/29/08 I wanted to get a day on the mountain in November so I headed up to Mt. Hood Meadows, not expecting much but hoping for at least patchy coverage. I arrived a little after noon - sunny and about 48 degrees, but very little snow. I almost turned around, but decided since the weather was nice I should at least hike up the slopes a bit, and I suppose pack the skis along just in case I found some decent patches. I headed over towards the badlands, near the edge of their boundary and discovered some decent patches of coverage, so I set my pack down and made a couple runs (3 or 4 turns each) on the little patches in the trees. By traversing across branches and undergrowth I could ski other patches as well. I noticed that outside the boundary run there was a much larger patch, so I moved my stuff over there and ate lunch and had a bottle of home brewed IPA. Some decent contiguous patches over there, good for 6 or 7 turns and some touring through the woods outside the ski area boundary. I tooled around near where the Round the Mountain trail comes in and found some nice little runs through the trees. 6 to 8 inches generally, and in the trees not many rocks - I think I only scraped my bases on a rock once during the day. Conditions were fairly nice, with the warm conditions the snow was soft and easily carvable with my light backcountry gear (leather boots and E109 skis). I took a bunch of short runs and toured through various areas looking for more turns and larger snow patches. It was really quite fun, the woods are very nice here, would make for some decent tree skiing with more snow - perhaps a good early season trip before the trees at Bennett Pass start filling in. I headed out around 3:30 for a good 3 hours of skiing, touring and tooling around over dirt, bear grass and pine needles. A very fun first day out for the season, hoping we get some decent snow storms soon. TeleMurray
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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