February 13th, 2005, Mt Hood Meadows

A snow advisory was issued for Saturday night and today but then cancelled in the morning. Telemetry showed only a few inches had fallen on Saturday and during the night, this fell at cold temperatures with strong winds. My SUV thermometer put the temp at 22 degrees on arrival. Intermittent low-clouds were socking in the mountain and there were intermittent light snow flurries.<br><br>All the high-speed lifts were scheduled this year to open at 8:30 but since Meadows resumed operating they've been opening at 9. To start the day I took a few runs on Hood Express and Shooting Star. Off-piste here, as expected, was just a trace of low-density snow over undulated frozen tracks. Riding Shooting Star I spotted Aaaron, Ann and Andy skinning over to Heather (which is still closed) and I spoke to them for a bit. The liftline for Shooting Star was absurdly long url=http://jeffwhuber.com/photos/skiing/hoodMeadows_20050213/shootingStarCrowds.jpg]see this photo which shows only half the line![/url, this seemed in part due to race courses being setup under this lift. The vast majority of the racers were quite young, under 12 years old. It seems in Oregon we have a huge child ski racing program. <br><br>Around 10:30 Cascade opened and I made my over there. Thanks to the mechanism of wind-transport, Cascade yielded excellent skiing. The snow here was generally not deep, but it was remarkably light and fluffy over a soft and smooth base. I spent the rest of my day skiing Cascade taking 17 laps on it per my watch. The terrain here is fairly mellow but if you analytically plan your run to capitalize on the best snow and various rolls/knolls, you can have a very good run. For the majority of my runs I ended up traversing to the windlip off "Vista ridge":<br> <br><br>The snow right under the lip was outstanding--almost knee deep for about 2 turns then a few inches deep almost all the way back to the lift. This was very conducive to making big, fun turns with my 10EXs and Adrenalins  The area was seeing very few other skiers, which in-part may be due to visibility preventing me from seeing my skis during some of the traverses. The visibility along with high winds and cold temperatures may also partly explain why, after about an hour of a short liftline, the line at Cascade became non-existent for the rest of the day.<br><br>This was my 2nd day using my $400 season pass. Factoring in discounts I could have taken advantage of, I need 9.5 more days to break even. If I don't break even can I deduct my pass from my income taxes?  <br>

That's two days more than I've gotten on my Alpental season pass . . .

That's two days more than I've gotten on my Alpental season pass . . .

<br>Yeah, I guess I really shouldn't complain. Hood Ski Bowl pass holders also have it rough. To paraphrase Andy on Sunday, "We paid $380 so we could ski one 400vft long green run".

<br> Riding Shooting Star I spotted Aaaron, Ann and Andy skinning over to Heather (which is still closed) and I spoke to them for a bit.

<br><br>We tried to talk Jeff out of ridings the lifts but failed. Jeff you missed a sweet day in Heather. ;D<br><br>

This was my 2nd day using my $400 season pass.   <br>

<br><br><br>Think of it as a charitable donation to the Mt Hood Meadows fund. Maybe they can put in another high speed quad.<br><br>Aaron

Jeff you missed a sweet day in Heather. ;D

<br>Nice! You should post a TR! I've been wiping drool off my keyboard all day from the Rainier and Baker TRs. The more I drool, the better