Best Mt. Hood Resort for Kids

I've been selfish for far too long and it's time to bite the bullet and do some resort skiing with son.  I'm hoping his hockey skills readily translate to skiing and we're in the backcountry in no time.  In the mean time, all of the Hood resorts have a spring pass deal that is ridiculously cheap.  Basically, for a 100 bucks we can ski March through the end of May with no restrictions.  I haven't skied in the resorts for years and I'm having a hard time judging which would be the best place to get my son started.  So, any recommendations as to which area (Skibowl, Meadows or Timberline) would be the best to get a fairly athletic eight year old started?  I'm leaning toward Skibowl just because it's the closest, but I also like the idea of free rides on the Palmer to access the BC on "daddy only" days.

As the season wraps up, Meadows and SkiBowl tend to cut their days / hours. Timberline runs daily through May 31st.

Meadows has a history of saying they'll run into May, then one bad weekend in late April and boom, they're done. After two years of this in a row, I took my family of four season pass holders back to Timberline / SkiBowl with Fusion Passes. Take a look at Meadows blog / FB pages from last April / May - lots of pissed off folks. Awesome terrain, really (really, really, really) bad management.

On the right day, SkiBowl is super. But those old, slow doubles suck. When TLine is open top to bottom, it's a great family resort. Does become flatsville when filled in with lots of snow.

Don't know if they're going to do it this year, but there was a Spring Fusion Pass deal couple years ago.

Have fun with your son.

If you're headed down there on the weekend, you can't beat the ticket prices at Cooper Spur on the Hood River side. Elevation is pretty low but the groomed runs are typically kept in good condition.

I like ski bowl but would not commit to spring pass due to low elevation and warm temps. T-line would probably be a good fit for your needs. If you get bored at tline you can walk 10 mins from lot a drop into white canyon or access zig zag from the mile lift. It's a flat and boring resort unless you like terrain parks. Palmer is not enough to get me excited, but the next 2000 feet up are more interesting.

As the season wraps up, Meadows and SkiBowl tend to cut their days / hours.  Timberline runs daily through May 31st.   

Meadows has a history of saying they'll run into May, then one bad weekend in late April and boom, they're done.  After two years of this in a row, I took my family of four season pass holders back to Timberline / SkiBowl with Fusion Passes.  Take a look at Meadows blog / FB pages from last April / May - lots of pissed off folks.  Awesome terrain, really (really, really, really) bad management. 

On the right day, SkiBowl is super.  But those old, slow doubles suck.  When TLine is open top to bottom, it's a great family resort.  Does become flatsville when filled in with lots of snow.

Don't know if they're going to do it this year, but there was a Spring Fusion Pass deal couple years ago.

Have fun with your son. 

Thanks for the heads up. We're going with Timberline to guarantee the May turns. Combine that with BC access from the Palmer and its a done deal.