FREE Mt Hood Backcountry Guide.

Wow...thank you for the tremendous effort and the willingness to share!  Although I have not toured Mt Hood and, being from Seattle, may only 'visit' the area a few times, I certainly appreciate what you've done and the spirit in which it was done.... Good Karma to you!

Thank you! I hope that it's useful to you and to others.

Sorry...my apologies...

Hey Kid,

You shouldn't be surprised, I am always gleeful when pointing out hypocrisy!

As I mentioned, there are strong signals that this information is going to be available soon in a variety of forms, so I decided to make it available for free and in a format that fits my values. My view on providing this information has clearly changed in light of apps and books entering the space. In a perfect world, it would all be wilderness and word of mouth, but that's not where we are.

What caused you to update your values? If you have the time, go back and read through the trip report that I linked above. You stated that you learned about pocket from a friend that asked you to keep it on the DL. He or she obviously decided that you might be a good person to share a skin track and a few runs with, and you honored their gift of knowledge by creating a webpage with turn by turn directions. I will give you credit for reminding the faceless masses to preserve the snow for future groups. Your friend trusted that you would treat the place well, and now you apparently trust every internet user to do the same. 

I put a donations tab at the bottom because web hosting is expensive, and I pay it all myself out of pocket. I could have gotten paid to give this information to a paid app. I don't NEED anyone's money, but the appreciation of strangers, like 'Blizz Mountain' here, is a strong motivator, and crowd funding is becoming a way of funding worthwhile efforts on the internet. So it's there. You, clearly, are not going to click it soon.

I urge you to make something useful with your time. It's rewarding. If you want to write one of the pages that has yet to be written, I'd welcome you to do so, and I'll credit you for it. The world is changing, and we can shape it how we want or get run over by those who are creating their own image of things.

To quote a famous guidebook author, "We can each decide our own comfort with sharing spots. That said, I'm going looking for more solitude and better turns, and when I find them, I won't be posting them here."  :

Honestly, I dig your site. You obviously spend a lot of time on it and it shows, but I am not here to direct strangers to every place that I love. I will leave that honor to you!

Priceless😂

I can't say that I am happy to see this, but I am glad it is far from complete. I'm hopeful you keep it this way.

Hey CascadeKid,

I've been backcountry skiing in Cascades since 1970. I find all the complaints about "secret stashes" being revealed to be pretty darn whiney. Keep up the good work!