Yes it is the end of April but here at the Revolution we roll till the last flake melts and you should be too. Truth be told, this my first actual snowboard trip of the year, on April 26th. The first trip that does not involve the pleasure of watching everyone else rip through the lens of camera anyway - I was hyped. Oregon is not really known as a huge winter vacation mecca as much as say Vail is. Mt Bachelor is more so than Mt. Hood but even so Mt Bachelor has no slopeside lodging and neither does Mt Hood, really. That does not mean you should not come here. There is a lot od other stuff to do here besides ride. The nearby Colombia River Gorge is gorgeous, all the skateparks down in the town of Portland, a mere hour away, plus the nightlife, naked hipppie hot springs, visit Nike – whatever. There are four resorts on the flank of Mt. Hood; Skibowl, Timberline, Cooper Spur and Mt Hood Meadows, the biggest of them all.
Mt Hood Meadows is super fun with lots of nooks and crannies. It reminded me of say 10 small east resorts all packed together into 2150 west acres with a lot of snow, good terrain parks and some steep ass easily accesable back country. The inbounds terrain is not too steep but there are windlips every where so the whole mountain is kind of a terrain park. Speaking of park, Mt Hood Meadows often hosts events like Vegetate and photo shots for Mack Dawg and the like so you know they support parks. Heather Canyon has some insane backcountry style runs that access by hiking or by snowcat. Located on the eastern flank of Mr Hood it is a spot to hit for sure while in Oregon. It may even be worthy to spend a week in Oregon; 2-4 days at Meadows and 2-4 days at Bachelor. Of course around the corner from Meadows is Timberline; the US mecca of summer snow but that is another story
Bottom elevation: 4,523’
Top of lifts: 2,777’
Top of Heather Canyon: 9,000’
Lift served vert drop: 2,777’
Total vert drop: 4,477’
Acres: 2,150
Annual snowfall: 430 inches
Lifts: 11 (5 hs quads)
All day ticket: $54 ($64 on peak days)
Parks: 5 and one superpipe
Web: www.skihood.com
All these boats were in the hotel, appearantly it is Chinook Salmon fishing season on the Columbia. You know Slamon, like the ones you see on tv, they weigh like 20-30 lbs
The Columbia River Gorge looking west from Bingen, WA near Hood River, OR
Mt Hood from the Hood River bridge
Riding up the Hood River express
Riding up the Cascade Express lookin at Mt Hood
Hiking up towards Heather canyon
Mt Hood Ski Bowl and if you look closely you can see Timberline lodge
Hiking further up towards the top of Heather Canyon. You are close to the summit of Mt Hood but Meadows (and Timberline) have closed boundary policy. You can not hike to Mt Hoods summit from the lifts
SCORE – insane snow in Heather Canyon, apppearantly it snowed 17″ since Heather was last open
looking back up Heather Canyon
You can ride most everything in the photo except the top of Mt Hood
Singing Elvis at the pond skim - made it!
Forty years of fun!
Portland style Emo tight pants
540 off the jump. Locals said they had so much snow that the parks were a challenge to keep up
The surrounding scenery is, beautiful I spent three hours bushwacking to try to get a photo of Salmon swimming up river or big foot, it was fun looking though– The Wind River in Washington. There are some naked hippie hot springs on the wind river. I was once sat in there with the chick I was dating at the time, big ol’ salmon where swimming up stream, bald eagles were flying around. That was in, uh, 1992. Access to the springs is temporarily closed, times change
The Columbia river and people fishing for Salmon
Mt Hood above the pear blossoms
What a 202” base in April looks like
The pipe and part of the park
Heather Canyon was so sick I had to make that long ass hike twice. In the winter it is served by snowcat, when it can be open. They get crazy weather up here
Rainbow trout
Not too much different than when Lewis and Clark came this way. Well add railroads, a freeway, dams, housees, mini marts, boats and lots of other stuff but it pretty much is still wild
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