December 23, 2009, Tilly Jane, Mt. Hood

We were hoping to find some powder stashes from the recent snowfall on Mt. Hood so headed up to Tilly Jane on Wednesday.  There is continuous snow from the parking lot, but it is mighty thin in many places along the trail to the hut.  Generally there was about an inch of new on top of an old rain/ice crust, with bare spots and roots poking through here and there.  It got better near the cabin, and above that there was some nice skiing through the trees and in the gullies, with several inches of fresh, light snow above the old crust.

Above tree-line it seemed mostly wind-buffed and was icy in spots, so we elected to turn around just below the start of the ridge proper. We managed to keep our skis on most of the way down, with the exception of one bad area on the trail and over a few logs on the cutoff trail over to the cooper spur ski area, which is closed but has just enough snow to ski down its open slopes.