June 8, Mt Hood, west crater rim

I've always liked the west crater rim line; it's not particularly long and oddly hard to get the snow right, but i think it has a few of the steeper turns on the mtn, which is always fun. traversed north from the top of old chute. after a few sketchy steps along the ridge, i found a nice flat spot with awesome views of the east side. threw on the skis, side slipped some frozen crap on the big north facing slope that comes up from leuthold/sandy, and dropped in to the top section of w. crater rim at about 11:15am. the first section was smooth and good, but a little firmer than I'd hoped. probably needed another 30-60mins of sun to ripen, but the wife might have been over-ripenned had i waited. traversed over toward castle crags and skied the bottom section on the far skiers right of that slope. really fun turns in there, but the snow has seen better days and seemed about a week from being done for the year. all in all, it was a really fun ski, but it sounds like by far the best remaining turns on Hood are on the SE and E side.
as a bonus, crater rock to the top of palmer was as good as I've ever gotten it and the resort had rippin snow. so, if you're looking to do a blue square 'intro to spring Mt Hood skiing' session, now is the time. I was feeling so good after some big GS turns that i decided to drop into the pipe, busted a few 540s to show the kids how its done, then called it a day*.
*this part may have only happened in my head.