August 2, 2016; Mt Hood; Palmer Snowfield

Yes, the low-hanging fruit of late-season skiing.

The hike is still only ~230' vertical to the snow (i.e., ~100' vertical *below* the snowcat parking).
And of course the hike is a paved road -- goes well with the groomed snow!

The snow after that is kind of narrow, and used as a public terrain park, so might want to keep hiking off-snow there if you're coming up during a high-usage time.
(Maybe when the racers are skiing down for a final run around noon and then the jibonkers in the early afternoon?)

The lower part of the Palmer though up to the mid-station is very wide
They also have a solid ribbon extending to the skinner's right up into a massive terrain park, which seemed to be under reconstruction this past Tuesday.
(Jibonker camps seemed to be in hiatus that day?)

Skinner's left of the Upper Palmer is gone, but skinner's right is wide.
Can also use an abandoned ungroomed stretch of snow in a little rock-protected strip to the skinner's right of all the race lines.

(As for above Palmer and also off to the skier's right on Zig Zag, had to catch a flight that afternoon, so couldn't wait for the ungroomed snow to soften.)