May 2, 2018, Mt. Hood Meadows-Closed Midweek

We spent last night in the Main Lodge parking area for RVs. In April there was a post by "k2trcs" on Mt. Hood Meadows hiking for turns. We read the post and it said you can climb and ski on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday when they are closed, and then they open on Friday and through the weekend.. Yes, it does work. We were the only folks parked there overnight, and they have great internet connection. We did park next to the snow and walked 30 feet to start skinning. Not bad...

We had a short morning as we had to get Jill to the Amtrak station in Portland to catch a 3:00 train to Seattle (she had a Thursday meeting). We climbed near the Vista Express lift that got us up along the ridge that separated Mt. Hood Meadows from Timberline. This slope gets the morning sun and it was perfect spring snow. Along the climb we met a couple who were going the same route. So it was a chat and skin morning. They live in Vancouver,WA, and also have an older RV. The RV chat was fun. My suggestion for the ski down was to ski the terrain park in the Vista area. They ski here frequently, but had not skied in the terrain park. I convinced them that it would be great, and we had it all to ourselves.  By the end of the park they were confirmed terrain park folks. We didn't take the jumps (he did!), but had fun skiing the sides and areas between and along the 'features'. It was fantastic.

It was nice meeting another 'older' couple (they are still younger than we are) who backcountry ski and who also have an RV. Will be fun to connect with them the next time we're down in the Timberline area.

So, it was off to the train station and then to my next stop.