October 20, 2007, Ski Bowl (Mt Hood), OR

Todd and I headed out to get our October turns in with no real direction on where we wanted to ski.  We had thought about Bachelor, but it looked pretty slim the night before on the web camera.  We decided to head up to Mt Hood from the southern W. Valley because they were reporting 11 new inches at Timberline.  The weather was hideous on the drive up.  When we got to Govy, the snow on Hwy. 26 was about 4 inches deep, and about 12 inches deep on the side of the road.  The driving conditions weren't very good, so we elected to try Ski Bowl and see what could happen (thinking that the mile and palmer on Hood would be windy and whiteout).

The skin/snowshoe up was nice and peaceful.  There wasn't anyone around and the snow was falling hard.  On the way up the snow depth was around 12 inches, but closer to 16 by the time we were ready to come down.  We turned around about 1/2 way up the summit lift because the steep slope yielded conditions that weren't good for skiing.  The turns down were rocky at first on the steeper slope, but were nice and creamy for the reamining 800 or so vertical feet back to the parking lot.  At the lodge, we helped some kids build a jump and played on that for awhile.  It was nice to see others out enjoying the early snow and having fun.  Tomorrow should be great up at Timberline.... Here's a few pictures below.......