October 19, 2003, Mount Hood, S Side.

Jeff and I headed over to the 'best snow in the cascades', the Palmer snofield. Nobody was around at 7:45, when we started hiking. We started out in tennies, in thick, very wet fog. Shells quickly wetted out. As we got higher the snow go continuous, and we switched to ski boots. The fog dissappeared at some point, the wind picked up, and rime ice was EVERYWHERE. At one point we were between two cloud layers, with beautiful cumuli below. Very nice light. Above the Palmer it's a minefield, but you can easily find continuous snow with no rocks. We turned around 500 feet below Crater Rock, as the summit was socked in, the Hogsback was very ugly, and we were getting sick of the strong wind catching our skis. We skied a mix of ice, corn, and packed powder to the lifts. There we found very nice slush. We skied to withing 300 vertical feet of the car. I mananged to further mangle my beloved skis, I seem to have a knack for hitting rocks. Very nice day, though a long drive for a bit of skiing. And no rain!

Edit: a 'real' TR and photos will soon be on my website. I'll post a link.