Trip Report: Mt. Hood Skibowl
When: 01/18/2019
Location: Mt Hood Skibowl
Conditions: Great! Forecasted rain (temperatures between 32 and 33 with guaranteed precipitation). Turned out to be great with snow, rain came after sunset. Had great conditions all day.
Duration: 6 hours
Difficulty: Easy to Difficult. Your call.
Kid Friendly: Yes
Usefull links: www.skibowl.com
The Full Report:
Two of my coworkers and I decided that we would head up to Skibowl for a weekday run. We prepped up, made driving plans, packed our gear and headed towards Hood around 9:30 in the morning. Arriving in the Mt. Hood Skibowl parking lot before 11 turned out to be the perfect time to get there. Just enough time to let the ice melt off the road and the snow was soft enough to make some turns. One of my coworkers, Tyler T$ had a new pair of skis to demo. He strapped them up and the three of us headed straight for the Lower Bowl Chair. As is custom with the first ride of the chair you never ski back down right away. So, after getting off the chair we headed right and got on the chair leading to the Upper Bowl.
This is where the money turns were found. We spent most of the day up here. To the left, we were able to cut across the ridge and drop down into the bowl using a different line through the trees every time. To the right, same story. Nobody was up there, and we had the whole upper bowl to ourselves. After a few laps, we decided to head into the lodge for a beer, some nachos and to warm up. While in the lodge it started snowing. By the time we finished our beers, it was snowing even harder. Perfect. We headed back up to the Upper Bowl and were rewarded with Free Refills, that is, our tracks from the previous run were covered with fresh snow by the time we found them again. Since it was just about 32 degrees the snow was right on the brink of being awesome. Still, it was fresh snow. We cruised this way and that finding new lines to speed our way down.
After about two more hours we made a line towards the lodge once more. This time, while sipping on our beers it started to rain. After a good rest, we decided to go up and get after it again. While on the chair we got soaked and rather than head for the top we thought it might just be best to realize the end to a good day when we see it and we cut back down towards the truck. All in all, a great day. If you've never been to Mt. Hood Skibowl, I highly recommend it.
The Full Report:
Two of my coworkers and I decided that we would head up to Skibowl for a weekday run. We prepped up, made driving plans, packed our gear and headed towards Hood around 9:30 in the morning. Arriving in the Mt. Hood Skibowl parking lot before 11 turned out to be the perfect time to get there. Just enough time to let the ice melt off the road and the snow was soft enough to make some turns. One of my coworkers, Tyler T$ had a new pair of skis to demo. He strapped them up and the three of us headed straight for the Lower Bowl Chair. As is custom with the first ride of the chair you never ski back down right away. So, after getting off the chair we headed right and got on the chair leading to the Upper Bowl.
This is where the money turns were found. We spent most of the day up here. To the left, we were able to cut across the ridge and drop down into the bowl using a different line through the trees every time. To the right, same story. Nobody was up there, and we had the whole upper bowl to ourselves. After a few laps, we decided to head into the lodge for a beer, some nachos and to warm up. While in the lodge it started snowing. By the time we finished our beers, it was snowing even harder. Perfect. We headed back up to the Upper Bowl and were rewarded with Free Refills, that is, our tracks from the previous run were covered with fresh snow by the time we found them again. Since it was just about 32 degrees the snow was right on the brink of being awesome. Still, it was fresh snow. We cruised this way and that finding new lines to speed our way down.
After about two more hours we made a line towards the lodge once more. This time, while sipping on our beers it started to rain. After a good rest, we decided to go up and get after it again. While on the chair we got soaked and rather than head for the top we thought it might just be best to realize the end to a good day when we see it and we cut back down towards the truck. All in all, a great day. If you've never been to Mt. Hood Skibowl, I highly recommend it.