8/26/2023 0 Comments Nottingham campground mt hoodAfter finishing at Mount Hood, many skiers will head down to Hood River, Oregon, to windsurf, go kayaking or take a bike ride in the area, Burton says. “We get a lot of people here who want to do two or three sports in one day,” says John Burton, director of marketing at Timberline Lodge. That’s one of the great things about skiing at Timberline in the summer: Your time on snow ends early, leaving room for many other activities. By 11 a.m., it’s time to call it a day.īut no, the activities aren’t over yet. It’s a warm day, and the skiing in the non-groomed out-of-bounds area is a bit mushy, so I make my way back to the base of Palmer and continue the cruising.īy late morning, the sun gets higher, the snow gets slower and that run I’ve done 15 times is starting to feel a little too familiar. The scale is huge as the slopes wind around the mountain out of bounds and into the nearby wilderness area. I decide to ski out west along the snowfield, marveling at the views toward Portland and south along the Oregon Cascades, where I can clearly see 10,000-plus-foot Mount Jefferson and the Three Sisters. In fact, many visitors do climb the snowfield much higher, heading toward Crater Rock and Steel Cliffs, two of the largest near-summit features, before skiing back down. It feels deceptively close, like you could swing your skis onto your shoulder and hike to the top in a couple of hours. I climb above the off-loading station and get a good look at the summit of Mount Hood (elevation 11,245 feet), looming just 3,000 vertical feet above. Then it’s time to try something different. I return to the Palmer lift for a few more laps, all fast and mostly deserted. We hit the repeat button two more times before George has to leave for a conference she’s attending at Timberline Lodge. By this time, a few others are on the slopes, but it’s still wide-open skiing. George and I quickly reach the bottom and lap No. The Palmer runs are rated advanced, but they feel more like long, perfectly pitched intermediate cruisers. The snow, which is groomed nightly, is soft and fast. We hit our first turns, and the race is on. So much snow falls on the Palmer snowfield that the lift is completely buried and doesn’t operate during the winter months. Sure enough, as George and I reach the off-loading station, we enter an ice-encased cavern, with 35 feet of last winter’s snow still piled above. “You won’t believe how much snow there is.” “Wait until you see the top,” says Nancy George, a skier from the Boston area that I’ve joined for a few morning runs. Ski Team is one of 120 organizations training on the slopes of Mount Hood this summer.īut of course, recreational skiers like me are here too, enjoying something truly rare: year-round access to snow.Īs I ride up the Palmer Express the first time, I’m struck by the sheer size of the snowfield. Ski and snowboard teams spend their summers at Timberline, more so this year in advance of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The resort has the longest ski season in the country, operating into September. It’s this high-elevation lift that makes Mount Hood ground zero for summer skiing in the United States. I will start on the lower slopes, but spend most of my time on the highest lift, the Palmer Express, which ascends to 8,540 feet on Mount Hood’s south side. The slopes are deserted as I shred soft snow to the base Stormin’ Norman, one of three lifts still open at Timberline. If you’re summer skiing at Timberline, you need to hit it early.Īnd I do. – The sun is hanging near the horizon as I click into my skis at 6,000 feet on the flank of this snowy volcano.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |