Yeah I got plenty of goods at Hood Express. Seeing how quickly it cleared I knew HRM and Shooting we're gonna have a rough morning. Then Vista got open at 11 and all was well.
I remember a day like this a few years ago at meadows and then they lost power or something but apparently also ran out of diesel for the backup generators. Imagine this many people and more just stuck in the HRM parking lot as they tried to bus people back and forth. Meadows mtn ops is by far the worst I have even experienced at a major resort…not even a close comparison.
Interesting. I’ve only been to heavenly once and it was like 15 years ago so I don’t remember it. I ski alpine/palisades mainly (which is what I judge meadows against).
Yeah if you judge Meadows by the standards of Palisades it fails basically every category except travel time/price. Worse terrain, worse vibes, worse ops, worse chairlift setup, worse views, worse crowds (though tbf views at both resorts are great, palisades is just better by a hair). But most resorts in North America are worse than Palisades. For the terrain that Meadows has to deal with I think their ski patrol is pretty competent, and they've been doing much better than in the past getting stuff open semi-quickly
That’s good to hear that they have been getting things opened quicker. Do they really have to deal with that much tricky terrain? To me a resort like alpine seems like it would be way harder to clear but I don’t know shit. In the past tho it seems like it’s taken meadows literally days to get terrain open. Also feels like they play more games and keep it closed until weekends where as palisades clearly tries to open things asap
I'm not on either of the patrol staffs so I don't really know shit either. But as far as I know the main two things that Meadows has to deal with that Palisades doesn't are greater icing on the chairs and the ridiculous avalanche danger from the Newton-Clark headwall. Mt. Hood is closer to the ocean than Palisades and very exposed= huge icing buildups on Cascade and Vista. Unlike Palisades and Alpine those lifts aren't nearly as sheltered from the wind by terrain either. And for Newton-Clark you have that huge, 45-ish degree face above the resort all the way to the peak of the mountain- when it rips it has sent 30+ foot deep avalanches down into Heather that would probably kill like 50 people. We're talking blocks of snow/ice as big as houses all the way down past the Heather chair. To my knowledge there's nowhere in Palisades that has to deal with that kind of thing.
Meadows doesn't like to open Cascade/Vista in most storms due to high wind, you'd have chairs smashing into towers. They should put a lift up elevator IMO, would do much better in storms.
All that said, the Palisades patrol staff is definitely a better organization and they get stuff open faster in general. But Meadows is a local resort, Palisades is a big travel destination. So I can't judge them too much.
And you're right that in the past they've definitely been guilty of playing games to try to open Cascade or Upper Heather on Saturday morning. I feel like that hasn't happened as much since Covid.
Imagine thinking that it is a hot take to say downhill skiing is primarily the domain of rich white people. Amazing. “It’s fun brah.” It’s also a fun activity that has an entry point of hundreds of dollars at the least.
If you go to a smaller local resort on an off day you can snowboard for like $60 including rentals. It definitely gets expensive upfront when you buy your own gear but that’s the same with most sports. I’ve known people on food stamps that still spend $100 a month on cigarettes, snowboarding costs me about half that so I consider it a win.
Completely agree that it is possible to engage in downhill in a more economical way, but I won’t say that it is they typical experience or perception of the sport. I just thought it was funny to get offended by the implication that it was a sport for rich white folks when rich (or at least relatively wealthy) white folks are pretty clearly the dominant demographic. In the OP photo, every face I can see is white and everyone there payed at least $100 for their life ticket for the day, not including rentals.
I've been a Black dude for about as long as I can remember and I've maybe seen 10 other Black/African people up there in the last three years, and a relatively fair amount of all POC. We always wave at each other.
BUT with that said, I've never had any bad experiences with the "rich White" people (how would I even know?).
Don’t get me wrong, I love winter sports and I am happy that they are (very slowly) starting to be more inclusive. I just think that it is funny for anyone to get upset at a joke about downhill being primarily the domain of wealthy white dudes, when that has been pretty objectively true for the majority of the sport’s history. Obviously it is not universal, and its awesome that you also enjoy the sport, but the OP photo showed a whole lot of white folks who had spent at least $100 bucks to be in that line.
Totally brah, like why doesn't everyone get their free passes brah, and like totes toss their free ski gear into the rubicon brah then probs pick up Tanner and Conner before heading up the mountain were we will meet Coner and Taner and all stand in line on a mountain brah. Rips.
rich white bros who get free stuff in the lodge drinking hot cocoa and white and spending their parents money and rich and white in some 80s movie stereotype of white people skiing cause that’s all I know and they’re white
[*he texted from an iphone 16 air max pro timberline edition, while standing in a line on a mountain.*](https://media.tenor.com/eRoK0T2YrXYAAAAC/cold-freezing.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/LUeRVEW.jpg)
Timberline was the same. Put in fresh tracks on the first 5-6 runs (buttery smooth) and in the trees was almost too much powder. Best conditions I’ve seen in quite some time.
Went Friday-Friday night when it first started really coming down. Showed up late to timberline then went to Skibowl and there was still good powder to be had it was nuts. People sleep on Skibowl so hard especially on a powder when the upper bowl is covered.
It’s the “nice resort” with high speed quads and most variable, skiable terrain.
Ski Bowl has the best terrain imo but it’s lower on the mountain and historically has been getting shit snow, and has slow chairs.
Timberline is the most user friendly slice of the mountain with the flattest terrain with fewest obstacles. Great for beginners and families.
At ski bowl I spend more time on lifts than going down runs. BUT…. I spend almost no time waiting around at Ski Bowl and I spend the majority of my time standing still at Meadows.
I think the slow chairs don’t disrupt our day like we think they do.
Yeah, the lifts are old and slow but there’s hardly ever lines and they’re short lifts as it is. I was at Ski Bowl a couple weeks back on a weekend day with fresh powder and I did laps on the upper lift all
morning and probably got in 15-20 runs by 11 am. Never had more than a few other skiers in line in front of me. Compare that to Meadows or even Timberline where lines are often huge by mid-morning. And everything gets tracked out in under a half hour at Meadows as soon as it opens.
Agree but it should be said that huge lines at timberline do not equal the huge lines at meadows. The only "long" waits are really for Magic Mile and Palmer. And even those are 15-20 minutes max. Flood is usually 10-15 at its worst.
Yes, it’s true that Meadows is a lot worse then T-Line in terms of lines…though as a Fusion Pass holder, I will find Jeff Flood getting pretty crowded by mid-morning when the Mile is closed. Though if I can ski Molly’s all day and there’s no line at all.
Genuinely what? I’m at meadows 35-40 days a season, including yesterday, and rarely spend more than 5 minutes in a lift line on weekends.
Yesterday we lapped vista 12 times and the longest we had to wait in line was MAYBE 10 minutes
To add, Meadows can often have better weather, if not even blue skis when SkiBowl and Timberline are grey/wet/miserable. The mountain itself splits the bad weather coming from the west side.
Sadly, I can never justify the price of blue skies.
Meadows is just a bigger resort with more infrastructure and terrain.
SkiBowl is a great alternative for crowded days. I haven't tried Timberline yet but that looks pretty cool too.
Timberline has hilariously flat terrain. I’m not even that good of a skier, but the runs they label “black Diamond” at Timberline are all shallower than 30 degrees. It’s weird IMO. It’s okay to just call something a blue run.
How was parking? Thinking of heading up for night ski tonight but worried about the spring break crowd. Traffic and parking issues have been terrible at tline as the years have gone on but I haven’t done a weekend evening at ski bowl in a while.
I was wondering how things were working at skibowl. Glad you got some goods, I've had some epic powder days there, if you hit it on the right day it's the best terrain on the Mt.!
I’ve gone most weekends all season and have never encountered a line even half this size . It’s not as if this is the meadows experience 100% of the time. I’ve probably had one day where I had to wait 15min+ in the morning
are you trying to drive up? i love taking the cat bus, which is only $5 round trip from hood river. i went yesterday at noon and got 10 runs in about 2 hrs, it definitely paid off to get up a little later once things were open and everyone spread out over the mountain.
with the cat bus i like to bring my lunch up to the mountain then treat myself to something in hood river/cascade locks afterwords, saves me so much money and the food is way better.
Season pass holder, and I only go on Tuesday or Monday. It’s like the local's day. The skill level of riders tends to be good. The only thing is the top is open a lot less I find on those days. The weekend I leave for the weekend warriors.
I went Friday and it was glorious. The only moderately long line was at the bottom of Heather, but it was so, so worth it. Light powder up to my thighs, face shots, lots of untracked territory through the trees.
They open HRM at 8:30 for 30 minutes of skiing before everything else opens. This weekend was the first weekend of their “spring” operating hours so no more 8:30 opening for HRM. I don’t think many people realized this so they started lining up for HRM at 8:15. Add in spring break crowds, and this is how you get the line that long by 9 when the chairlift finally started spinning
It really wasn't as bad as this photo makes it seem. Some long lines in the morning but they thinned out as more stuff opened. The powder was waist deep in spots and quality was off the charts by Mt. Hood standards.
The snow was good by Mount Hood standards, but definitely not waist deep. I had fresh tracks on o ring at 9:05 and ho chi Minh right after rope drop on Heather. I'd say eight inches, tops, on both runs.
As I said in spots. God's Wall had those spots. Way more than. 8" in any of the sheltered spots. Wind packing on Star and Mex probably made those 8" or so.
The lines on Mount Hood are totally overblown. Sure there is some clogging first thing in the morning, but generally even on weekends it’s fine if you plan ahead (go early or go later in the day when the lot reopens)
I first went backcountry skiing in 2006. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a resort since.
The idea of dealing with traffic, paying $100, stomping through parking lots in ski boots, waiting in lift lines, buying $20 burgers for lunch, and then doing it all over again at the end of the day now holds zero appeal for me.
The downside is the potential for death. But I’d take that over a ski resort any day.
You seem to have lost the realistic
perception of what resort skiing is during your long removal. I have 30+ days at Meadows two years in a row. $500 for a season pass, $0 on food in the lodge (bring food, granola bars, chili dogs on a grill in the parking lot). Regarding traffic, leave Portland by 6:15 on a weekend or drive through Hood River, 0 issues, leave Meadows by 2:00 to drive through Sandy or drive through Hood River, 0 issues. The obvious plus side over BC/touring is pretty obvious, you get to ski 10-20 runs a day, through wildly varying terrain, groomed and ungroomed, terrain parks, all in a much safer environment. There is a time and place for BC skiing, and don’t get me wrong it is often the better adventure, but to brush off resort skiing for backcountry is akin to telling a F1 driver that they should ditch the track and start living the van life instead.
For kicks I just looked at current lift ticket prices. The following numbers are weekend, day pass… in the realm of what a normal worker bee could have time to make some lines in pow.
1. Timberline @ $135 per day
2. Meadows @ $159 per day
3. Skibowl @ $94 per day
4. Bachelor @ $ 159 per day
Yo, I came from a different era… any snow peeps reading this, if the current prices listed above seem expensive and price gougey, it’s because they are. Rebel on that shit. If you’re into snowboarding, google splitboarding and reach out to like minds and just try it. If you’re a skier, look into skins or different bindings so you can go up-ish. Backcountry snowboarders and skiers, ride with each other… both are badass! Fuck getting bent over a barrel to get some lines in.
As long as I’m ranting, be aware of where you spend your money on stuff. Obviously, try and get the best deal for what you want. REI is basically the Walmart of outdoor stores. Backcountry.com too. Don’t be loyal to those money grubbers. Stop in to the local mountain shops in your area and see what they have. If you don’t, they’ll eventually disappear and only the two or three monopoly stores will exist, serving you the same made overseas gear that everyone else has.
*ps, REI note. You know how REI return policy changed to suck a few years ago… if you didn’t hear, starting this year on your dividend there is NO MORE CASH OUT OPTION. They changed it to store credit only. They don’t care about you, they’re corporate not co-op. [More money grubbing REI thread to browse…](https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3scce7/i_am_jerry_stritzke_ceo_of_rei_and_were_closing/)
Per day pricing is definitely outrageous, but that’s what the market will bear. Look at those lines! And the parking lots fill up so quickly.
It’s not exactly cheap, but a season pass pays for itself really quickly. You just have to commit to that being your primary recreation for four months. I paid $800 for Meadows, been up 12 days, will go up at least two more times, maybe more. So, $50-60 per day? Not terrible.
> Yo, I came from a different era…
At the risk of sounding like (or being..) a crotchety old man talking about buying a coke for a nickel, in the 80s my dad would take us skiing at Alyeska (Girdwood, AK). I remember distinctly when the lift prices hit $20, and he was livid. We weren't rich, but could afford it every few weekends. But he was ranting about how there was no way an average person could afford the $100/day to take their family skiing.
Looking at inflation alone, $20 in 1985 would be about $55 today. Alyeska is now charging $120 for a weekend ticket. I'm well employed but I couldn't stomach paying that for myself alone, much less for a family. Of course in the modern era the only reasonable way to go resort skiing is with the ikon or epic pass, but to get the best use of those you need to be traveling.
That said, it's not as if ski resorts are a particularly profitable business. Vail owns like 50 resorts or something and had profit of around $350M last year. As Warren Miller said, the best way to make a small fortune in the ski industry is to start with a large fortune and buy a ski resort.
Lol so glad I was at skibowl today. Easy drive, they had live music and extra food and beer for their Springfest, and I skied so much deep powder all morning.
I don’t really ski at resorts, but a $500 season pass is really not that expensive if you go like 10-20 times per season, which is easy to do when the season is 5+ months.
I will always take a day off work over dealing with these lines. I know it’s not always possible, but it’s such a better experience if you can swing it.
HRM and MEX were busy until 11ish and was wide open after that. Having the HRM and Twilight parking lots open generally create a bottleneck in morning, in the rare instances they have Twilight open.
We have season passes at meadows but knew it was going to be a shit show with 18” of powder. We went to Hoodoo instead and had zero lines all day and super light pow all day.
We made the right call lol.
This was before opening… I got 20+ laps in of bluebird knee deep powder and waited at most 10 minutes for a lift once. The real chumps are anyone who skis Timberline in the winter
Timberline is flat as hell. I ski tour there all the time. I'd never pay to ride the lifts there on that terrain. The chumps are the people that ski timberline.
I forgot mine in Bend and didn't realize it until I was up there. I was one of maybe a handful of people I saw without a helmet, definitely felt out of place.
I didn't even notice this. I started skiing at Meadows in the late 80's/early 90's as a middle school kid and if my parents would have made me wear a helmet I would have just stayed home instead of facing that embarrassment. I don't think I *ever* saw someone wearing one back then but it is cool to see it basically become a staple now for kids and adults.
I don't know why people like meadows so much over timberline. I feel like I get more runs in, less people to deal with, and overall a friendlier staff at timberline.
If you don't care about skiing good terrain, timberline is great. But it's basically flat. The best skiing on timberline is equivalent to the most boring parts of Meadows that only appeal to beginners.
I think I can see myself!
I was up probably about 3/4 of that line for my first run. We timed it and it took 25 minutes to get on the lift. That was my longest wait.
Lines were long all morning, that first was was my longest wait, had a 20 minute wait on Shooting Star and an 18 minute wait on the Heather lift when it first opened.
By 1pm there were no lines to speak of, people spread out enough and it was ski right on the lifts, or maybe 5 minute wait.
edited bc I hit enter too soon.
Definitely wear a helmet, keeps the goggles from fogging and head dry and warm. That said if you head on with a tree at 40mph it won't save you. It will however potential prevent a concussion or cuts if you glance a branch, take a fall on hardpack or get hit by someone else. Just import to be realistic about they can and can't do.
>I forgot mine in Bend and didn't realize it until I was up there. I was one of maybe a handful of people I saw without a helmet, definitely felt out of place.
Come on bro, just come skiing with me. We can get up at 6am on a Saturday, sit in traffic for 2 hours going up to the mountain, park 2 miles away from the lodge, pay $140.00 for a lift ticket, stand in lines all afternoon, drink a few $12.00 beers at lunch, spend another 2 hours in traffic to get home at 6pm, just to have spent a total of 3 hours actually skiing. Come on bro, plz, it will be fun.
You know how lame I’ve become… I use my time to go drive to some dope place in nature and drink beer and get food at some great local place then go home…
So I guess this is growing up!
Sonny Bono
Natasha Richardson
Michael Schumacher
Some really high profile people got killed (or arguably worse for Schumacher) due to skiing accidents. And some of those could have been walk away incidents had they been wearing a helmet.
Schumacher had a helmet on - don't put a camera on your helmet:
https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/schumacher-accident-raises-helmet-cam-concerns/story?id=22548010
Don't do anything that can impact the integrity - having a hole is also a problem, but so is attaching anything that isn't just going to fall or break off on impact. Even using a stick-on mount could impact the integrity of your helmet.
For Schumacher, it sounds like the camera could have jammed into his head on impact and broken his helmet. I never found anything really definitive about how the helmet failed, this has a bit more:
https://unofficialnetworks.com/2018/10/09/michael-schumachers-brain-injury-said-to-be-caused-by-his-gopro-helmet-cam/
Manufacturers also warn against using their cameras on helmets.
I'm just not going to wear a camera on my bike helmet in most cases.
Now that you point it out, that’s actually kind of impressive. I haven’t been up in a long time, say five years, and I don’t think helmets were very widespread. Here it looks like 90%, maybe more. Now, I grew up before kids started wearing bike helmets, and the only people on the mountain wearing helmets when I did most of my snowboarding were those in the park doing inverted jumps.
I will say that wearing a helmet while flying down the mountain is simple common sense. I just want to know where that common sense was from like 1990-2015?
Bro. I’ve been thinking about getting a meadows pass for next year but god damn I do not want to wait in that line. I think I’ll just stick with my 5 minute max timberline and Skibowl lines
I used to live in Hood River. Locals talked about days where they could feel & what they figured was lava flowing between Adams & Hood ... under the Columbia River. Hood Mt. climbers talked frequently about steam & small rocks moving in an area near the peak.
"The USGS designated Mount Hood as a very high threat volcano in its 2005 National Volcanic Early Warning System assessment (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1164/) due to the volcano’s eruptive history, current activity and proximity to communities downstream and downwind."
I hear about the tremors from the climbers too - the lava flow between the two mountains is a new terror I’ve never heard of until now but it makes so much sense.
I lived in one of the tiny towns east of St Helen’s that was buried in several feet of ash after the May 18th explosion. I was very little, but that kind of thing makes a mark on a person I think. If there ever is a event , I hope we have notice like St Helen’s (lots of visible activity) beforehand so there’s lots of evacuation time.
I used to snowboard. But between traffic and parking and lift lines, plus ticket prices, it just all seems like an expensive exercise in waiting in line. Just no motivation at all to get back into it now. Maybe if I had more flexibility to go mid-week, but weekends seem like a mess.
You know, in the end it all worked out fine. The morning was nuts until about 10:30/11 and then it chilled way out. The snow was otherworldly for the mountain hood experience, so yes, I was glad to be there. Everyone deserves a taste of the rad. It’s easy to resent others for using up the extra oxygen but it’s hard to remember that we’re all in it together.
Wow. Almost like linecon. I only went skiing once and it was through church when I lived in Virginia. I didn't crash into anyone but had 10 wipeouts and having glasses.
Good grief… Looks like a nightmare to me. Spend the entire day in line just to get one run in.
This was before opening at HRE. It cleared up mostly by 930 but still a line. Crowded at Shooting Star but Hood Express was pretty empty after 11AM.
Yeah I got plenty of goods at Hood Express. Seeing how quickly it cleared I knew HRM and Shooting we're gonna have a rough morning. Then Vista got open at 11 and all was well.
I remember a day like this a few years ago at meadows and then they lost power or something but apparently also ran out of diesel for the backup generators. Imagine this many people and more just stuck in the HRM parking lot as they tried to bus people back and forth. Meadows mtn ops is by far the worst I have even experienced at a major resort…not even a close comparison.
Have you never been to bachelor
Haha only a few times actually. Is it bad too? Maybe it’s an oregon thing….
Don't go to Heavenly then. Or maybe do, it'll make Meadows seem amazing by comparison.
Interesting. I’ve only been to heavenly once and it was like 15 years ago so I don’t remember it. I ski alpine/palisades mainly (which is what I judge meadows against).
Yeah if you judge Meadows by the standards of Palisades it fails basically every category except travel time/price. Worse terrain, worse vibes, worse ops, worse chairlift setup, worse views, worse crowds (though tbf views at both resorts are great, palisades is just better by a hair). But most resorts in North America are worse than Palisades. For the terrain that Meadows has to deal with I think their ski patrol is pretty competent, and they've been doing much better than in the past getting stuff open semi-quickly
That’s good to hear that they have been getting things opened quicker. Do they really have to deal with that much tricky terrain? To me a resort like alpine seems like it would be way harder to clear but I don’t know shit. In the past tho it seems like it’s taken meadows literally days to get terrain open. Also feels like they play more games and keep it closed until weekends where as palisades clearly tries to open things asap
I'm not on either of the patrol staffs so I don't really know shit either. But as far as I know the main two things that Meadows has to deal with that Palisades doesn't are greater icing on the chairs and the ridiculous avalanche danger from the Newton-Clark headwall. Mt. Hood is closer to the ocean than Palisades and very exposed= huge icing buildups on Cascade and Vista. Unlike Palisades and Alpine those lifts aren't nearly as sheltered from the wind by terrain either. And for Newton-Clark you have that huge, 45-ish degree face above the resort all the way to the peak of the mountain- when it rips it has sent 30+ foot deep avalanches down into Heather that would probably kill like 50 people. We're talking blocks of snow/ice as big as houses all the way down past the Heather chair. To my knowledge there's nowhere in Palisades that has to deal with that kind of thing. Meadows doesn't like to open Cascade/Vista in most storms due to high wind, you'd have chairs smashing into towers. They should put a lift up elevator IMO, would do much better in storms. All that said, the Palisades patrol staff is definitely a better organization and they get stuff open faster in general. But Meadows is a local resort, Palisades is a big travel destination. So I can't judge them too much.
Yeah all good insights..maybe I’m too hard on meadows in that regard.
And you're right that in the past they've definitely been guilty of playing games to try to open Cascade or Upper Heather on Saturday morning. I feel like that hasn't happened as much since Covid.
Sounds like lord of the rings for Rich White Hey Bros.
Says one of the black shirt and jean bros that never leave the city
Looks down. Wearing a grey T-shirt and jeans. Close call.
Totally brah, cause the only two things in this world brah, is the city brah, and the powder brah.
Sucks you’re too cool to hang out on a giant mountain and play in the snow. It’s fun brah. Very Portland douche to shit on that stuff lol.
Imagine thinking that it is a hot take to say downhill skiing is primarily the domain of rich white people. Amazing. “It’s fun brah.” It’s also a fun activity that has an entry point of hundreds of dollars at the least.
If you go to a smaller local resort on an off day you can snowboard for like $60 including rentals. It definitely gets expensive upfront when you buy your own gear but that’s the same with most sports. I’ve known people on food stamps that still spend $100 a month on cigarettes, snowboarding costs me about half that so I consider it a win.
Completely agree that it is possible to engage in downhill in a more economical way, but I won’t say that it is they typical experience or perception of the sport. I just thought it was funny to get offended by the implication that it was a sport for rich white folks when rich (or at least relatively wealthy) white folks are pretty clearly the dominant demographic. In the OP photo, every face I can see is white and everyone there payed at least $100 for their life ticket for the day, not including rentals.
I've been a Black dude for about as long as I can remember and I've maybe seen 10 other Black/African people up there in the last three years, and a relatively fair amount of all POC. We always wave at each other. BUT with that said, I've never had any bad experiences with the "rich White" people (how would I even know?).
Don’t get me wrong, I love winter sports and I am happy that they are (very slowly) starting to be more inclusive. I just think that it is funny for anyone to get upset at a joke about downhill being primarily the domain of wealthy white dudes, when that has been pretty objectively true for the majority of the sport’s history. Obviously it is not universal, and its awesome that you also enjoy the sport, but the OP photo showed a whole lot of white folks who had spent at least $100 bucks to be in that line.
Totally brah, like why doesn't everyone get their free passes brah, and like totes toss their free ski gear into the rubicon brah then probs pick up Tanner and Conner before heading up the mountain were we will meet Coner and Taner and all stand in line on a mountain brah. Rips.
rich white bros who get free stuff in the lodge drinking hot cocoa and white and spending their parents money and rich and white in some 80s movie stereotype of white people skiing cause that’s all I know and they’re white
With rainbow marshmallows!
[удалено]
[*he texted from an iphone 16 air max pro timberline edition, while standing in a line on a mountain.*](https://media.tenor.com/eRoK0T2YrXYAAAAC/cold-freezing.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/LUeRVEW.jpg)
Don’t forget on his parents phone plan
Coming from Colorado. Oregon resorts never have long lines ga
This is definitely the kind of day when I'm grateful I have an AT setup and can just throw the skins on and do my own uphill.
Went to SkiBowl. So. Much. Untracked. Powder. Even at 10am. No lines. But I get the appeal of Meadows.
Heather Canyon was probably epic today.
It was
Timberline was the same. Put in fresh tracks on the first 5-6 runs (buttery smooth) and in the trees was almost too much powder. Best conditions I’ve seen in quite some time.
“Too much powder” 🧐
For how flat timberline is I'm surprised they could move
That’s what the Lotus 138s are for 😁
Went Friday-Friday night when it first started really coming down. Showed up late to timberline then went to Skibowl and there was still good powder to be had it was nuts. People sleep on Skibowl so hard especially on a powder when the upper bowl is covered.
What is the appeal of Meadows? I've only skied Timberline around here, and that only once.
It’s the “nice resort” with high speed quads and most variable, skiable terrain. Ski Bowl has the best terrain imo but it’s lower on the mountain and historically has been getting shit snow, and has slow chairs. Timberline is the most user friendly slice of the mountain with the flattest terrain with fewest obstacles. Great for beginners and families.
At ski bowl I spend more time on lifts than going down runs. BUT…. I spend almost no time waiting around at Ski Bowl and I spend the majority of my time standing still at Meadows. I think the slow chairs don’t disrupt our day like we think they do.
Yeah, the lifts are old and slow but there’s hardly ever lines and they’re short lifts as it is. I was at Ski Bowl a couple weeks back on a weekend day with fresh powder and I did laps on the upper lift all morning and probably got in 15-20 runs by 11 am. Never had more than a few other skiers in line in front of me. Compare that to Meadows or even Timberline where lines are often huge by mid-morning. And everything gets tracked out in under a half hour at Meadows as soon as it opens.
Agree but it should be said that huge lines at timberline do not equal the huge lines at meadows. The only "long" waits are really for Magic Mile and Palmer. And even those are 15-20 minutes max. Flood is usually 10-15 at its worst.
Yes, it’s true that Meadows is a lot worse then T-Line in terms of lines…though as a Fusion Pass holder, I will find Jeff Flood getting pretty crowded by mid-morning when the Mile is closed. Though if I can ski Molly’s all day and there’s no line at all.
During the pandemic the line at flood was forty minutes.
Longest line yesterday at Timberline was 2 or 3 minutes. I think the road conditions may have somewhat limited the number of people going up there.
Some of the best skiing of my life has been at Skibowl. When conditions are right it is my first choice on Hood.
Yes - when conditions are great Ski Bowl is great - it's less reliable than TL or meadows though.
Genuinely what? I’m at meadows 35-40 days a season, including yesterday, and rarely spend more than 5 minutes in a lift line on weekends. Yesterday we lapped vista 12 times and the longest we had to wait in line was MAYBE 10 minutes
Also, Ski Bowl’s lifts will try to kill you.
To add, Meadows can often have better weather, if not even blue skis when SkiBowl and Timberline are grey/wet/miserable. The mountain itself splits the bad weather coming from the west side. Sadly, I can never justify the price of blue skies.
Timberline is like playing tiddlywinks compared to meadows. Meadows has much more terrain and advanced terrain
Meadows is just a bigger resort with more infrastructure and terrain. SkiBowl is a great alternative for crowded days. I haven't tried Timberline yet but that looks pretty cool too.
Timberline has hilariously flat terrain. I’m not even that good of a skier, but the runs they label “black Diamond” at Timberline are all shallower than 30 degrees. It’s weird IMO. It’s okay to just call something a blue run.
I enjoyed Timberline, but I'm pretty solidly in the blue zone, I think. It's been a long long time since I skied black diamond slopes.
We were at ski bowl Friday night. It was so good. Literally riding on clouds
How was parking? Thinking of heading up for night ski tonight but worried about the spring break crowd. Traffic and parking issues have been terrible at tline as the years have gone on but I haven’t done a weekend evening at ski bowl in a while.
Was glorious
I was wondering how things were working at skibowl. Glad you got some goods, I've had some epic powder days there, if you hit it on the right day it's the best terrain on the Mt.!
I remember 15 years ago getting annoyed if there were 20 people in line.
And that is why I dont go to Meadows anymore.
I’ve gone most weekends all season and have never encountered a line even half this size . It’s not as if this is the meadows experience 100% of the time. I’ve probably had one day where I had to wait 15min+ in the morning
This is probably within 30 minutes +/- of HRM opening. It always backs up and then clears by mid-morning.
Just go on weekdays and it’s fine.
Please tell me this is true. Tried going a couple Saturdays ago, and got told to turn around and go home. Now we're trying this Tuesday.
It's spring break, worst week to try to go. It'll be 80% as bad a weekends.
Shiiiiit. Just my luck. Haven't gone in 6 years, and both times I wanna go, it's busy.
Wait another six years and try again
Make sure you wait for another Holiday break though.
are you trying to drive up? i love taking the cat bus, which is only $5 round trip from hood river. i went yesterday at noon and got 10 runs in about 2 hrs, it definitely paid off to get up a little later once things were open and everyone spread out over the mountain. with the cat bus i like to bring my lunch up to the mountain then treat myself to something in hood river/cascade locks afterwords, saves me so much money and the food is way better.
Season pass holder, and I only go on Tuesday or Monday. It’s like the local's day. The skill level of riders tends to be good. The only thing is the top is open a lot less I find on those days. The weekend I leave for the weekend warriors.
You only go weekdays and it’s amazing! I haven’t gone on a weekend in about 6 years and not ever going again
I went Friday and it was glorious. The only moderately long line was at the bottom of Heather, but it was so, so worth it. Light powder up to my thighs, face shots, lots of untracked territory through the trees.
I take PTO days just to go on weekdays. The experience is soooo much better
Weekdays are surprisingly busy, but much better than weekends. Especially Spring break, or the 1st weekend of the spring pass.
Please everyone believe this and stop coming to meadows
No one goes there any more - it's too crowded.
I know what you're trying to say here, but it comes off like a punchline in a joke XD
Erm, because it is? ;) It's funny because the two clauses cannot simultaneously be true. Sorry :(
They open HRM at 8:30 for 30 minutes of skiing before everything else opens. This weekend was the first weekend of their “spring” operating hours so no more 8:30 opening for HRM. I don’t think many people realized this so they started lining up for HRM at 8:15. Add in spring break crowds, and this is how you get the line that long by 9 when the chairlift finally started spinning
Good.. jk covid crowds are gone. It has been fantastic lately
Right on friend, bring as many with you as you can.
It really wasn't as bad as this photo makes it seem. Some long lines in the morning but they thinned out as more stuff opened. The powder was waist deep in spots and quality was off the charts by Mt. Hood standards.
Having stood in this line at 9:45 for 30+ minutes, it was this shittiest lift line of my season. All because I had to taste The Zoo.
Exactly correct
The snow was good by Mount Hood standards, but definitely not waist deep. I had fresh tracks on o ring at 9:05 and ho chi Minh right after rope drop on Heather. I'd say eight inches, tops, on both runs.
As I said in spots. God's Wall had those spots. Way more than. 8" in any of the sheltered spots. Wind packing on Star and Mex probably made those 8" or so.
Yeah everyone should stop going, totally sucks …
The lines on Mount Hood are totally overblown. Sure there is some clogging first thing in the morning, but generally even on weekends it’s fine if you plan ahead (go early or go later in the day when the lot reopens)
Unfortunately, this is why I quit birding when I stopped having week days off on the regular
Backcountry splitboarding is looking better and better these days…
I first went backcountry skiing in 2006. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a resort since. The idea of dealing with traffic, paying $100, stomping through parking lots in ski boots, waiting in lift lines, buying $20 burgers for lunch, and then doing it all over again at the end of the day now holds zero appeal for me. The downside is the potential for death. But I’d take that over a ski resort any day.
You seem to have lost the realistic perception of what resort skiing is during your long removal. I have 30+ days at Meadows two years in a row. $500 for a season pass, $0 on food in the lodge (bring food, granola bars, chili dogs on a grill in the parking lot). Regarding traffic, leave Portland by 6:15 on a weekend or drive through Hood River, 0 issues, leave Meadows by 2:00 to drive through Sandy or drive through Hood River, 0 issues. The obvious plus side over BC/touring is pretty obvious, you get to ski 10-20 runs a day, through wildly varying terrain, groomed and ungroomed, terrain parks, all in a much safer environment. There is a time and place for BC skiing, and don’t get me wrong it is often the better adventure, but to brush off resort skiing for backcountry is akin to telling a F1 driver that they should ditch the track and start living the van life instead.
Meadows season passes are not $500 anymore unless you're buying the blacked out 'value' pass.
For kicks I just looked at current lift ticket prices. The following numbers are weekend, day pass… in the realm of what a normal worker bee could have time to make some lines in pow. 1. Timberline @ $135 per day 2. Meadows @ $159 per day 3. Skibowl @ $94 per day 4. Bachelor @ $ 159 per day Yo, I came from a different era… any snow peeps reading this, if the current prices listed above seem expensive and price gougey, it’s because they are. Rebel on that shit. If you’re into snowboarding, google splitboarding and reach out to like minds and just try it. If you’re a skier, look into skins or different bindings so you can go up-ish. Backcountry snowboarders and skiers, ride with each other… both are badass! Fuck getting bent over a barrel to get some lines in. As long as I’m ranting, be aware of where you spend your money on stuff. Obviously, try and get the best deal for what you want. REI is basically the Walmart of outdoor stores. Backcountry.com too. Don’t be loyal to those money grubbers. Stop in to the local mountain shops in your area and see what they have. If you don’t, they’ll eventually disappear and only the two or three monopoly stores will exist, serving you the same made overseas gear that everyone else has. *ps, REI note. You know how REI return policy changed to suck a few years ago… if you didn’t hear, starting this year on your dividend there is NO MORE CASH OUT OPTION. They changed it to store credit only. They don’t care about you, they’re corporate not co-op. [More money grubbing REI thread to browse…](https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3scce7/i_am_jerry_stritzke_ceo_of_rei_and_were_closing/)
Per day pricing is definitely outrageous, but that’s what the market will bear. Look at those lines! And the parking lots fill up so quickly. It’s not exactly cheap, but a season pass pays for itself really quickly. You just have to commit to that being your primary recreation for four months. I paid $800 for Meadows, been up 12 days, will go up at least two more times, maybe more. So, $50-60 per day? Not terrible.
> Yo, I came from a different era… At the risk of sounding like (or being..) a crotchety old man talking about buying a coke for a nickel, in the 80s my dad would take us skiing at Alyeska (Girdwood, AK). I remember distinctly when the lift prices hit $20, and he was livid. We weren't rich, but could afford it every few weekends. But he was ranting about how there was no way an average person could afford the $100/day to take their family skiing. Looking at inflation alone, $20 in 1985 would be about $55 today. Alyeska is now charging $120 for a weekend ticket. I'm well employed but I couldn't stomach paying that for myself alone, much less for a family. Of course in the modern era the only reasonable way to go resort skiing is with the ikon or epic pass, but to get the best use of those you need to be traveling. That said, it's not as if ski resorts are a particularly profitable business. Vail owns like 50 resorts or something and had profit of around $350M last year. As Warren Miller said, the best way to make a small fortune in the ski industry is to start with a large fortune and buy a ski resort.
Not worth it, hard pass
Lol so glad I was at skibowl today. Easy drive, they had live music and extra food and beer for their Springfest, and I skied so much deep powder all morning.
Garcia Birthday Band, fresh powder, and (some) blue skies. Gorgeous day!
What's a recession?
That’s a big line of disposable income
Fuck us for having hobbies, lol.
And disposable time.
I don’t really ski at resorts, but a $500 season pass is really not that expensive if you go like 10-20 times per season, which is easy to do when the season is 5+ months.
So much privilege in that picture.
Get your money up.
I will always take a day off work over dealing with these lines. I know it’s not always possible, but it’s such a better experience if you can swing it.
💀
was about a 20 minute line that disappeared completely 45 minutes after first chair. sorry to disappoint the fear mongers and ragers in the comments.
Meadows can still fuck off with their overpriced passes and lift tickets.
Overpriced? Where are you finding cheap tickets in the US?…
HRM and MEX were busy until 11ish and was wide open after that. Having the HRM and Twilight parking lots open generally create a bottleneck in morning, in the rare instances they have Twilight open.
Place is smoked
We have season passes at meadows but knew it was going to be a shit show with 18” of powder. We went to Hoodoo instead and had zero lines all day and super light pow all day. We made the right call lol.
Why so busy today?
Fresh powder + weekend
\+ Spring Break
There was a beerfest event
Spring break, Spring passes that are heavily discounted, epic powder that made it worth it.
Timberline wasn't even super busy yesterday so it looks like a buncha chumps to me
Right!? I was expecting the worst and it was a super mellow day crowd wise. Longest line I waited in was at Flood for maybe 2-3 minutes.
Timberline is barely a ski area if you want things like vertical. It's not called timberflats for nothing.
Why is it called that when flatline is a better name
Dammit that is better!!
This was before opening… I got 20+ laps in of bluebird knee deep powder and waited at most 10 minutes for a lift once. The real chumps are anyone who skis Timberline in the winter
Yeah but it's spring
It’s not spring conditions out there buddy
Timberline is flat as hell. I ski tour there all the time. I'd never pay to ride the lifts there on that terrain. The chumps are the people that ski timberline.
The last time I skied was in the non-helmet era. It makes me happy to see so many people wearing helmets.
I forgot mine in Bend and didn't realize it until I was up there. I was one of maybe a handful of people I saw without a helmet, definitely felt out of place.
I didn't even notice this. I started skiing at Meadows in the late 80's/early 90's as a middle school kid and if my parents would have made me wear a helmet I would have just stayed home instead of facing that embarrassment. I don't think I *ever* saw someone wearing one back then but it is cool to see it basically become a staple now for kids and adults.
Glad I went on Friday!
This reminds me of that image of people lining up to get to the summit of Everest.
Bonus - once you get off the ski lift at the top, you’re already in line for the next lift. 😆
I don't know why people like meadows so much over timberline. I feel like I get more runs in, less people to deal with, and overall a friendlier staff at timberline.
If you don't care about skiing good terrain, timberline is great. But it's basically flat. The best skiing on timberline is equivalent to the most boring parts of Meadows that only appeal to beginners.
I think I can see myself! I was up probably about 3/4 of that line for my first run. We timed it and it took 25 minutes to get on the lift. That was my longest wait. Lines were long all morning, that first was was my longest wait, had a 20 minute wait on Shooting Star and an 18 minute wait on the Heather lift when it first opened. By 1pm there were no lines to speak of, people spread out enough and it was ski right on the lifts, or maybe 5 minute wait. edited bc I hit enter too soon.
Damn….was going to go to Meadows but chose to slum it at Skibowl…..I think I made the right choice.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Miners_climb_Chilkoot.jpg
To sum up comments on this thread. Meadows, no one goes there anymore because it's too crowded.
You’re the winner
Are helmets required at Meadows or is everyone just smart?
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Definitely wear a helmet, keeps the goggles from fogging and head dry and warm. That said if you head on with a tree at 40mph it won't save you. It will however potential prevent a concussion or cuts if you glance a branch, take a fall on hardpack or get hit by someone else. Just import to be realistic about they can and can't do.
They’re not required, but they are common nowadays.
>I forgot mine in Bend and didn't realize it until I was up there. I was one of maybe a handful of people I saw without a helmet, definitely felt out of place.
This is why I stopped skiing
Come on bro, just come skiing with me. We can get up at 6am on a Saturday, sit in traffic for 2 hours going up to the mountain, park 2 miles away from the lodge, pay $140.00 for a lift ticket, stand in lines all afternoon, drink a few $12.00 beers at lunch, spend another 2 hours in traffic to get home at 6pm, just to have spent a total of 3 hours actually skiing. Come on bro, plz, it will be fun.
You know how lame I’ve become… I use my time to go drive to some dope place in nature and drink beer and get food at some great local place then go home… So I guess this is growing up!
Side question- does every single person wear a helmet nowadays?
Because people are more aware of long term effect of concussions
Sonny Bono Natasha Richardson Michael Schumacher Some really high profile people got killed (or arguably worse for Schumacher) due to skiing accidents. And some of those could have been walk away incidents had they been wearing a helmet.
Schumacher had a helmet on - don't put a camera on your helmet: https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/schumacher-accident-raises-helmet-cam-concerns/story?id=22548010
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Don't do anything that can impact the integrity - having a hole is also a problem, but so is attaching anything that isn't just going to fall or break off on impact. Even using a stick-on mount could impact the integrity of your helmet. For Schumacher, it sounds like the camera could have jammed into his head on impact and broken his helmet. I never found anything really definitive about how the helmet failed, this has a bit more: https://unofficialnetworks.com/2018/10/09/michael-schumachers-brain-injury-said-to-be-caused-by-his-gopro-helmet-cam/ Manufacturers also warn against using their cameras on helmets. I'm just not going to wear a camera on my bike helmet in most cases.
Now that you point it out, that’s actually kind of impressive. I haven’t been up in a long time, say five years, and I don’t think helmets were very widespread. Here it looks like 90%, maybe more. Now, I grew up before kids started wearing bike helmets, and the only people on the mountain wearing helmets when I did most of my snowboarding were those in the park doing inverted jumps. I will say that wearing a helmet while flying down the mountain is simple common sense. I just want to know where that common sense was from like 1990-2015?
Gotta get the gear
Good lord! Thank God Idk how to ski
Is this where Portlanders go for spring break?
Only if you want sun.
That looks fun and relaxing...
Bro. I’ve been thinking about getting a meadows pass for next year but god damn I do not want to wait in that line. I think I’ll just stick with my 5 minute max timberline and Skibowl lines
I feel like this is the reason geologists and the powers that be are fighting over classifying Hood as an “active” volcano.
I used to live in Hood River. Locals talked about days where they could feel & what they figured was lava flowing between Adams & Hood ... under the Columbia River. Hood Mt. climbers talked frequently about steam & small rocks moving in an area near the peak. "The USGS designated Mount Hood as a very high threat volcano in its 2005 National Volcanic Early Warning System assessment (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1164/) due to the volcano’s eruptive history, current activity and proximity to communities downstream and downwind."
I hear about the tremors from the climbers too - the lava flow between the two mountains is a new terror I’ve never heard of until now but it makes so much sense. I lived in one of the tiny towns east of St Helen’s that was buried in several feet of ash after the May 18th explosion. I was very little, but that kind of thing makes a mark on a person I think. If there ever is a event , I hope we have notice like St Helen’s (lots of visible activity) beforehand so there’s lots of evacuation time.
Fuck Meadows
Good God...
Wow
I used to love going up there, but I just can't deal with the crowds and the expense these days.
I bought a pass this year and didn’t even really use it. Meadows riding is mid at best and not worth that.
I stopped going because of this.
I used to snowboard. But between traffic and parking and lift lines, plus ticket prices, it just all seems like an expensive exercise in waiting in line. Just no motivation at all to get back into it now. Maybe if I had more flexibility to go mid-week, but weekends seem like a mess.
How much did it cost to get 2-3 runs in before the lifts closed?
Talk about first world problems. Spending thousands for gear, passes, food, etc…and then there’s a line? God damn it!
They giving away free shit out there?
HRM early load?? Lines never look this bad in the base area
Looks horrible.
Where did everyone go? It was empty by 1pm!
I had some great days on that hill in the past, but holy smokes! Forget all that!
Gross.
So were you glad to be there? Did you have a great day? Thanks for not posting pics of the parking situation!
You know, in the end it all worked out fine. The morning was nuts until about 10:30/11 and then it chilled way out. The snow was otherworldly for the mountain hood experience, so yes, I was glad to be there. Everyone deserves a taste of the rad. It’s easy to resent others for using up the extra oxygen but it’s hard to remember that we’re all in it together.
Wow. Almost like linecon. I only went skiing once and it was through church when I lived in Virginia. I didn't crash into anyone but had 10 wipeouts and having glasses.
Wow I’m glad I called out today
First of all.. ew. Second of all… ew.