Friday, July 13, 2012

Skiing In July?

If you want to ski any month of the year except possibly October try Mt. Hood. I was talking to someone about this recently, my daughter, who lives in Oregon and snowboards there. So, if you want to ski a lot this is one place to do it. The reason for this is both Oregon and Washington tend to be very rainy places. So, often if it rains in the spring, summer or even fall it will turn to snow above 6000 to 7000 feet. Also, the top ski lift is on a mountain glacier which usually never melts completely out. timberline lodge is where most summer and fall lifts tend to start. Also, campgrounds at trillium lake are available after snow melts out spring,summer and fall which could allow skiing while not paying a fortune for hotel rooms as timberline lodge is quite expensive but also very historic and beautiful. We stayed the last two nights at timberline lodge and a fireplace room was over 300 dollars a night. Yesterday, my daughter snowboarded and I skied from the highest lIft on the mountain called Palmerwhich dumps you out at over 8000 feet on a glacier. So you realize right away you are high on a glacier on the side of a volcano called mt. Hood. so then I looked down at how steep the first 100 yYards were I got scared because I hadn't skied since march. Also, I'm trying to write this on my IPad as my wife drives our rental car. So, sorry if there are any mistakes. So, I skied and traversed to a place where I didn't have to turn for a while and then it was a real blast skiing down a glacier with a view of at least 50 to. 100 miles to the west,south, and north. Amazing! then since there are patches of rocks around which you might want to navigate it potentially might not be as safe as an all snow landing if you miscalculate your turns because of changing snow conditions as you descend the mountain from about 8500 feet in altitude to around 5900 feet at Timberline Lodge. however, if you choose carefully your trajectory you can minimize risk and have fun with each turn and course correction. the view is absolutely incredible on a clear day like we had. Also, from 12 to 3 pm there is a lift ticket for those who don't want to ski but who just want to see the incredible view and you can buy these tickets at timberline or the ski rental and lift ticket place next door and down the hill from tiberline.

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