Some great Mount Hood reading
Fans of Mount Hood and the written word have much to be thankful for with the release of three (that I know of) new books this year.
One’s from a true fan of Timberline Lodge who writes about how the lodge and the mountain have taught her valuable life lessons.
Another’s from a hardcore skier who’s skied from the summit of Mount Hood more than 300 times.
And the third is from a seasoned search-and-rescue veteran who’s saved more than a few lives on Hood and who knows some of the best tales from the mountain’s storied and adventurous past.
All are highly recommended.
In Timberline’s Embrace: What an Old Lodge Taught Me About What’s Worth Keeping – Jean L. Waight.
This one came to me randomly about a year ago when Jean Waight, a Bellingham, Washington-based writer reached out to me in search of a blurb for her book all about her many years of escapes to Timberline Lodge. A huge fan of the lodge myself, I was fully on board from the get-go. She captures the lodge’s charm, what it’s like to have the place to yourself late night and how the wildness of the mountain is never far away.
Here’s the blurb for her book:
“As a fellow Timberline Lodge enthusiast, I connected with Jean Waight’s intriguing tales of the lodge and her time on the mountain. Timberline is the kind of place where you feel as if you alone are experiencing its singularity and creating new memories just for yourself. And yet at the same time, you want to share Timberline with everyone so they, too, can appreciate its unique grandeur. Waight’s book captures those sentiments and so much more.”
11,239: A Skiing and Snowboarding Guide from the Summit of Mount Hood – Asit Rathod
I’ve heard about Asit Rathod for many years. He’s a bit of a legend when it comes to Mount Hood, skiing from its summit and pioneering the annual solstice party at Illumination Rock.
For many years, there’s been talk of a book – part guidebook, part personal recollections – about the seven major ski descents from Hood’s summit mixed with some of Asit’s wilder stories. This year, the book finally came to fruition – with the help of a good friend and fellow writer of mine, Ben Jacklet, who has long been an advocate for Asit making the book a reality.
Skiing from the top of an 11,000-foot mountain is beyond my comfort zone, but for those who aspire to – or can – pull it off, Asit’s book is the place to start.
Crisis on Mount Hood: Stories from 100 Years of Mountain Rescue – Christopher Van Tilburg
I’ve interviewed Christopher Van Tilburg, a Hood River-based physician and backcountry adventurer, a few times over the years, including when his book, “The Adrenaline Junkie’s Bucket List: 100 Extreme Outdoor Adventures to Do Before You Die,” came out in 2013. He’s written 12 books, climbed, hiked and skied all over, and works for both Portland Mountain Rescue and the Hood River Crag Rats.
I first tried to buy this latest book at one of my favorite bookstores in the Gorge, Waucoma Bookstore, back during a Father’s Day spent on the mountain, but they were sold out. My son, Spence, and I returned last week and they had them – autographed copies at that – in stock. Stoked to get into it.
Andy Poorman and the Mt. Hood Podcast
Mount Hood is such an iconic mountain, full of so many adventures and stories, personalities and people, history and natural beauty, that someone has to have dedicated a podcast to it by now.
Right?
One would assume. But one would also be wrong.
Until recently, there hasn’t been a podcast focused on Oregon’s tallest and, arguably, most significant peak. But as of just about a year ago, that changed.
In February 2024, Andy Poorman, a Beaverton native who grew up skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows and Skibowl, launched the Mt. Hood Podcast, an entertaining and engaging podcast that’s so far covered everything from the iconic Charlie’s Mountain View and the Meadows avalanche dogs to Mt. Hood weather and renowned French skier and B.A.S.E. jumper Matthias Giraud, who skied off Hood’s 250-foot tall Mississippi Head cliff in 2008.
“I listen to a lot of podcasts when I’m out running or cycling,” says Poorman, who sprinkles a little humor into the podcast with fake ads designed to steer listeners clear of powder days at Skibowl. “I was looking for one about Mount Hood and I couldn’t find one. So I was like, ‘OK, well, I can try this thing.’ So I started it, and it’s been really fun to be able to have an excuse to talk to people. And if you say you’ve got a podcast, people will actually answer your email sometimes.”
Poorman’s wife bought him a copy of “On Mount Hood” for Christmas last year, which prompted him to reach out to me for the podcast. We chatted for an episode last week, then finished up with a short Q&A to find out more about Poorman, the podcast, his time as a fighter pilot and his affinity for skiing on Mount Hood.
So a podcast on Hood seems like a great idea. How’s it going so far? It’s been a great passion project for me to learn more about the mountain, and it’s nice that I can put that information out there for other people. And I actually have had a couple second-order effects, like I’ve started to work with the Mount Hood Cultural Center & Museum. Just this last weekend I did my first recording of an oral history of one of the long-term residents up there. There are some people who have lived up there a long time who know a lot about the area, and so I’m sitting them down and recording it, and then the museum will have those oral histories in their archives.
You started skiing on Hood pretty early. Yeah, in the fifth grade. I think my parents were trying to get my brother and I out of the house, so they put us on the ski bus. We started skiing every Sunday in the wintertime. And I mean, it hit with me instantly. I started at Meadows and then, you know, kind of bounced around between Meadows and Skibowl depending on where the bus was going.
Are you also a climber or hiker, or is skiing your thing? Skiing’s my thing, so if I need to walk so I can ski, I’m willing to do that, but walking just for walking doesn’t seem fun to me. I’ve got alpine touring gear, so usually I’ll try to go up the mountain on that if I can. But just walking up the mountain and skiing down, I’m getting too old for that. I’ve summited Hood a few times, but it was just more because I was with someone who wanted to go to the top. It’s gotta be pretty good conditions to ski the Old Chute (near the summit), so typically I’ll just stop at Crater Rock or maybe the Hogsback and just ski down from there.
The podcast has an amazing photo of two F-15s flying past Mt. Hood. Can you share a little about your time as an Air Force pilot and how that photo came about? I went to Oregon State and then went off and did some time in the Air Force. I did two combat tours, one before the second Gulf War when there was a no-fly zone, and then I switched to the F-15E model and went back after the second invasion and was there for three months. It was pretty quiet and we weren’t really doing much. And then there were just lots of deployments all over the place before I got offered a job back in Portland flying the same airplane. The picture for the podcast, there are two F-15s going by Mount Hood. We were coming back from the Boardman Range, and we actually had a camera in the airplane, which is pretty rare, and a little extra gas. So I’m like, ‘Hey, I’ve got an idea.’ So me and another guy are flying formation and the third F-15 was taking our picture. It’s pretty stunning.
Photo courtesy of Andy Poorman
So where can people find the podcast? Just about anywhere. On Apple, it’s on Spotify. It’s pretty much on all of them, but Buzzsprout is where it lives. (Poorman and a friend have also created a website, trailmapvideos.com, where visitors can find video footage of many of the runs at Skibowl and also a link to the Mt. Hood Podcast.)
Anything else you’d want to get out there? Sure. The Mt. Hood Cultural Center & Museum has really lowered their standards and they’ve got me as a guest speaker on February 15 for one of their Social History Happy Hours. We’re going to be talking about the oral histories that we’re doing and the podcast as well. We’re trying to figure out some collaborations to get the word out for everything they’re doing up there.
Another COVID-19 blow to Mt. Hood: Timberline lays off 471
Born as a project to create jobs and stimulate the economy during the Great Depression, Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood has found itself again in the throes of a worldwide crisis.
This time, however, the crisis has brought Timberline to a halt.
The Oregonian reported this week that Timberline has laid off 471 employees as a result of the statewide stay-at-home order prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
RLK and Company, which operates the lodge and ski area, filed a notice with the state about the layoffs. The cuts encompass all areas of the operation, from servers and dishwashers to lift operators, groomers and even the hosts at Silcox Hut.
Images from the lodge’s webcams on Saturday depict a ghost town of a resort. (Someone asked on Twitter if the lodge might need a caretaker for the season, a lighthearted reference to “The Shining,” part of which was filmed at the lodge.)
Here are a couple pictures of the lodge from sunnier times — and here’s to those sunnier times returning to everyone at Timberline and elsewhere as soon as possible.
Mount Hood is closed
Thinking of getting up to Mount Hood for a hike? A night under the stars? A paddle across an alpine lake?
The coronavirus has two words for you: Think again.
Today, the Mt. Hood National Forest announced that it has temporarily closed all campgrounds, day-use sites, trailheads, Sno-Parks, fire lookouts, OHV areas and other developed recreation sites on the Mt. Hood National Forest.”
The reason, of course, is COVID-19 and the effort to contain it. In the Forest Service’s words, the closures aim to “support state and local measures directing people to stay home to save lives.”
The closures will be in effect until at least May 8, 2020.
Until we can get back out there, a few photos from some favorite Mount Hood sites.
Spring skiing on Mt. Hood gets sick
Not sick as in sweet jumps or killer powder, but sick as in shut down due to the coronavirus.
Today, even as we were in the car on the way up to the mountain, both Mt. Hood Meadows and Timberline announced they were suspending operations for a least a week.
The ski areas are just the latest in a growing string of business closures as the COVID-19 pandemic grows. (Soon after hearing about Meadows and Timberline, I saw that the famous Powell’s Books has decided to close all five of its Portland locations until March 31.)
Summit Ski Area on Mt. Hood is also closed, as is the ski area at Cooper Spur Mountain Resort on the mountain’s north side. That latter closure isn’t related to COVID-19; it’s a lack of adequate snow.
As of Sunday March 15, at 12:45 p.m., Mt. Hood Skibowl remained open and is the only ski area on the mountain to do so.
With the way things are going, that probably won’t be the case much longer.
Timberline’s sweet Cyber Monday deal for 2019
Buy one, get one? Nope.
Try buy one, get two.
That’s the smokin’ deal that Timberline Lodge has offered on Cyber Monday for the past few years, and it’s hard to beat. For the price of just one single mid-week lift pass, you get the pass you paid for, plus two free mid-week passes that are good almost anytime Monday through Friday between December 2 and May 25, 2020, though not during winter break between Dec. 20 and Jan 1.
Even with those restrictions, there’s little complaining here. We’ve taken advantage of the deal in the past, and plan to again this year.
The sale runs through midnight Monday, Dec. 2.
You can also get the same deal in person on Black Friday, when Timberline will be at evo Portland from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
What’s more, Timberline announced that, thanks to some recent new snow, it will open for business on Thursday, Nov. 28. None of the other resorts on Hood have announced plans to open this week, but Meadows is harvesting snow and may have a few preview days this weekend.
Update 11/27/19: Meadows has made it official: It will open a few runs over the Thanksgiving weekend starting on Friday. In addition, Skibowl plans to open its tubing hill on Friday, Nov. 29, as does the Summit Ski Area in Government Camp.
On MOUNT HOOD 