Shred Hood’s Mount Hood Book Recommendations
In case you’ve not come across it yet, a former Portland Tribune colleague of mine, Ben Jacklet, launched a site this fall called Shred Hood. Co-founded with Bjorn van der Voo, Shred Hood is a community news and information website that covers the skiing, snowboarding and backcountry scene on Mount Hood.
This week, it’s also covering some mountaineering books by way of a gift recommendation list. Appreciate seeing On Mount Hood on the list, right there among some other great titles.
Mount Hood Sledding
It’s getting to be that time again on Mount Hood: skiing, snowboarding and, of course, sledding. The big hill’s got some nice sledding options, free and otherwise. Here are a few of the best:
Sledding at White River Sno Park, Jan. 2012.
- White River Sno-Park — About 4 miles north of US 26 on Oregon 35 just south of Mt. Hood Meadows, the White River Sno-Park is great for easy, fun and free sledding on Mount Hood with little ones. The closest hill is just a five-minute walk up the snowy road from the parking lot; bigger and better hills are just a little farther along. Because it’s also a popular skiing and snowshoeing spot, White River can be a touch crowded, but it’s expansive enough that there’s room enough for everyone. And with an incredible view of the mountain as backdrop, there’s little to complain about. (It doesn’t cost anything to sled here other than a Sno-Park permit. If you buy a permit from a DMV, they’re $3; most vendors that sell them jack them up to $5.)
- Little John Sno-Park — At 3,700 feet just 30 miles south of Hood River on Oregon 35, this free Sno-Park (free sledding on Mount Hood except for the Sno-Park permit) is fairly low in elevation, so if it’s a low snow year the pickings can be slim. But when there is snow, the sledding looks like good fun. There’s also an old log warming hut.
- Summit Ski Area — Mount Hood’s oldest ski area is also home to a tubing area. You can’t bring your own sled, but for $20, adults get a tube from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. M-F; kids 48″ and under are $10. Weekend and holiday prices for the kids are the same, but for adults it’s $25. Summit is just east of Government Camp. Summit also operates Snow Bunny, a little Sno-Park next door, where you can tube (not sled) for $20 all day; kids under 48″ are $10.
- Cooper Spur Mountain Resort — A sleepy but quaint little resort on the beautiful north side of Mount Hood, Cooper Spur is home to a tubing park with a rope tow. Ten bucks for the morning or afternoon, which includes some great views of the north side of Mount Hood on the drive up from Hood River.
- Mt. Hood Skibowl — The closest ski area to Portland is also home to a snow tubing area. Cost is $25 for adults for three hours, $20 for juniors; an all-day tube ticket is $50. The area includes a tube conveyor for heading back up the hill. In addition to regular tubing, Skibowl also offers Cosmic Tubing on weekend nights with laser lights, black lights, music and more.
- Other Sno Parks and Areas — The Forest Service also lists Sledding and Tubing as activities at these other Mount Hood Sno Parks: Government Camp Summit Sno Park and Multorpor Sno Park. I’ve also seen reports of sledding opportunities at Trillium Lake, near the Hemlock Trail in Government Camp and elsewhere.
Mount Hood Snowcats — in LO?
We took a somewhat impromptu family bike ride up to George Rogers Park in Lake Oswego on Sunday, mainly to check out the boats in the Oswego Heritage Council’s annual Collector Car & Classic Boat Show. A slight bicycle malfunction, however, sent us into the car show in search of a gearhead with an allen wrench instead.
We found one, thankfully, and also ended up finding something I never would have expected at a classic car show in Lake Oswego:
It’s an old-school Tucker Sno-Cat from 1968. No one was around to talk to while we were there, but I know from my research for On Mount Hood that snowcats in general have a long history on Mount Hood. Back in 1936, a WPA foreman came up with one of the very first snowcats ever while working on the construction of Timberline Lodge. The lodge also featured one in a great postcard for the ski area back in the 1960s and again for its spring ski pass this year. It’s a Tucker, just like the one we saw. (Tucker, by the way, is still headquartered in Medford, Oregon.)
The snowcats are still widely used on Hood and all over the mountain ski areas for everything from grooming and creating terrain parks to search and rescue missions, climbing shuttles, and as a way to get up to the one-of-a-kind alpine lodge on Hood known as Silcox Hut.
So, just kind of a cool little Mount Hood/Sno-Cat discovery while we were otherwise out and about. A few more pictures:
An ideal day on Mount Hood
This is the kind of day you hope for when you head to Mount Hood. It doesn’t always happen. When it doesn’t, a day on the mountain is still a great day. When it does, especially in late winter, my oh my.
We set out from White River Sno-Park on one of these days, Daryl, Wyatt, Oliver, and I. The sun shines, the blue sky bends, the parking lot waits for more, who for some reason never come.
There are some sledders, some other dogs who Oliver greets, a few snowshoers, a handful of skiers. In no time, we lead the thinning pack. A half mile in, we are seemingly alone on the mountain.
Slowly we climb, one of us continually reminding the others about the glory of the day. It’s so different than the trip we made nearby last year, which was great itself, but hardly this.
We break for lunch, then bask in the southern view: Mount Jefferson, the top of Bachelor, maybe a hint of the Three Sisters. And of course, Mount Hood all around.
The way up continues, invigorating and refreshing. It takes work, but this is good effort, the kind that pays off immediately. And at least for some among us, it seems no labor at all; simply joy.
I worry that Oliver is getting up there in his years, but after a day like today, I don’t know why. He turns 9 in August. He leads most of the outing, never runs out of steam, makes me wish we were all so full and happy, in the moment, outside.
There comes a point up high, where the moraine we have been pushing up all day, just one shelf below Boy Scout Ridge, comes uncovered, the deep snow giving way to exposed patches of gray. To ski up higher wouldn’t quite work. But Daryl isn’t done.
“It’s always good to get a little mountaineering in on trips like these,” he says, bolstering his case for wanting to climb a little higher.
So he and I step on, ridge jumping another half-mile or so, just to see what’s up ahead. It’s more incredible views, of course, more fresh alpine air and blue sky and white snow and gratitude and simple appreciation for all of it; for just having the kind of day we’re having on Mount Hood.
New Year’s on Mount Hood
Though I’ve not yet celebrated New Year’s on Mount Hood, I’ve always wanted to. The setting, the snow, the festivities, it all just seems very inviting.
We won’t be up on the mountain for the holiday again this year, but for anyone who might be, there’s plenty to choose from.
Timberline Lodge — The mountain’s landmark lodge ushers in the new year with style: two dinner seatings in its Cascade Dining Room, dancing, champagne toasts and more. There’s also late-night skiing and snowboarding on into 2013, and at midnight, a one-of-a-kind fireworks display:
Photo courtesy of Timberline Lodge
Mt. Hood Meadows — The ski area teams up with Widmer Brothers Brewing to ring in the new year with skiing and riding till midnight, a dinner buffet, live music from Keegan Smith and The Fam, and fireworks beginning at 10 p.m.
Mt. Hood Skibowl — For its 25th annual gala, Skibowl will be packing in skiing and riding till 2 a.m., Cosmic Tubing until midnight, two fireworks shows, DJs, live bands, the torchlight parade featuring the Powder Hounds snow bikers and Olympic speed skier Petr Kakes, champagne toasts, a Glow in the Dark Dance Party, and tons more.
Happy New Year!
A Skier’s View on Mount Hood
Compared to a few weeks ago, when it seemed like all of Portland had headed to the White River Sno Park on Mount Hood for a little sledding, the place was empty when we rolled in the week before St. Patrick’s day. Just a handful of people in the parking lot getting ready to head up out of the cold rain and into the snow, a few others putting out a an odd early-morning campfire.
We weren’t there for sledding this time, though. This time, it was all about some cross-country skiing, which White River is another perfect place for. The clouds were heavy, the low-down raindrops finally crystalizing into snow higher up, and the mountain wasn’t even close to being out. But we were, Daryl, Wyatt, Oliver, and I, and that was all that mattered.
On MOUNT HOOD 