Meadows Blog

December Starting Off Right

12/2/2012 8:32:00 AM by Meadows Team in Connection, Weather Blog, Media Center | 2 comments

Video by Pierce Hodges shot Sunday 12.2.12 @ Mt. Hood Meadows

The change from November to December was punctuated with a powdery winter storm that dropped a foot of fresh at Meadows through Sunday morning. The storm continues to dump at a rate of an inch an hour, making for some exceptional early season powderr skiing! Photos were taken Saturday before the brunt of the storm hit. Photos by Temira @ Mt. Hood Meadows! Enjoy!

The welcome storm has bolstered Meadows base depth to 38" which is expected to grow as the storm continues through Sunday. Early season conditions still exist so you'll need to be aware of unmarked obstacles, but it's certainly the best conditions we've seen so far this very young season.

We'll be evaluating conditions once the storm rolls through (expecting higher freezing levels on Tuesday) - we'll see how we "weather that weather" and determine implications for night operations, Hood River Meadows and Nordic Center operations at that time. Keep doing your snow dances - they're working!"

2 Comments

  1. Vic

    December 3, 2012

    When is nights gonna open already?

    Meadows: Nights begin this Wednesday, December 12. We'll have a special $15 night pass on Wednesday and Thursday. Nights are 3 - 9 PM Wednesdays - Sundays - so we'll be moving into our normal 7 day a week schedule open daily at 9 AM with lifts scheduled until 9 PM Wednesdays through Sundays, and to 4 PM Mondays and Tuesdays.

  2. Daniel

    December 4, 2012

    First, Sunday was a good first day at Meadows for me and exceeded my expectations. Also, the RFID seems like it works just fine. There needs to be a more effective way of organizing groups as they reach the gates as there was too much of a bottleneck as the roped off lines merged. Overall, the lines seemed to move though. My main complaint had to do with the slopes on both sides of Mount Hood Express while waiting in line. It seems like you guys could do a better job of flattening out these areas by using the cats to push snow into the area or something making the uphill wait more bearable. This was kind of a pain, and I overheard numerous complaints about the same thing while waiting.

    Meadows: Thanks for the comment. The slope issue at the Mt. Hood Express is a low snowpack issue which we'll be able to resolve as we receive more snow. Currently the MHX maze (like our other base area mazes) is built on parking lot snow. With low snowpack the natural grade of the ground in those maze areas is much more prevalent. With more snow we'll be able to expand the footprint of the mazes, adding more lanes to feed the front of the gate, and contour the entire footprint to facilitate better flow to the gate. Thanks for hanging in there - we can't wait until we get beyond this early season low snowpack and get the snow we need to contour the way we planned.

Add a comment

  1.  
  5. Submit