Chris David Kastner our Resort Services Director passed away this month while trying to battle back from a debilitating stroke. We remember his leadership, camaraderie and friendship.
Remembering Chris
Liability releases are not new to the ski industry - Mt. Hood Meadows has required those taking lessons or renting equipment to sign a liability release for decades. This season, Meadows will also require those purchasing day tickets to sign a release and offer a $20 opt-out fee for those that don’t want to sign the release .
What is "Bifurcation" - and why now?
(Mt. Hood, OR — October 17, 2022) — Mt. Hood Meadows announced it is raising its base pay to $16.25 / hour and adjust wages upwards for year-round and returning seasonal positions accordingly.
Get your dream job!
Mt. Hood Meadows joins the Indy Pass family of independent ski area operators
Mt. Hood, Or. (July 26, 2022) – The Indy Pass is proud to announce that Mt. Hood Meadows, Oregon is joining its coalition of independent resorts for the 22/23 season.
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Each year, Mt. Hood Meadows’ managers and directors gather to recognize leaders in the company for their accomplishments in fostering success. The President’s Award highlights excellence in department leadership, while the FGD Leadership Award acknowledges contributions to the company as a whole.
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In 2009 Congress directed Mt. Hood National Forest to exchange forest lands near Government Camp with private lands near the Cooper Spur Ski Area owned by Mt. Hood Meadows. On May 3, 2022, the Forest published the Record of Decision for the exchange. The exchange meets legislative requirements while delivering environmental and economic benefits to the public.
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We had a big slide in the canyon during this week's rain event. It was picked up as seismic activity. Not the biggest we’ve seen, but the debris is totally blocking the way to the runout from the foothills. Patrol will let grooming get started on clearing a path this morning (Friday) after the howitzer mission and routes. We may not be able to open it today, but should be able to on Saturday.
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12:30 PM UPDATE-- Our online purchasing is back up and running again. We appreciate everyone's patience! We will honor walk-ups for tomorrow (Friday, February 25) as we did not have this repaired in time for the 12 PM purchase time cut-off. Lessons will still be on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Kelci Barnes is our Ski Patrol Assistant Manager and wrote this on behalf of our patrol. It will help you understand the efforts that have been made to open gated access terrain, and the inherent dangers that you will find once the terrain is open. Please give it a careful read and as Kelci recommends, if considering entering the terrain once it is open, ski with a buddy, an avalanche transceiver, a probe and a shovel.
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We have had an active storm system since we opened on December 12. During the past two weeks, we’ve received over 160 inches of snow - which is a great way to jump start the season. With such huge snow accumulations, stormy weather and virtually no visibility, we haven’t been able to access the upper mountain Vista or Cascade lifts - until Monday.
What it takes to open Vista
When you go from no snow in the base area to opening in four days thanks to a burly La Niña storm that drops three feet on you, there are a lot of things that could go wrong.
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So we've slipped by Thanksgiving and we haven't opened for the season yet. And even with the promise of a "colder-wetter" La Nina season, we haven't yet been able to offer a preview day. So should we be worried? A review of opening dates the past 26 seasons (going back to 1994/95) and ultimately the amount of snow we received that season suggests we're going to do just fine.
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It is the question that is top of mind - when are we going to open? Unfortunately, due to the current weather pattern, we won’t be turning lifts this holiday weekend. We received 14 inches of light and fluffy Tuesday - but it is very airy. We didn’t have much base before this storm and the snowpack is fragile.
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As we approach the opening of our 54th season, we are stoked to share with you our COVID operational plans. Having come through last season without a single traceable workplace transmission of COVID, and being awarded the Best Employee Safety Program by the National Ski Areas Association, we are approaching this season with a renewed commitment to keep our team healthy so they can enrich the lives of our guests.
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(Mt. Hood, OR — October 28, 2021) — Mt. Hood Meadows today announced it is raising its base pay to $15 / hour and will increase wages for all Team members by $1.25 an hour.
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Franklin Griffith Drake, age 93, son of the late Donald M. and Janet Drake, passed away peacefully on September 13, 2021.
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Labor Day weekend has come and gone, the weather is getting cooler, and the leaves are starting to change. Signs of fall are beginning to show, and at Mt. Hood Meadows, we have now wrapped up summer operations for the 2021 season.
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This week, seven interpretive signs were placed along newly constructed hiking trails at Mt. Hood Meadows. The signs provide hikers insight and perspective on the mountain environment, forest ecology and history of the area.
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Our featured trail this week is Jack's Woods, so we thought it appropriate to post it here on the blog with a look back to last September, when a wildfire put our permit in jeopardy.
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In a season like no other and facing the greatest threat to potentially sideline operations in our 53 year history, Mt. Hood Meadows has received the coveted Best Employee Safety program from the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). The award recognizes the resort-wide focus that prioritizes the health and wellbeing of team members, while providing outdoor recreation to guests during a pandemic.
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Photo: Colin Meagher
Mt. Hood Meadows Risk Manager Anna Laxague is one of three Safety Champion finalists going into next week’s NSAA Spring Convention; and Mt. Hood Meadows is a finalist for Best Employee Safety Program.
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We want to thank our guests for the thousands (literally) of comments we have received thanking our team for the outstanding job they did this season. Your heartfelt messages of appreciation expressed how important it was for our guests to connect with the mountain this season.
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Days turn to weeks turn to months turn to seasons turn to years turn to decades turn to centuries turn to eons ….
We recognized Earth Day with a candid conversation with the National Ski Area Association’s Director of Public Policy Geraldine Link, the Gorge Region’s Citizens’ Climate Lobby Bernard Seeger and Meadows Sustainability Manager Heidi Logosz. We hope you join in the conversation, and make the small changes that collectively, will have a big impact.
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Meet Karen Lasher - also known as “The Dancing Lifty”.
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It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we share some tragic news.
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We’re proud of our partnership with the Pacific Northwest Toyota Dealers Association - a partnership that supports introducing and welcoming new people to the sport and provides live streamed video and daily snow reports for the most passionate to connect to their favorite mountain. Even in a pandemic-affected season, our relationship with Toyota remains strong and very active.
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January 31st was a very special day at Mt. Hood Meadows. Not because it was the end of a month, or that we are nearing the midpoint of the season. It was because of a special birthday that was celebrated on the slopes at Mt. Hood Meadows by longtime instructor, John Samuelson...
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Normally at this time of year, we invite all of our team members to a night of appreciation - with an hour or two of evening lift rides, a fantastic buffet feast, beverages, a massive giveaway of prizes and presentations of appreciation. It is truly one of the best events we do at Meadows. This season, we met virtually in order to honor and appreciate our team in a safe and responsible way.
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Saturday was undoubtedly one of the best mid-December bluebird days we’ve experienced here on Mt. Hood. Fresh snow from the night before, temps in the teens, and a great groom. A lot of mountain open, with all six high-speed quads, plus four other lifts operating, helped spread out the crowd. Those that could get in the parking lot, that is.
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With a couple of good days under our belt, and a solid forecast that enables us to have a lot of terrain open, we have made some day lift tickets available through our online store. There is a limited amount for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and they must be purchased online (no tickets are sold at the ski area).
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We are so grateful for this snow that will give us the opportunity to launch our season. Our snow harvesting and grooming teams are masterfully moving parking lot snow to our lifts to build out our mazes which will be significantly spread out this season. The forecast is even more promising to be able to open more lifts and terrain than we normally have at this time of year and that too is a real blessing.
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“Mt. Hood Meadows Lift Operations department is responsible for the safe uphill transport of our guests and team members,” says Lift Ops Manager Cody Howe. With the social distancing and safety protocols brought on by COVID, there will be some additional challenges this season, requiring the cooperation of our guests who share the responsibility to help keep us all safe.
Get to know our plan
Mt. Hood Meadows Department of Transportation managers have been reengineering the parking experience for the upcoming season.
See the plan / Watch Video
We are proud to announce we have renewed our partnership with the Pacific Northwest Toyota Dealers Association, establishing Toyota as the official vehicle of Mt. Hood Meadows.
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The 7,000 pound bull wheel, previously used on the upper terminal of the Hood River Express lift, was hoisted into place last week in the Sahale building. This will be the first of many hoists in what will be the slope side Bullwheel Bar in Sahale. The bar will celebrate the chairlift, and those who build and maintain them. It will be decorated with chairlift imagery and literally built out of chairlift components.
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CEO Matthew Drake takes you on a tour of the new Sahale building. The walk-through took place Saturday, June 13 and provides a progress report on the 23,000-square-foot building, which is scheduled to open this December. The building will house our new equipment rental center and Meadows Learning Center on the first floor, and a 10,000-square-foot dining and meeting space on the second floor.
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Mt. Hood Meadows’ managers and directors gathered last week to award two team members with annual leadership awards. The event was held on the South Lodge Deck with appropriate social distancing for those that could attend, and shared through Zoom for others to join in remotely.
Our Mt. Hood Meadows and Cooper Spur Mt. Resort Team is outraged and deeply saddened by the racism, horrific injustices and brutality that persists in our country, brought to the forefront by recent events.
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Cooper Spur Mt. Resort is preparing to reopen for overnight lodging beginning July 1.
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It’s been a month since we announced operations were suspended at Meadows in compliance with the Governor’s stay-at-home order and the eventual closing of recreational areas and access on the Mt. Hood National Forest. This video will bring you up to date on our current status and what we’ve been working on for the past month.
Read the Details
In light of the recent announcements in Washington and Oregon, we are receiving questions from guests about our operations.
At this time we do not expect disruptions to our scheduled daily operations.
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Our greatest concern continues to be the safety and well being of our guests and our team members. As a company that desires to create enriching experiences recreating and discovering the mountain, we firmly believe providing the opportunity for our guests to uplift themselves is vitally important.
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Mt. Hood Meadows is tying together a holiday of love and history with your desire to dare to dream and make a difference. We've created highly meaningful and affordable experience packages, so you can enjoy and celebrate the mountain. Packages combine on the snow experiences with high value logoed items, each package thoughtfully customized for those who will enjoy it.
Show me the Experiences!
There is an enormous amount of work to do in the challenging Cascade Express deicing project.
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It’s kind of like the movie Ground Hog’s Day - Storm hits, team deices and recovers, then another storm or icing incident and we wake up, deice and recover all over again. We’ve experienced some fairly extreme weather this January - even compared to our normal upper mountain standards.
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We want to recognize the passing of long time instructor and mentor Don Ball, who took his last run to glory in November. Don joined the Meadows ski school as an instructor in the 60s, and continued teaching through the 2012 season and guest hosting after that.
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It’s been a weird start to the season this year - our upper mountain has taken a definite pummeling. However, Cascade Express could open to limited terrain by the weekend.
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The talent, ingenuity and pre-planning of our vehicle maintenance and slope grooming teams is on display, as they work hard to capture every possible snow flake to ready the mountain for some possible preview days this weekend.
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Last season Mt. Hood Meadows introduced dynamic ticket pricing on its daily lift tickets. The price of a daily seven-hour lift ticket would be determined by demand - the more popular a day and the bigger turnout expected, the higher the price would be on tickets for that day, creating even better deals on days with less visitation.
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Sunday we experienced an interruption in service from our credit card processing vendor that affected our webstore. For a three hour period, we were not able to transact season pass or any other online purchase. We have heard from many of our pass holders who were affected by the outage, and unable to make their purchase.
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While we all wait for snow to pile up in the base area, the team here at Meadows has been busy collaborating with the fine folks at Double Mountain Brewery and Cider in Hood River to bring you a special treat to start the 2019-20 season: beer!
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In our efforts to educate and protect those making advance purchases to enjoy Mt. Hood Meadows, we urge you to purchase your pass and ticket products only from this website, or from our authorized third party sellers.
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Five seasons ago, Mt. Hood Meadows fabricated a metal dump box and mounted it to the chassis of a “retired” snowcat. It was a timely investment, heading in to what would be one of the lowest snow years in Meadows 50+ year history. See our plans to enhance our snow harvesting capabilities for the future.
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With opening day just two months away, Mt. Hood Meadows is ready to fill one thousand seasonal positions for the 2019-20 winter season.
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Mt. Hood Meadows has promoted Melissa (Mel) Toney to the position of V.P. of Mountain Operations. Mel is a twenty year team member joining Meadows in 1997.
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Well before sunrise, crews from Bremik Construction readied the Sahale building for “pour day.” With rebar and forms set, the Brundage Boom telescoping boom pump was already in position, and a fleet of twenty concrete mixer trucks were in route for “The Pour.”
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Mt. Hood Meadows Oreg., LLC is delighted to announce Greg Pack’s selection as General Manager of Mt. Hood Meadows Resort and Cooper Spur Mountain Resort.
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Dignitaries and elected officials gathered at Mt. Hood Meadows last week for a ceremony to officially celebrate the start of construction of Sahale.
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It has been less than a month since ground was broken on Sahale - a 23,500 square foot building that will house a new restaurant, resort services and an events and activity center.
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The leadership team of Mt. Hood Meadows assembled this week for the annual awarding of two prestigious leadership awards.
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Mt. Hood Meadows has received a $5,000 grant from the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) to to significantly reduce green house gas emission caused by resort shuttle bus idling.
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Today we found evidence of two very large avalanches, in Heather Canyon. One came out of the Basalts (above A- Zone) and the other out of Super Bowl. Both were triggered by Artillery yesterday.
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We are excited to announce our plans to begin construction on a new commercial building this summer that will significantly improve our resort experience for our guests.
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For the second consecutive year Mt. Hood Meadows is listed among the top companies in Oregon to work for.
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Our Facilities Maintenance team just became even better as team member Ian Sherrod has received his Journeyman LME (low voltage electrical license.)
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Timberline, Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, Summit, Cooper Spur and Mt. Hood Meadows ski areas support S. 3791/H.R. 763, the Federal Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act and Oregon House Bill 2020, the Oregon Climate Action Program.
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The brunt of this winter storm will hit over the next 48 hours. We expect at least a foot of snow overnight by our scheduled Monday morning lift openings, with another two or more feet by Tuesday morning. All this snow is being delivered by an active storm with very strong winds. So while we are all looking to dive into this fresh powder, we do need to set some expectations.
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MLC Instructors Jennifer Lockwood and Katie Feucht-Smith have ambitions to bring home gold while making perfect turns. As well as raising funds for Challenge Aspen to “create possibilities for people with disabilities.”
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Chef Matthew Grimsley kicks off our Faces of Meadows video series.
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Mt. Hood Meadows CEO Matthew Drake today has requested U.S. Senators Wyden and Merkley, and Congressmen Walden and Blumenauer to resolve the government shutdown.
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Snow enthusiasts will be able to hit the slopes on Martin Luther King day for just $20 during the annual Rotary Night fundraiser at Mt. Hood Meadows. The special $20 lift ticket is valid from 3 - 9 PM and must be purchased online in advance. Tickets the evening of at the ski area will be $25.
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What we found on the Cascade Express towers and rope line following a major storm was almost beyond belief.
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Ferocious. There’s no other way to describe the storm that hit Mt. Hood over the weekend.
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It’s snowing and blowing but our crews ran Mt. Hood Express, Shooting Star and Hood River Express all night so they are not iced.
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Team members and guests reported seeing the friendly creature inside the lodge!
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World renown Sasquatch Seeker Alex, a Cryptozoologist, has been seeking the Sasquatch at Mt. Hood Meadows.
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MT. HOOD, OR (Immediate Release) – Cooper Spur Ski Area will open for the season Wednesday, December 26, just in time for the holiday week. Cooper Spur offers affordable skiing, snowboarding and tubing. The ski area is located on the north side of Mt. Hood, just 23 miles south of Hood River.
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Last evening while conducting rounds, Department of Public Safety officer Marcos encountered a large, hairy creature attempting to get in to the Huckleberry stash in the core kitchen.
Watch Video | Police Sketch Composite
Mt. Hood Meadows has received the DNA test results which has identified the fur samples found at the resort as “Homo sasquatchis” or Bigfoot –
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The Mt. Hood Meadows base area camera picked up an unusual image overnight.
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Mt. Hood Meadows Executive Chef Matt Grimsley reports a mysterious theft from the core kitchen.
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Following Tuesday’s wild weather, a Mt. Hood Meadows avalanche rescue dog discovered a cave near the base area.
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Mt. Hood Meadows’ highest lift - Cascade Express - may open up Tuesday.
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Mt. Hood Meadows could be open as early as Friday, based on the snow forecast for Mt. Hood this week (photo from Saturday's preview day.)
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Three different storms are aligned to deliver an early season punch - with one to two feet of snow possible Wednesday into Saturday. And if the storm delivers as forecast we expect to open for preview days over Thanksgiving weekend.
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Over the past 24 seasons, Mt. Hood Meadows opens on average 29 days before Christmas - November 26. Fourteen of those seasons the ski area opened for daily operations before November 26, including the 96/97 season when October storms allowed an October 21 opening, 71 days before Christmas.
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Meadows commitment to snow grooming continues with the purchase of two PB 400 Park Pros. The cats add to an already impressive fleet of grooming equipment used for general trail grooming and to enhance the resort’s top rated terrain parks.
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The daily price of a lift ticket at Mt. Hood Meadows will be determined by market demand this season. Officials say the resort will implement Dynamic Pricing - similar to the way airline tickets and hotel rooms are priced and sold.
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Portlanders will have a new and convenient way to connect with their favorite mountain resort this winter. Meadows PDX - a fulfillment center and retail gift store is opening in the Pearl District at 17th and Northrup.
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Pictured: V.P. Resort Operations Jeremy Riss, C.O.O. Jake Bolland, Barnes, C.E.O. Matthew Drake
Ski and Snowboard School Training Manger Tyler Barnes and Terrain Park Manager T.J. Moloney were honored Thursday evening nominated by their peers for their achievements this past season.
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Mt. Hood Meadows has promoted two long-time team members to mountain leadership positions. Mel Toney has taken the reins as Director of Mountain Operations and Jeremy Evans is the Director of Fleet Operations. The promotions occurred earlier this season. And the resort welcomes Amanda Kandler as it's new Director of Finance.
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