The storm has arrived - here's some video shot this morning at Meadows by Pierce Hodges!
UPDATED: Monday, November 28, 2016 9:25 AM
With a foot of snow in the last 12 hours and the storm still raging, Mt. Hood Meadows is open and operating daily for the 2016/17 season! Mt. Hood Express (opened at 8:55 AM) and Shooting Star Express (awaiting patrol clearance but expected to open shortly) have been added to our lift matrix. The powder is superb - some of the best in the country!
Chief Operating Officer Jake Bolland says this is a qualified statement, explaining, “We need to see how much snow we get out of this storm, which is forecast to bring us a foot or two through tomorrow. We intend to continue with at least our current three lift operation, but could add more lifts and more terrain if we receive the snow.”
Mountain crews have prepped upper mountain lifts, track-packing/grooming, ramp building, chair seat installation, avalanche mitigation efforts, running rope/closures, and wrapping tower-pads. Bolland said if the forecast does hold true, the most hopeful scenario would be extending lift operations to the Mt. Hood Express and Shooting Star Express lifts, which would open up a substantial amount of terrain. He cautions that it is still a shallow, early season snowpack with a lot of unmarked obstacles, saying, "We definitely need more snow to open up more of the mountain."
Meadows received a total of 14 inches of snow this week (from an initial forecast of four to six FEET) and with its snow harvesting efforts managed to open and operate three lifts (Buttercup, Easy Rider and Daisy, plus the Ballroom Carpet) since Friday. The ski area reports a base depth of 12" with 18" at mid-mountain.