There was a fresh foot of snow when we arrived Friday morning at Mt. Hood Meadows and another foot fell throughout the day.

Friday, Feb. 26 at Mt. Hood Meadows was a nearly perfect storm skiing day. It would not stop chonking all day. Every run got deeper and we never saw our tracks.

Mt. Hood Meadows boasts some really playful terrain, too. Given high winds during the storm, we were forced to the lower elevation terrain. There lower half of the mountain, both on the main side and on the Hood River side there is awesome, varied terrain with stashes galore (not that we needed them.)

Saturday was a different story. First of all, the Mt. Hood region was a zoo after the Portland locals watched it storm at high elevation all week. Everyone had the same idea and conditions on the roads were terrible. An all-time traffic jam snared us and many others on the way in Saturday.

Conditions, however, were fantastic. The sun peeked through for a little bit and temperatures stayed cold enough to preserve the snow. A few waist-deep runs weren’t able to escape our pow-seeking eyes. Heather Canyon offered us some more thigh-deep softness before we called it a weekend.

It was possibly the best way to experience it, but I was thoroughly impressed by Mt. Hood’s offerings. Plus, the travel was a breeze.

Logistics

Night 1: MSP-PDX (Portland), rental car, hotel in Mt. Hood Village (get a room in Government Camp if you can. Just a little closer, but makes all the difference on that drive up.)

Day 2: Drive to Mt. Hood (about 30 mins, more in conditions, waaaay more in traffic), ski Mt. Hood Meadows.

Day 3: Ski Mt. Hood Meadows

Night 3: Drive back to Portland, stay in hotel near PDX (In non-pandemic times, we would have explored the city a little more)

Day 4: PDX-MSP at dawn