Spring Snowboarding in Winter

Yes! Spring weather in the middle of Jan 2009. The real star of the day was the way the clouds spread across the valley Mountains.

The snow was fairly soft giving us good control. We had to wear our Spring coats to keep from getting to hot. It was also the first time we got to ride the Cascade Express lift this year.

Here are a collection of photos from the day (Jan. 18th). One of my favorite runs was melting out. That's the creek that runs along South Canyon. You could see holes in the bottom where the creek was running through. So needless to say we need more snow.

There were a few good pictures of Mt. Jefferson. You can see off the groomed runs how hard packed the snow is. All in all it was a great day.

Portland Fog

Its just that, a lovely shot of the Portland fog outside our window. Seems like we are having a preview of Spring time. But dang it! Its melting my snow on the Mt.

We're going up to Meadows tomorrow to check out the situation. I do have some photos from my trip last week. I ended coming home early. There was no powder to explore. The parking lot was an ice rink.

But that wasn't before I ventured into Heather Canyon. Total mistake. To steep with snow that was to hard. I couldn't get any turns in without falling from the bounce of hitting lumps at high speed.

I just side slipped all the way down "Absolute Magnitude" feeling lame. But really, it was not manageable. I would like to go back when there is some real powder.

And now for the photos! You can see how windy it was, Absolute Magnitude from the top down, the deadly icy parking lot, the lines that were to long, and a vision of Heather Canyon promising more fun that it had. Case-

Photos From Mt. Hood Meadows

Ok, so I post a lot about snowboarding. I suppose that's better than posting about how I stayed at home and watched TV all day.

Besides its the things that distract us that separate us from the terrorist.

If we didn't have our sports, video games, art, music, and social networking sites then we would probably be strapping bombs to ourselves and blowing each other up.

Truth is I really enjoy boarding. Its a great way to cut loose and actually feel like I did something on my day off. When I go back to work I'm ready to face another week of stress and agitation. I also have something exciting to look forward to at the end of the week.

When I'm out on the Mountain I always bring my trusty Canon PowerShot SD750 to take photos. Its getting pretty beat up. It gets wet, and banged around a lot. At times its been so cold that the lens wont pop out of the body.

When first bought the camera I spoke to it directly and said: "Hello, I'm going to destroy you". I say this to a lot of things that I own. I know nothing stays new forever, and I'm ok with that.

So on every trip I take a few photos. After a while you get board with taking the usual photos. So you tend to start taking less photos. But sometimes you get a good one. Most of the time the photos taken are only special you. They tell a short story of your day and the places you went. Later when the world is fighting with you, you can look back and revisit your trip.

The photos here are of course taken at Mt. Hood Meadows. Marni and I have season passes to Meadows and we own all our own gear. Since everything is paid for we can go snowboarding even when we are broke.

At the top of the Vista lift the ice was amazing. There were rivers of ice under the powder, and most of the lift was encased. Trees were also covered in ice. I should have taken more photos, but I was to busy trying not to land on my head. The light blue ice almost glows when its sticking up out of the snow. It says "Slide over me so I can knock you over.".

Did I mention half the fun of snowboarding is just being in and incredible hostile and beautiful environment.

They were blasting on Sunday as an avalanche precaution. You can see the dark spots up on the hills where the dynamite went off.

Don't forget you can click on any of these photos to get a full sized version.

One of the things I have a hard time with is capturing how high up or how steep the terrain is. With all the white its almost impossible to show depth of field. If you look down the hill of one of the many bowls that drop down off of Ridge Run, you can see tiny specks that are people.

Last Sunday we had great visibility, but the snow was hard packed. I was still able to find powder to play in off the groomed runs and in the trees. I have to learn how to play sick from work so I can get up there on a great snow day! Case-