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-