Since 1990 this was my 5th attempt to ski Timberline and the first for which weather cooperated enough to run the Palmer lift up to 8,500 feet. In 1990 I skied lower lifts in drizzle for a couple of hours. I stayed at Timberline Lodge but did not ski due to torrential rain in 2012 and clear weather but high winds closing the lifts in 2014. Similar windy weather in 2018 deterred us from swinging by on the way from Bachelor to Portland airport.
It was breezy above tree line this time too, enough for me to keep my shell jacket zipped and hat on all day despite clear skies and temps in 40’s early and 50’s midday. With intensive salting and grooming for the race camps, the first two runs starting at 8:15AM were bulletproof above tree line, so we remained on Magic Mile for our first 7 runs. A few pics, first view up from the parking lot about 7:45:
Riding Magic Mile:
First two runs, skier’s right and left on Magic Mile:
The Magic Mile runs were all corn by 9:30 so we stuck with those for another hour. By 10AM Magic Mile had a lift line.
At 10:30 we took our first ride up Palmer, which also had a lift line, and skied top to bottom skier’s right. At this time the snow above Palmer’s mid-loading was still frozen granular, but below that was excellent corn. By the time we rode the two lifts back up it was about 11AM and in corn mode from the top. We took some view pics. Glaciated top of Mt. Hood with some climbers on the way up:
View south to Mt. Jefferson and the Sisters:
Mt. Hood Ski Bowl:
It’s north facing with interesting terrain but at dicey elevation range for Oregon of 3,660 – 5,010 feet. I have never skied there. We dropped by on the way down the hill and Ski Bowl has a lot of summer activities including mountain biking and an alpine slide using its lower chairlift.
In late August/early September all of the skiing is done on skier’s left of Palmer above mid station with a strip down to the top of Magic Mile for downloading. In the current timeframe there is much more terrain available. Far skier’s left are two terrain parks. The lower one accessible from top of Magic Mile opened about 10:30, this pic much earlier.
The upper one has a bigger pipe and features and requires a ticket surcharge ($120 vs. $97) and opened about 11:00. There is also a rope tow for those lapping the upper park. The upper part of Magic Mile had two race courses skier’s right and one skier’s left. The top of Palmer had two courses skier’s right and several skier’s left.
The designated public area on Palmer was skier’s left, closest to the lift. By the time we got up there we could go skier’s left beyond the racers and ski smooth corn to the top of the pay terrain park near Palmer’s mid-station.
Below mid-station there was more room to spread out skier’s right so on all later skier’s left runs we did that.
I have always wondered how far you can ski west or east when there is snow coverage to Timberline Lodge, in the case of east not very far. The drainage beyond the terrain parks has lost nearly all of its snow already.
Later we drove around to southeast facing Hood Meadows, where it’s very patchy.
There is much more snow to the west so I pushed out there for one run around noon, toward Ski Bowl in the pic in that direction.
It’s wide open for about 1,000 vertical but then spines of exposed rock appear so you need to pull back east in order to make it back to Palmer’s lower station. The lower you go the bigger and longer the rock spines get, so I was not tempted to find a route to the bottom of Magic Mile. The out of bounds snow up high had just the beginnings of suncups, not yet with frozen edges that can stay frozen all day and disrupt skiing.
All of the race camps ended between 11:30 and noon, so that also meant the end of the lift line on Palmer. We then alternated left and right sides above mid-loading. Areas vacated by the racers remained in smooth corn mode until we were done. In the morning you have to walk past the length of the Timberline Lodge to reach Magic Mile, but at the end of the day there’s an exit trail direct to the parking lot.
Liz quit at 12:30 while I took two more Palmer runs and quit at 1:15 with 20,900 vertical. The sunny but breezy weather was near ideal for snow conditions. I skied maybe 4,000 vertical of frozen granular early on and the only heavy slush run was the end of the day to the parking lot. The rest of the day had very high quality corn snow.
The days like this with sequential softening at Mammoth tend to be warmer, and the upper steeps at Mammoth would have never loosened up in today’s weather. But at Timberline everything faces into direct sun and nothing is more than intermediate pitch. I don’t know what it would be like on a warmer and calmer day. It’s likely that the areas used by the racers would still be good for a short while after they are done.
We had lunch at Timberline Lodge then drove to the other ski areas. We also stopped at Trillium Lake with this view of Timberline and Mt. Hood.
It was breezy above tree line this time too, enough for me to keep my shell jacket zipped and hat on all day despite clear skies and temps in 40’s early and 50’s midday. With intensive salting and grooming for the race camps, the first two runs starting at 8:15AM were bulletproof above tree line, so we remained on Magic Mile for our first 7 runs. A few pics, first view up from the parking lot about 7:45:
Riding Magic Mile:
First two runs, skier’s right and left on Magic Mile:
The Magic Mile runs were all corn by 9:30 so we stuck with those for another hour. By 10AM Magic Mile had a lift line.
At 10:30 we took our first ride up Palmer, which also had a lift line, and skied top to bottom skier’s right. At this time the snow above Palmer’s mid-loading was still frozen granular, but below that was excellent corn. By the time we rode the two lifts back up it was about 11AM and in corn mode from the top. We took some view pics. Glaciated top of Mt. Hood with some climbers on the way up:
View south to Mt. Jefferson and the Sisters:
Mt. Hood Ski Bowl:
It’s north facing with interesting terrain but at dicey elevation range for Oregon of 3,660 – 5,010 feet. I have never skied there. We dropped by on the way down the hill and Ski Bowl has a lot of summer activities including mountain biking and an alpine slide using its lower chairlift.
In late August/early September all of the skiing is done on skier’s left of Palmer above mid station with a strip down to the top of Magic Mile for downloading. In the current timeframe there is much more terrain available. Far skier’s left are two terrain parks. The lower one accessible from top of Magic Mile opened about 10:30, this pic much earlier.
The upper one has a bigger pipe and features and requires a ticket surcharge ($120 vs. $97) and opened about 11:00. There is also a rope tow for those lapping the upper park. The upper part of Magic Mile had two race courses skier’s right and one skier’s left. The top of Palmer had two courses skier’s right and several skier’s left.
The designated public area on Palmer was skier’s left, closest to the lift. By the time we got up there we could go skier’s left beyond the racers and ski smooth corn to the top of the pay terrain park near Palmer’s mid-station.
Below mid-station there was more room to spread out skier’s right so on all later skier’s left runs we did that.
I have always wondered how far you can ski west or east when there is snow coverage to Timberline Lodge, in the case of east not very far. The drainage beyond the terrain parks has lost nearly all of its snow already.
Later we drove around to southeast facing Hood Meadows, where it’s very patchy.
There is much more snow to the west so I pushed out there for one run around noon, toward Ski Bowl in the pic in that direction.
It’s wide open for about 1,000 vertical but then spines of exposed rock appear so you need to pull back east in order to make it back to Palmer’s lower station. The lower you go the bigger and longer the rock spines get, so I was not tempted to find a route to the bottom of Magic Mile. The out of bounds snow up high had just the beginnings of suncups, not yet with frozen edges that can stay frozen all day and disrupt skiing.
All of the race camps ended between 11:30 and noon, so that also meant the end of the lift line on Palmer. We then alternated left and right sides above mid-loading. Areas vacated by the racers remained in smooth corn mode until we were done. In the morning you have to walk past the length of the Timberline Lodge to reach Magic Mile, but at the end of the day there’s an exit trail direct to the parking lot.
Liz quit at 12:30 while I took two more Palmer runs and quit at 1:15 with 20,900 vertical. The sunny but breezy weather was near ideal for snow conditions. I skied maybe 4,000 vertical of frozen granular early on and the only heavy slush run was the end of the day to the parking lot. The rest of the day had very high quality corn snow.
The days like this with sequential softening at Mammoth tend to be warmer, and the upper steeps at Mammoth would have never loosened up in today’s weather. But at Timberline everything faces into direct sun and nothing is more than intermediate pitch. I don’t know what it would be like on a warmer and calmer day. It’s likely that the areas used by the racers would still be good for a short while after they are done.
We had lunch at Timberline Lodge then drove to the other ski areas. We also stopped at Trillium Lake with this view of Timberline and Mt. Hood.
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