Mt. Hood’s Timberline Lodge is the only (I think) open summer ski resort in North America. Wonderful, good snow and more than 800 meters of vertical in summer! Plenty of out of bounds, too. July skiing: check.
At first I was not even aware that there was such a place. Then I heard rumors about it. And read about it. But it seemed unreachable for someone living on the other side of the world. And while I sometimes travel to the US, I never seemed to be doing it in any part where reaching Mt. Hood would be easy.
And it wasn't super easy now either. But at least I was in a conference on the right coast, in Vancouver. Perhaps I could take off two days before the conference to drive down and satisfy my cave curiosity and my monthly need to ski? It would be a long drive, but ... the rewards were worth it.
And everything went very smoothly. I arrived on a late evening flight to Vancouver, rented a car and drove as long as I felt I could until the evening and the jet lag got to me, stayed in a hotel north of Seattle. Ironically, I had flown in via Seattle but it took me almost 24 hours to get back to it, with the plane to reach Vancouver, the airport hassles, traffic, and the driving. The next day I started early and made to the Ape Cave to explore that, then stayed the night in a hotel near Portland. And again, an early morning wake-up to drive up to Mt. Hood. Exciting!
The drive up to the mountain by itself was spectacular. The volcano is towering above you, yet you are still surrounded by green forests. At the ski area the snow does not reach the main hotel and huts at the end of July. However, you can buy tickets and hop on the ski lifts up the mountain. You will be delivered at the bottom of the snowy area, and take another lift up to the top of the ski area. In the ski area there are no facilities (restaurants, etc.) but you can ski down a somewhat melted ski run back to the base if you want. I did that couple of times, and was able to get grab lunch ingredients to my backpack this way :-)
The ski area is largely used by countless ski teams practicing, but there is fair bit of open skiing terrain left.
And there was so much out of bounds to explore! You could even climb the 11,249 ft (3,429 m) peak of Mt. Hood, if you so desire. That, however, would be a major mountaineering expedition.
I stayed nearer the ski area. To the skier's right there's plenty of open space, when I was there it was completely unskied and untouched, with an ability to leave your own tracks in the snow. You can even just traverse to the right from the top lift without going up at all. I hiked up a bit, but one could relatively safely hike up even more. But going much more higher would be entering crevasse and other dangers on Mt. Hood. (Be careful out there!)
In any case, I enjoyed my time on the side country much more than my time on the pistes. The pistes were fun too, but the snow was much better and less bumpy outside :-)
Once I had hiked up out of bounds, I also had a nice lunch moment, sitting on a rock and consuming the tapas-and-juice snacks I bought earlier. Peace, quiet, sunshine, snow, and a meal! What could be better?
I kept skiing the side country for several runs. Nice. Plenty of space, and I only met 2-3 other people. I guess everyone was either busy racing or were touristy skiers after a novelty summer ski and were quickly off the mountain.
There was also a half-pipe:
Here are some of the friends you can find from the off-piste:
The official page for Timberline Lodge is here. Interestingly, there is four other ski resorts on the mountain as well, though only Timberline Lodge operates year around: Mount Hood Meadows, Mount Hood Skibowl, Summit Ski Area, and Cooper Spur ski area.
More pictures:
Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.
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