First off, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
In my pursuit to get in at least 50 days of snowboarding this season I started my day off at six am, picked up my friends Meghann and Geoff and headed up toward the mountain. I had checked the weather forecast the day before and the Mt Hood Meadows condition report but none of it would prepare me for the horrors that lay ahead. On the way up, we were greeted by what looked like fresh snow. "Awesome!" we all said. But it was just an illusion. The temperature inversion mentioned previously was playing tricks. We arrived at the mountain around 8:30, suited up and waited for the lifts to start shuttling people.
We took our first run on the new Vista Express lift. What greeted us was mix of frozen snow where the staff had groomed, sheets of ice where they hadn't, and an assortment of obstacles like rocks, stumps, grass/dirt, etc... We took off, un-abated by the conditions that lay ahead, steadfast in our belief that all would be well. While all this was happening some pretty nasty looking clouds started to roll in blocking all glimpses of the sun, which means, nothing to melt the frozen wasteland.
We were scheduled to leave the mountain around 1PM so we could all make it on time to our respective dinner engagements. By noon we had all had enough of the ice and were getting pretty hungry. Bring on the turkey!
I arrived home, got cleaned up and proceeded to feast. Its now been raining for the past five or so hours with sub-freezing temperatures on the mountain. All signs point to fresh powder. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a good day.
Have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. |