Burton Speaks

While ski season may be upon us, I can tell you that there's not much snow on Mt. Hood. Despite reports of ski resort (limited) openings - with 26" of snow on the ground - I can tell you that there's just not that much snow.

On Sunday, a couple of my good friends and I decided to go snowshoeing. It was a beautifully sunny day and we thought about doing something easy like going to Trillium Lake or something like that. However, after renting snowshoes, we drove up to the Sno-Park. We were not seeing much snow at about 3800 feet of elevation, so we decided to head up to Timberline Lodge at 6500 feet of elevation to see if would could find snow.

We did - but just barely.


After strapping on our snowshoes, we decided to go "trailblazing" and pretty much just headed west around the mountain. We hiked along for maybe an hour, then stopped for an early lunch and enjoyed perhaps one of the most gorgeous views imaginable.


We then continued west. Half an hour shy of our turnaround time, we came across a rocky gully that appeared to be at least 50 feet deep, with bare ground on the other side - and a large rock. It was decide that that rock would be our turnaround point.

We hiked (or, in my case, slid) down the gully, then found a trail that actually led up the other side at a manageable slope. We had to take off our snowshoes at the top of the other side, because there simply wasn't snow on the ground! Up along the ridge we went to the rock, where we rested for a bit and enjoyed the view before turning around.


We went back across the ravine (I took the path down rather than throwing myself down the side, like my companions!) and climbed up the other side, this time without an easy path up. Exhausted from that, we managed to just power our way back along our trail, covering two hours worth of ground in under an hour and a half.

All in all, it was a great time that I hope to repeat... only with some actual snow underfoot next time.