Because it's the only year round ski resort, Hood is the hot spot for all the ski racing teams around the country. I have to admit, I felt a little odd seeing all these ski racers show up in their spandex, spider web suits and head up the hill. Somehow my backcountry touring apparel and fat powder skis didn't quite seem to mix in with them. You don't run into too many ski racers in the backcountry. Anyway, I was stoked to be out in the mountains and on the snow again, especially because I was able to try out my new boots which I had bought in May and had not been able to ski yet. Here's me heading up the chair with my new boots on.
The snow in the morning was pretty hard and icy, as expected for this time of year, but I new it would get slushy later in the day. Because I hadn't had time to adjust my new boots to my skinnier skis, I was on my fatties for today. Certainly takes a little more work to get them over on edge, but it let me know how much more power these new boots had, and after the first day on them, I am very happy. These bright green babies are going to be a blast next season.
As I said before, Mt. Hood is literally covered in ski racers. This makes it unclear as to where the runs are as all of these teams have their little race flags and mini courses set up everywhere. Well, after skiing through a few of these courses, one of the coaches stopped me and said, "Hey you can't ski here. There is a public lane over there. These lanes are for racers only. We pay for these lanes."
My reply was, "Seriously? I just paid $50 for one run?" Truthfully, I'm not that impressed. Yeah, it's July, but $50 for one run? That's lame. If I would have known that I probably would've hiked up to the snow. Oh well, regardless, I had a great time running laps on the mellow, blue public lane.
A view of the upper Palmer Glacier and the standard route to climb and ski Mt. Hood.
Looking over the ski area with big Mt. Jefferson in the distance.
Back at the car. Mission accomplished.
No comments:
Post a Comment