Timberline staffers are scrambling to make the transition to daily lift operations on Mount Hood starting this Friday, November 22.

“With more snow on the way, going seven days a week starting Friday sounds likely,” Timberline spokesman Jon Tullis told Shred Hood in an email Monday morning.

Timberline got 17 inches of snow over the weekend to build its snow base at 5880 feet to 26 inches as of Monday afternoon. They ran the Pucci chairlift on Sunday for the first time, and the slopes were packed with skiers and snowboarders despite poor visibility and heavy gusts of wind.

Pucci, the upper-mountain Palmer and Magic Mile Lifts and the beginner’s lift Bruno are all scheduled to operate Friday. Timberline’s hard-working parks crew is also preparing freestyle features to unveil this weekend in the Thunder Terrain Park and elsewhere.

When Timberline operates all of its lifts the resort offers 3,690 feet of vertical from the top of Palmer Chairlift to the bottom of the Jeff Flood Express.

Two feet of early season snow enabled Timberline to open Palmer Snowfield at 8500 feet October 11, and they have managed to open some terrain each weekend since, even after the snow around the lodge melted. Wind and poor visibility kept Palmer closed this past weekend, but the storm dumped enough snow to open the lower mountain for the first time.

An unfortunate warming pattern later turned the snow to rain and melted away some snowpack, but the weekend forecast is calling for sunshine and excellent visibility, with highs reaching up into the mid-40s.

Mt. Hood Meadows is also opening a few lifts this weekend at discounted prices. Click here for details about the plan for Meadows this weekend.

Last modified: November 18, 2013