Two days after a torrential downpour dumped nine inches of rain on Mount Hood, skiers and snowboarders were enjoying light powder and perfect visibility.

Last weekend’s hellacious storm turned from rain into snow at about midnight Sunday. Six inches accumulated at the base of Timberline and Mt. Hood Meadows Monday, and it piled up deeper at higher elevations. The temperature plunged down into the teens Tuesday and the sun came out. Conditions have been surprisingly good all week.

Meadows pounced on the opportunity to open Mt. Hood Express Tuesday, Shooting Star Wednesday morning and Cascade Express Wednesday afternoon. With three high-speed quads running, fresh snow and thin crowds, skiers and snowboarders were making fresh tracks and dodging stumps and beargrass all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Exposed areas turned a bit crusty and cruddy from the wind, but protected fall lines in the trees contained fluffy stashes of Utah-like powder. See the video at the end of this story for proof.

The Meadows parks crew has three lines of varying difficulty set up in Shipyard and boxes and a jump in the Zoo. Buttercup, Easy Rider and the Magic Carpet are all open.

Meadows plans to operate seven days a week for the remainder of 2013-14. The resort has been offering discounted day passes for the early season, but they will probably go full-price starting this weekend.

When Meadows is fully operational it offers six high-speed quads, 2,777 vertical feet of lift-served runs, and 2,150 acres of terrain. But we are still a few good storms away from that.

The forecast is calling for more cold weather, so the 24-inch base should hold. Meadows also has been making snow all week. Here is a photo of a snow cannon blasting away near Easy Rider Wednesday morning:

And here is a video from Pierce Hodges and Mt. Hood Meadows showing a crew of snowboarders enjoying the snow on Wednesday:

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Last modified: December 5, 2013