Opening weekend for Mount Hood youth and recreational racers has been pushed back indefinitely due to lack of snow, but the high school season will open on Saturday with a race on the Magic Mile.

High school racers will gather Saturday, January 4 on the West Mile at Timberline for the Christine Cato Memorial, a non-league slalom competition held in memory of a former Mitey Mite and Beaverton High racer who died in an accident on Mount Hood just before her senior year in July of 1989.

Racers will start hitting the gates at 10:30 am, and there will be an awards ceremony at 3 pm. More than 400 high school athletes are expected to participate in the race and the banquet following the competition.

Some of the Cato competitors are likely to be a bit rusty in the gates. High school racers have been struggling to find space to train on Mount Hood, with Skibowl and Stadium closed due to lack of snow. 

One upside to the poor snow conditions it that it has allowed for training on the Palmer Snowfield at Timberline at 8,500 feet. Usually the Palmer lift is closed for winter by mid-December, but with winter slow in arriving this year Timberline has kept it running, and racers have been shredding gates up there in all conditions, including some extremely nasty ice.

High school teams have seven races scheduled on Mount Hood this season, but lower-elevation races at Skibowl and Meadows are on hold until more snow falls.

The lack of snow also has forced the cancellation of two races scheduled for Skibowl and Cooper Spur this weekend for youth and recreational racers.

The PACRAT NASTAR Open scheduled for Sunday, January 5 on Dog Leg at Skibowl is off. NASTAR races are open to all competitors who want to try, at $5 per run, and serve as fun training runs for the 200-plus adult recreational racers who compete for PACRAT teams on Mount Hood. But there is very little snow on Dog Leg.

PACRAT Race #1 is also supposed to run at Skibowl, on Sunday, January 12. It will take some serious snow for that to happen, since Skibowl’s chairlifts still are not running and bare spots are visible all over the upper mountain.

Kid racers were also supposed to kick off their season this weekend with a Mitey Mite dual slalom Sunday at Cooper Spur. But Cooper Spur is still closed, as is the racing trail Stadium at Mt. Hood Meadows. Youth racers for the five teams who compete in Mitey Mite events on Mount Hood will have to wait to start shredding the ruts.

Junior racers have been training on the Mile and Palmer, and on Fireweed at Meadows. But the lack of snow and crowded, narrow slopes have made it challenging to set up gates.

The forecast is calling for 1-3 inches of snow tonight, a touch more tomorrow, and then dry conditions through the weekend, with a chance of snow next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last modified: January 2, 2014