Pack sun block and patience if you head up to the mountain this weekend, because it is going to be bright and busy.

The forecast is calling for pure sunshine and highs into the mid-40s, with mellow winds and spring-like snow.

It’s unclear exactly what happened to winter this season, but in the meantime events are charging ahead, with some key adaptations.

Skibowl will be partially open again, with two rope tows and a terrain park on the west side and Multorpor chair and the tubing hill on the east side.

The lack of upper mountain skiing at Skibowl is bound to send extra Fusion Pass traffic up to Timberline, which has gotten parked out for the past two weekends. Parking spots could fill up quickly again this weekend, and if so, there will be shuttles up from Skibowl West.

One upside to the lack of snow is that Timberline can accommodate more vehicles in spots usually taken by snowbanks. Also, they can run the Palmer lift in January, which is usually unheard of due to deep snow and blizzards. The conditions at 8,000 feet should be quite nice once the snow softens, and the run from the top of Palmer to the bottom of Jeff Flood drops you more than 3700 vertical feet.

There is a USASA slopestyle competition scheduled for Sunday on Conway’s, so the upper portion of that park, including the new jump, will be closed for a while. Thunder Park and Palmer Park have two jumps each and plenty of rails, so freestylers should have plenty to do all weekend.

Mt. Hood Meadows has five terrain parks open and 2700 feet of vertical from the top of Cascade to the bottom of Hood River Express. Meadows is also hosting a Safety Fair on Saturday, as well as a women’s clinic. Twisted Whistle will be playing in the Vertical from 3 to 6.

Meadows has stepped up this season to host ski races that would normally be held at Skibowl, including several high school races, a youth race and the long-awaited season opener for PACRAT racers on Sunday.

In the likely event that Meadows parking fills up again, there will be shuttles from Welches High School off Hwy. 26 and the Mt. Hood Country Store on Hwy. 35. Details are here.

Over at Teacup Lake, the 30th annual Mountain Shop Teacup Classic Races are on, with 15K of trails groomed and ready for action. This is the event of the year for many Nordic racers, and it features old-school kick-and-glide styles, with no skating allowed. Teacup’s volunteer grooming team has done a great job to make this race happen in a low-snow year.

Did I leave anything out? Pop me a note and I will add it in.

See ya up there!

Last modified: January 24, 2014