Massive January Snowstorm Rescues Winter

The snow came late to Mount Hood for the 2019-20 season – late enough where you might as well just call it the 2020 season. Would-be snow storms arrived in the form of rain for most of December, cold days brought no precipitation, and conditions were thin. As of Saturday, January 4, rocks and vegetation were jutting through main trails at Timberline and Mt. Hood Meadows, and Heather Canyon and Skibowl had yet to open for skiing and snowboarding. The outlook was not good for shredding deep-snow havens from the Outback at Skibowl to the Private Reserve at Meadows.

Then came a series of powerful winter storms that drove temperatures below freezing and kept them there, adding more snow to the base each day before coalescing into a beauty of a storm that dumped two feet of heavy snow all over the mountain on Friday, January 10 and just kept on going all weekend.

And just like that, we have a 2020 season.

Skibowl has opened, Timberline’s prospects of operating through the summer are looking much better, and Meadows is finally building up those nice, deep snow bases that we love in Heather Canyon and PR. And yes, the weather has been all over the map lately, with 85-mile-an-hour gusts in the Meadows parking lot, full power failure and a downed tree hitting a lift cable at Timberline, and all sorts of wild extremes… but that’s part of the fun of being on the mountain, right? Being in Nature and occasionally being reminded of her awesome power.

So welcome to winter! Enjoy that snow, watch out for tree wells, and enjoy.

All that new snow means Mount Hood photographer and Shred Hood partner Grant Myrdal is out there doing his thing, capturing the bliss of deep-snow adventures with thousands of new photos that are all about the beauty and flow that make it so much fun to shred Hood. A few samples:

As of January 23, the snow base at 5800 feet on Mount Hood was 110 inches, with temperatures creeping back up above freezing but plenty of snow underfoot to offer hope for the remainder of the 2019-2020 — er, make that 2020 —- winter season on Mount Hood.

The 7-day forecast is calling for another foot or so of snow – provided mountain temperatures cooperate. Come on Winter!