Snow Lies?

Jesse Cornett

I awoke Sunday morning, and as most weekend mornings since early December, excitedly logged onto www.skihood.com to see if the snow conditions had miraculously changed overnight. While the four inches received overnight was good, on such a small base of snow, I thought, it would do nothing more than put a thin coat over the rocks and stumps I’d like to avoid scraping my snowboard on. Nah, maybe I’d go for a hike with the dog, I thought.

In no hurry, I get the Sunday paper and begin to read the news, when I stumble on a story about Mt. Hood’s low snow pack. According to the article, and most on the subject, Mt Hood’s snow pack is only about 30% of average.

Then there’s this quote:

"The thing that we're battling right now is the media," said Dave Riley, Meadows' general manager. "There's a perception in the community that there is no snow at the mountain. From a skier's point of view, there's some great skiing up here."

Is it the media that left all of the rocks and stumps uncovered all over the mountain, I wondered? And, was it the media that won’t let Meadows operate any of the terrain over on the Hood River Meadows side of the hill? Just curious. That must be it. Darn media.

With that, I threw my gear (already packed up in anticipation of that big storm) and snowboard in the car and sped up to Meadows. I knew that I must have been wrong the whole time. Here on Blue Oregon we regularly mention our concerns with the “mainstream media,” heck I have myself. We must stand up against them!

After arriving at 10 am, and looking around finding nobody around to buy a daily snow park pass from, I ventured on over the ticket window and laid down my $50 for a peak shift lift ticket. I was on my way. I went up the Hood River Meadows lift and rode down to the lodge (for those of you not familiar with Meadows, I was at the alternative parking lot that you can usually ski back down to) to stow my belongings in a locker and went back to the lifts. I was immediately asked to go back to the ticket window by a very nice lift operator because my ticket was attached to my jacket incorrectly, and by the time I actually got to get in a run it was after 11. I didn’t stop riding until 4, save about ten minutes for lunch. And what a great five hours it was!

I quickly realized that the media hadn’t been all wrong, but Dave must’ve been misquoted somehow. The rocks and stumps exist, as does the bare ground under some of the more traveled slopes. Fact is, though, that we are fair weather skiers and riders here in Portland. When the snow is bad, we’ll go on a long bike ride. When it’s raining, we’ll go to the rock gym. Whatever it is, we’ll already have two other options lined up.

So, Dave was wrong and Dave was right. I don’t think the media has been misreporting the bad conditions. They exist. From a snowboarder’s point of view, there was some great snowboarding yesterday. And, if you want to snowboard or ski, don’t listen to the media tell you how bad it is, just go! Conditions aren’t great but you can’t let that stop you.

By Jesse Cornett Feb. 21, 2005