Mt. Hood Meadows open after latest start on record

“We did not want to break that record. Nobody here did,” Pack said, but that didn’t dampen the mood on Dec. 23. “Everybody’s pumped and psyched — our guests, our employees, our team members. When you go out there and talk to everybody, it’s just smiles.”

Mount Hood’s snow water equivalent, a critical drought indicator that represents the amount of liquid water in snowpack, is the lowest it’s been since 1980, based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. As of Dec. 29, there’s only 4.9 inches compared to 7.8 inches on the same day in 2014, which was still only 37% of the median.

Temperatures didn’t drop enough for Meadows to get a boost from the atmospheric river either, which dumped more than 6 inches of rain in the upper valley two weeks ago, and just over the span of three days, as previously reported by Columbia Gorge News.

“If it were just five degrees cooler, that would’ve been incredible. It’d be one of the greatest starts to the season ever because, man, it was coming down, but the snow levels stayed up around seven, eight [thousand feet] and even higher,” Pack said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected who can’t be selfish about snow.”

Then, another system moved in the following weekend, giving Meadows its first big snowfall since late October. Even so, Pack wasn’t sure when Meadows would launch its signature lifts, Mount Hood Express and Vista, or start night operations on opening day, which only saw Buttercup, Ballroom Carpet, Daisy and Easy Rider running. 

Incidentally, the atmospheric river wiped out a lot of upper-elevation snow that Meadows usually depends on to fill out high-traffic areas, especially around the lodge. Artificially producing snow also isn’t feasible, largely because temperatures are often too warm and Meadows lacks adequate water rights, and staff can only harvest so much snow from parking lots.

“When we’re having low snowfall like we are now, we need to take a lot of time to put that snow back into place because everybody pushes it around during the day,” Pack said. “Having nights open would just be too many hours of skiing on the snow for us to put it back together.”

But an additional 10 inches of snow late last week got Meadows over the hump. Mount Hood Express and night skiing opened on Saturday, Vista started running for the first time this season on Sunday and Pack invited everyone to get their turns in.

He compared skiers and snowboarders to farmers, emphasizing the importance of optimism in spite of doubts, and how Meadows has gotten hammered during years that started behind schedule.

“We have to believe that way,” Pack said, pointing to the weak La Niña pattern that should bring above-average precipitation to the Pacific Northwest. “It might be a late start, but I’m sure the mountain will be covered before we know it.”