Mt Hood Snowpack 148% of Average-almost breaking records!!

The snowpack on Mt Hood at 5370 feet is at 216 feet, 148% of normal for this time of year and just 48 inches from the record high snow level according to John Lea, state meteorologist. The good news is that the ski and snowboard season is far from over. And next week is forecast to offer up classic spring conditions, sunny and dry, staying cold enough at night to firm up the snow, warming up just enough during the day to soften the snow into perfect corn conditions.

The even better news is that you can stay in a Mt Hood Vacation Rental in April at drastically reduced rates plus your 3rd night is 1/2 price and your 4th night is free. Lift ticket prices go down, too. You can buy a Spring Pass for Mt Hood Meadows for $119 and for Timberline for $99. Mt Hood SkiBowl's Spring Pass is only $88.

If you are a weather nut and want to see what the snow depth's are around the state, visit the Natural Resources Conservation Center's Oregon Snotel Sites Map

For current weather and snow depths on Mt Hood, check out these links:

Government Camp current conditions

Mt Hood Meadows current conditions

Timberline current conditions

Snow Kite Boarding on Mt Hood - More Extreme Sports

We keep finding examples of extreme sport enthusiasts doing their thing on Mt Hood. The latest blog we found is of someone named Aaron who Snowkite Snowboarded on Mt Hood for 3 hours on March 16, 2008. The rider (or skier) hangs on to a large kite or small parachute with what looks like a Windsurfer harness and a tow rope for water skis and lets the wind as it catches the kite move him around on the snow. Beware, if you are not a very accomplished skier or snowboarded, you can fall while Snowkiting, in which case your face could end up looking like a road pizza.

Aaron used a split snowboard, his photographer was on "AT" skis (Randonee, I guess). Take a look at Aaron's blog for some cool photos.
If Snowkite Boarding sounds like fun to you, take a look at The International Snowkiting Association website.

Kayakers ride Frustration Falls on the Salmon River at Mt Hood Oregon

Described as the Mt Everest of Oregon kayaking, local boaters made the run down Vanishing Falls, Frustration Falls and Final Falls in the Salmon River Gorge 2 times last spring. The Salmon River Trail is great for hiking and viewing old growth forest and the Salmon River. But for a few really gnarly, very experienced expert kayakers, the hike would not be worth it if they did not have their boats with them for the return trip. Anyway, the photos are really awesome and make it pretty clear that your average person would not or could not attempt this.

A quote from the kayakers' blog discussing the 2nd run in June of 2007: "One more run before it goes away for another year. We decided to camp at the put-in and get up and charge it the next day. So we arived sat. afternoon and proceeded to hike our boats down the trail so we didn't have to deal with it the next day. The next morning we ran shuttle really fast...and made it on the water by 1pm. " and "We had a rope for the rappel at Final Falls, but there were other options that the crew explored. Keel and Jeff jumped off the top and into the pool and Chris Korbulic decided to fire up the main line, just left of the flake in the center of the falls. He over rotated just a little, tossed the paddle and tucked up tight. That was right up there with the sickest lines I've seen. Final Falls is really big and hard to line up. We paddled out and made it before dark."

Ski 4 Sunshine Free Ski Day at Mt Hood SkiBowl.

Ski or snowboard for free at Mt Hood SkiBowl from 9AM - 4PM this coming Friday, March 7th, when you bring 4 cans of food. The Oregon Food Bank (OFB) is the hub of a network of 919 hunger-relief agencies throughout Oregon and Clark County, Washington, distributing 752,044 Emergency Food Boxes between July 1, 2006 & June 30, 2007. Did you know that 47% of families receiving food have one person in their household working? And that 37% of the food recipients are children?

The Oregon Great Food Drive has a goal of raising 1 million pounds of food during the month of March. If you won't be able to make it up to Mt Hood on Friday to ski at SkiBowl, there are several other ways you can contribute to Oregon's Great Food Drive.

Donate $10 to OFB. Every $10 you donate enables OFB to provide enough food to help an agency fill an emergency food box -- enough food to feed a family for four days.

Purchase Tillamook Cheese from any retailer. For every pound sold, Tillamook Cheese will donate one cent to the Great Food Drive. Last year, Tillamook's statewide cheese sales resulted in a $16,000 donation to the Great Food Drive. Look for Great Food Drive signs at Albertsons, Fred Meyer and New Seasons Markets. New Seasons Markets will have demonstrations and specials featuring Tillamook Cheese. Customers can also donate food at any New Seasons location or donate cash online at New Seasons Market's Web site.

Donate cash or nonperishable food at KGW's studios, 1501 S.W. Jefferson in Portland.

Stay in a Mt Hood Vacation Rental Home during March 2008, and Cascade Property Management will donate $1 for each reservation to the Oregon Food Bank. Drop off your left-over non-perishable high-nutrition value foods at our office at check-out and we will donate those items to the Great Food Drive for you.

Skier Base Jumps off Mississippi Head on Mt Hood

Holy Cow!! Check this out...a Spokane Washington man base jumped off of Mississippi Head at the 8000 ft level of Mt Hood on Thursday (Feb 27). He skied down from above, then launched off of Mississippi Head, opened his chute, then landed on his skis and continued down Zig Zag Canyon.

Okay, kids do not try this at home. We have the exciting You Tube video that the base jumper, Matthias Giraud, and his friends took before and during the jump & ski.