Mt. Hood - 11.29.08

Sometimes the weather does not cooperate.

This is my first non-trip report. Julie, Dan and I had planned to ski/board Mount Hood. For Julie and I it would be more of a ski learning experience. I'm pretty sure Dan would have no problems with the sliding part. The goal was to skin to the Hogsback, foot it up to the summit and ski down to the parking lot. Forecasts for Hood for Saturday started out fantastic. (0% chance of precip, "Sunny") By the time we were about to leave for Hood, the forecast had taken a bit of a turn, but not enough to discourage going. (It had been changed to partly cloudy with no precip.)

When we arrived in the parking lot for Timberline Lodge, it was 37° and raining. I assumed it would pass as it was supposed to rain/snow a bit Friday. However, as we woke up late on summit day, it was still 37° and cold rain was still falling. Dan and I packed up the tent and we all jumped in the car to leave.

This was an interesting attempt and it shows that weather forecasting is not an exact science. Best I can tell, the system that was supposed to pass through Friday, came late and was not done passing through when we left Saturday morning. The rain was definitely melting snow at the 6000' level, and may have been falling as heavy wet snow higher up. But, visibility was very low, and we would have had to mostly hike up to snow from the parking lot. Not ideal. When is the snow pack going to be good?