Pain, Guilt, and Snow

Highway 35 Still Closed and Alternatives are Looking Better and Better

By Tomi Owens, 11-26-06

Hood River woke Sunday morning to a dreamy white wonderland; the little hamlet was blanketed in a thick, fluffy cocoon of the year’s first snow. “Ahhh…how pretty,” was my first thought. “Damn…the road is still closed,” was my second. But, dutifully, my husband and I bundled up the kids and marched them outdoors for a morning of “fresh air,” a welcome change to the weeks of incessant rain.

Try as we might, though, all the snowballs, snowmen, and snowforts weren’t making up for the fact that under normal circumstances we would already have two or three runs down South Canyon under our belts and be set to catch Cascade Express for some serious mountain appreciation. All that beautiful snow was just a glum reminder that millions of cubic yards of glacial debris lie between us and our beloved Mt. Hood Meadows (beloved in the sense that we have already purchased season passes for a family of four.)

And reading the papers ( The Hood River News’s gloom and doom, hell-hath-no-fury like Mother Nature in the Northwest piece or The Oregonian’s spirited bid at the next big Discovery Channel special) certainly weren’t helping to lift my mood. So I logged on and went straight to Mount Hood Meadows COO Dave Riley’s uber-optimistic but always informative blog and I have just one question…Has everyone seen the complete list of resorts that are offering free lift tickets and discounted lift tickets to all Mt. Hood Meadows season pass holders?

Well, as the song goes, “If you can’t love the one that you want—Love Kirkwood or Anthony Lakes or Stevens Pass or Kirkwood or Mission Ridge or Alyeska or Snoqualmie.” Oh, did I mention Kirkwood? On the south shore of Lake Tahoe, with some of the best snow in California? Dave Riley has come through for us with the back up—I’ll give him that.

As I contemplate all the possibilities and the very real chance (what with the weather and all) that Highway 35 won’t be open anytime soon, I begin to imagine myself having a perfectly valid excuse to plan a Christmas in Tahoe. It feels ever so slightly like a betrayal to hope that my Meadows season pass will be valid far and wide until after the holidays. Even if I don’t make it as far as Kirkwood, Mt Batchelor is offering discounts and Crystal Mountain is half-price.

Like a war widows seeking solace in the arms of another, its time to start booking hotels, packing our bags, and thinking seriously about road trips. Guilt or no guilt—I want to ski.

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