Not much to talk about...

Sorry I've been so silent lately... it's just that the weather pattern has been so benign and uninteresting lately. I've been too busy to make it up the mountain much as well. The last time I was up there (two weeks ago), however, it was pretty dead. Without significant new snow, the crowd has been very thin on the weekdays. I heard the weekend of 3/1-3/2 was very busy though.

It looks like we'll get a good burst of new snow later this week. Maybe 1-2 feet if all goes well. I'm talking about Thursday-Saturday. The snow level should be pretty low too... 2,000-3,000 feet. That's pretty low for this time of year.

Each of the three Mt. Hood ski areas is now offering unlimited spring passes for sale. The prices:
- Skibowl $88.00 -- good for unlimited visits until closing day (mid-April?)
- Timberline $99.00 -- good for unlimited visits through the end of May
- Meadows $119.00 -- good for unlimited visits until closing day (April 27 for daily operation, weekends only as part of the May Challenge)

The new trend is for the ski areas of offer good deals on end-of-the-season passes instead of discounting daily lift tickets. Timberline typically has dropped their spring daily rates into the $30-40 range -- we'll see if they do that again this year. And Skibowl & Meadows have offered free lift tickets on closing day in the past as well.

Within the next couple weeks, Timberline should be prepping the Palmer lift for its seasonal opening. We're entering my favorite time of year to ski at Timberline -- when the Palmer lift opens and the full 3,800 vertical feet of mountain is available to ski. It's a thigh-burner going from top to bottom!