Initial Impressions: Mount Hood Resorts

A view of Mount Hood from the Magic Mile lift at Timberline.

We spent the past two weeks road tripping around the Pacific Northwest, hitting major resorts in Washington and Oregon. We started at Mount Hood, where we visited three major ski areas: Mount Hood Meadows, Mount Hood Skibowl, and Timberline. From there, we made our way up to the Seattle area, where we visited Crystal, Stevens Pass, Summit at Snoqualmie, and Alpental. We also made it up to Mount Baker at the northern tip of the state. Finally, we visited Oregon’s Mount Bachelor on our way back to Tahoe.

Over the next several days, we’ll be sharing our thoughts on these areas. Here are our initial impressions on the three Mount Hood ski resorts we visited.

Mount Hood Meadows

When it comes to terrain, Meadows is the real beast of Mount Hood. Most of the lines we explored were relatively moderate in length, but we made our way onto some really steep, expert pitches. Many serious obstacles are fair game, including perilous cliff drops. The most extreme runs we did were in the experts-only Private Reserve (which really sounds like it should be a whiskey brand), although this terrain required a short hike-out. The higher-elevation Heather Canyon proved a serious technical challenge as well.

While not the most difficult terrain, the resort’s Vista and Cascade areas stood out for their excellent high-alpine experiences. We didn’t find them quite as unique as Timberline’s fully-above-treeline glacier, but on a clear day, these two areas were a whole lot of fun. The Cascade area serves mainly above- and near-treeline intermediate terrain, and the Vista area boasts high-alpine beginner runs—which you can’t find anywhere else in the Mount Hood area. However, due to their exposure, these areas are highly susceptible to inclement weather. We’ve been tracking the snow reports since our trip, and these areas have remained closed more than half the time. It’s rare to find variability like this at a ski resort during February.

A few more downsides: in addition to forcing high-alpine closures, regular inclement weather often results in low visibility conditions. For those who like groomers, we found very few during our trip. And while one might expect a local feel from an independently-owned resort, there’s still a fairly Portland vibe here (although it’s not nearly as present as at nearby Timberline).

Mount Hood itself is absolutely stunning. But for when it’s too cloudy for a good view, the mountains in the surrounding areas aren’t much more striking than at a typical East Coast resort. The one exception is the volcano looking one (which we think may be Mount Jefferson), but that’s really only visible at a super clear time (during which the top of Mount Hood may well also be visible).

Compared to other resorts with similar mountain experiences, we found Mount Hood Meadows reasonably priced, with full-day tickets either near at just above $100. Peak days topped out at $129. 4-hour afternoon tickets existed for about $70, which we felt was a steal for the diversity and level of terrain we experienced on a good day. And while variable weather resulted in disappointingly common area closures, many of the expert areas remained open when the high-alpine chairlifts were closed. Night skiing is available until 9pm most days, and evening access can be purchased for as low as $19.

A formidable pitch in Mount Hood Meadows’ Private Reserve area.

Timberline

Timberline boasts all the terrain you could want—for beginners and intermediates.

The upper half of the resort exists on an above-treeline glacier, making for an incredible high-alpine experience. The Magic Mile area, which contains entirely intermediate terrain, boasts some of the most striking blue runs we’ve seen anywhere. During our visit, a new layer of powder did mask some hidden obstacles, such as rocks, on ungroomed paths.

Although open nearly year round, the resort rarely has 100% of its terrain open (and almost never has 100% of its lifts running). Above Magic Mile is the Palmer area, which entirely comprises advanced terrain. However, the Palmer lift doesn’t open until April, so this terrain isn’t lift-serviced at all during the core season. This is a huge drawback for those hoping to visit Timberline during the winter; however, during non-COVID times, we’re told this terrain can be available for snowcat ops during weekends and holidays.

Besides the Palmer runs, Timberline contains very little advanced terrain. Only a handful of other black-diamond trails exist, and the tough pitches on each are quite short. Moreover, we wouldn’t consider any of Timberline’s terrain, including Palmer, to contain expert features. Despite this, we found easy access to solid backcountry.

The resort offers a solid freestyle setup, with lots of small/medium terrain park areas boasting features such as boxes, rails, and jumps. We discovered a cool natural half pipe as well. We also enjoyed Timberline’s tree terrain, some of which is uniquely suitable for beginners.

We very much enjoyed Timberline’s lift infrastructure. All lifts were high-speed except for the comically short bunny hill lift. However, we found several lower-mountain lifts to be chokepoints and waited in some fairly long lines.

In our first impressions, we actually found resort signage to be pretty lousy. Most major junctions seemed to lack trail maps, and some signs were considerably faded. We missed the mid-mountain Phlox Point Cabin on our first try because the arrow was missing.

Ticket prices were slightly cheaper than Mount Hood Meadows, with peak days coming out to just over $100. Night skiing is available on some lower-mountain terrain, and prices for evening access are quite cheap, at just $43.

The missing arrow on the sign to Phlox Point Cabin. The hut was actually located to the left of the sign.

Mount Hood Skibowl

Mount Hood Skibowl is the closest resort to Portland, and it’s also the least developed. Skibowl’s chairlift capacity is severely limited—all chairs are decades-old, center-pole doubles. Want to ride up with more than one person? You’re SOL. The lifts also stop pretty frequently due to the difficulty of loading, and when they do, they bounce a lot.

For a small, undeveloped mountain, we were pretty impressed with Skibowl’s terrain. While no runs we did were super long, we found some pretty fun advanced terrain in the resort’s Upper Bowl area. We wanted to explore Skibowl’s Outback area, which claims to boast the most difficult terrain at the resort, but it was closed due to rain at the bottom.

Speaking of rain, we found Skibowl’s snow quality to be inferior to the two other, higher-up Hood resorts. In addition to the occasional rain (with other Hood resorts aren’t completely immune to either), we found the snow to be wetter and heavier than Meadows and Timberline.

Skibowl is likely best known for its night skiing, and nearly all the resort’s major terrain remains open for evening operations. Full day ticket prices are slightly cheaper than the other two Hood resorts, with non-peak adult tickets costing $69 and peak dates topping out at $84. However, night tickets are the most expensive of the Hood trio; peak tickets cost $52 with non-peak tickets come out to $47.

An evening view of Mount Hood Skibowl.

It was quite the experience visiting Mount Hood in the winter and skiing on a volcano. We found Timberline to have the most striking views, but Meadows to have the better vibes and terrain. However, the area’s fluctuating weather patterns made for variable conditions and inconsistent terrain openings at all three resorts throughout our visit. It’s worth keeping in mind that each of these mountains offers night skiing, and all maintain operations on a considerable portion of their enjoyable terrain.

Before publishing full reviews, we plan comprehensive talks with locals to ensure each review contains fully accurate content. We may also return during the less-variable late season to explore terrain that wasn’t open this time around.