The 2009-10 snowboard season came to a sudden an unexpected end on March 18. Shortly after a couple hours shooting photos of the Revolution Tour; I was informed by the lift operator on the Cascade lift to report to the Ski Patrol at the top of the lift. When I got there; the head ski patrolman told me I was endangering resort customers and my season pass was being pulled.
Not sure what the deal is with the Ski Patrol. Couldn’t get a job at a real resort and got stuck at Meadows? Whatever it is, they don’t have much respect for the paying customers, especially snowboarders.
Mt. Hood Meadows has always kept run grooming to an absolute minimum and keeps lifts closed whenever possible to save money. This creates dangerous overcrowding; especially at trail crossings where a run will funnel into a path less than twenty feet wide. People; most often groups of skiers; stop at these trail crossings waiting for the rest of their ski mob; blocking the trail. If you go around one of these ski groups and one of the skiers complains to the ski patrol; your pass is pulled.
The snowboard parks and halfpipe at Meadows are serviced by the Daisy chairlift; which is closed 90% of the time. Snowboarders are forced to use the Vista chair; which is uphill from the parks and halfpipe and you must pass a beginner lift. If you go fast enough to make it uphill from the parks to the Vista chair; you risk having your passed pulled on every run. Meadows management and the ski patrol expect snowboarders to walk about an eighth of a mile after each run through the park or halfpipe instead of running the Daisy chair to get to the terrain parks.
Another really disturbing thing are the comments on Mt. Hood Meadows related internet sites where skiers encourage each other to get snowboarders off the mountain. Probably ninety percent of the skiers at Meadows are from Portland. They pack the resort on weekends then complain about it all week on the internet. This “weekend warrior” mentality of this commuter resort is a major factor of the Mt. Hood Meadows “experience”.
I’ve been skiing and snowboarding my whole life and have ridden most resorts in America. Mt. Hood Meadows is the worst all around ski area by far. Aside from the fact they have snow on a hill; I can’t think of anything good to say about them.
Wow, that’s interesting.
If what you say is true, that is utter bull crap. They deserve to have their name slandered far and wide, and to generally eat a big fat cow pie for dinner.
So if that resort is so crappy, why not ski somewhere else?
Very disappointing. Not only do I enjoy riding, but had hoped to do photo and video work with pro and promising young snowboarders at my “home” resort.
Everybody loses.
Did you post the pictures you got to take anywhere? I have been looking all over and I know someone was taking pictures at both slope and pipe.
If you rode in the Halfpipe or Boardercross and see your photo here: http://www.watermanatwork.com/Land/Snowboarding/Snowboarding.html ; I’ll send you a photo. We support snowboarding, especially if you don’t get paid to ride.