Friday, Derrick and I caught a flight up to PDX where Jon and Arthur picked us up for the snowy drive up the mountain.



We didn't get an early start on Saturday, so after initially aiming for Mt. Hood Meadows, we audibled to the lower, closer, smaller Ski Bowl. It was good enough for a warmup day, but its handful of old-style slow lifts wasn't ideal. Their peak did have some challenging features though.


Of course skiing with three slowboarders means watching a lot of sitting and clicking. Zzzzz.


I was excited to see the difference a flash bracket would make for ski photography. The bracket itself made for an easier grip in challenging conditions. Having a good, off camera flash made for good fill lighting in a very high contrast environment. Shooting at sync speed and below made for a little background motion blur.


I begrudgingly went with area autofocus. Trying to aim down the sights in irregular slope conditions, with goggles, in weather simply was not possible. And, simply, shooting is just something to do with my hands, it's not meant to take away from the fun of skiing.

Happily, area focus works better in snowy areas than many other places. Framing was still a crap shoot, of course.


The light snow in the morning gave way to a steady breeze with clear skies. The trees were so caked with snow, however, that they created their own snowfall.


The ski area didn't have a ton of off-piste, but I did find a rock for Jon to slide down.


Hot tub, sauna, tasty food, and a HOPR after.


Then back to the condo for Monopoly and poker.


Sunday we woke up plenty early and headed to Timberline - a larger, higher resort with a deeper base. The day started with clear skies but temperatures in the teens.


We took the lift above the treeline as the weather began to roll in. The completely open ski area was cool to look at. On the downside, it's not particularly steep and the cold winds made it fairly icy even with the fresh snowfall.


Farther down, however, there are some nice tree and gully runs. By noon the weather settled in with light snowfall and gusty winds. It was unpleasant enough to drive away what small crowds had showed up.



Monday we flew back. A little while after, Jon made a video:

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