Winter 2017-18
The first time I skied at Mt. Hood Meadows was disappointing. I was newly arrived in Oregon for college, and the overcast day my roommate and I chose for my first Northwest ski adventure deteriorated into sleet and then outright rain. Having grown up in Colorado, I’d never skied in the rain. I didn’t know it was a thing. We finally gave up and as we were leaving, I saw skiers putting trash bags over their coats to stay dry. I admired their determination to ski through it, but trash bags?
Over the next few years, as I fell in love with Oregon and eventually settled in Hood River, I began to embrace Northwest skiing. My fondness for our “backyard” ski area grew and, over time, there was more and more to like. Meadows added high-speed quads, opened access higher on the mountain and increased terrain in and around Heather Canyon, one of my favorite places. I discovered Gore-Tex and came to love storm skiing — not the rain, but those days when the driving wind and snow punish the mountain as it can only in the Cascades, rewarding intrepid skiers with endless fresh tracks.
When our kids came along, we discovered a different Mt. Hood Meadows, centered around the Ballroom Carpet and then Buttercup, where both of my kids took their first chairlift ride (that’s my son and me, above, riding Buttercup). In fact, my kids have had most of their skiing “firsts” at Meadows — yes, even skiing in the rain. With Mt. Hood Meadows marking its 50th anniversary this winter, we decided to take a look at the history of Gorge area skiing, including the genesis and evolution of what many Gorge skiers think of as the local’s ski area (page 48).
A season has passed since that awful afternoon in early September when smoke billowed from the central Gorge, marking the grim start of the Eagle Creek Fire. It seems like yesterday, and I still find it hard to tear my eyes from the burned landscape when I drive I-84 to Portland and back. Writer Christopher Van Tilburg revisits those awful weeks during the fire, and looks ahead at what we can expect in the months and years to come. Photographer Jurgen Hess’s dramatic photos help tell the story (page 36).
In this issue, we also celebrate the re-opening of the Granada Theatre in The Dalles (page 52); we visit Tad’s Chicken ‘N Dumplins — which has been serving its signature dish for nearly 70 years from its location at the gateway to the Gorge in Troutdale (page 14); and we meet Neil Brent and Sarah Resnick, who’ve turned their love for biology and fermentation into the Columbia Mushroom Company (page 26). We hope you enjoy this issue, and may you have a fun and safe winter.
—Janet Cook, Editor
