McNeil Pt 11/21/15

[kepPNW]

Stunning photography!!!

We were sixteen miles away, watching the vaporfalls from the other side. What an incredible damn day!!!

Were you in the Gorge? I assumed this cold fog bank filled the Gorge, but your pictures and the Tanner Butte trip report from the same day suggest that it was clear. I'm going to have to look more closely at the geography and figure out where that pool of cold air was sitting. Is it sandwiched between Mt. Hood and the ridges along the Gorge?

Yep! I was with the Tanners on Tanner. One plan I'd talked about with some of the folks along, was to do a Greenpoint Mountain loop. That would've been miserable! The vaporfalls we witnessed stated just south of, or (at times) directly on, Nick Eaton Ridge, and then followed a southwesterly arc from there - I believe over Greenpoint, Indian Mtn, and so on - while farther east Defiance was definitely in the clouds. Larch was in the clear as well, and photos I've seen from there were stunning, as well. Will try to get a less-reduced pano up at some point today, but for now this one's already on the web...

• 
  Snow-covered slopes on left are (pretty sure?) Nick Eaton Ridge. Taken on Tanner Butte.

[miah66]

Amazing! You're so lucky! What is with this "inversion" thing? 60 degrees in dead of November? It's almost a regular occurrence nowadays.

[Bosterson]

Were you in the Gorge? I assumed this cold fog bank filled the Gorge, but your pictures and the Tanner Butte trip report from the same day suggest that it was clear. I'm going to have to look more closely at the geography and figure out where that pool of cold air was sitting. Is it sandwiched between Mt. Hood and the ridges along the Gorge?

Karl was on Tanner Butte. I was on Larch Mountain that day. The fog was sitting between Hood and the south end of the Gorge, stopping around the Bull Run on the east end and farther south as one looked west. It was bright and sunny up on Larch, practically no snow up there.

[biketowork]

Fantastic photos! We have never done McNeil Point in November...we may have to change this. Thanks for the report.

[UTurn]

Spectacular!!

[Waffle Stomper]

Incredible. Thank you for posting.

[Splintercat]

Wonderful photos & report! Great example of the inversion effect at Lolo Pass, too! It's surprisingly common up there during cold, clear weather, but the fog bank last weekend was definitely one of the more impressive displays in awhile! I've had a couple of rude surprises up there when the freezing fog has coated the road enough to turn it into a skating rink... yikes! But I LOVE hiking through the frosted forest -- great photos!

Tom

[Water]

out of the woodwork to say that is by far one of the most phenomenal trip reports ever for the effects of the fog and the inversion. super enjoyed, the pictures of the sunlight shafts piercing into the crystalline coated forest are contest/publishing/frame worthy..

absolutely fascinating, the localized inversion and how that pool of cold air seemed to retain it's stores and moisture.. it's really fascinating to think in this small area there was such extreme micro-climate weather. Cliff Mass should use your and Karl's pictures to do a blog post.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Thank you for this wonderful TR and beautiful photos. It inspired me to head up to the same trailhead the day after Thanksgiving. I had similar conditions, minus the fog/clouds lower down the ridge. Great day. I've been up there twice in summer, but Hood looks so much different and in my opinion so much prettier when all the rocks are coated in snow and ice. I didn't even have my camera with me but luckily I can refer to this TR to remind me what it looked like.

I had a really cool experience on the way back down the trail. A raven flew by. I did a really bad impersonation of its calls, but surprisingly it altered its course and started zeroing in on me. It landed in a tree top about 50 feet away, but within a few seconds took flight again DIRECTLY towards me. Landed on a rock just downhill about 10-15 feet away. And then it stayed there for around 10 minutes. I continued to respond to its calls. We had quite a conversation. I've never had that happen before, I didn't even know it was possible to call in a raven. Was quite the capper to an already memorable day.

[woodswalker]

Really beautiful frost and snow shots. Love that moon above the ridge.
Woodswalker