your own personal lathe of heaven on Mt Hood

[Chip Down]

Title and topic inspired by the U.K. Leguin novel Lathe of Heaven, in which...redacted, no spoilers here, read it yourself. Anyway, let's just say certain changes take place.

I dream of decades of record setting snow, partying like its Mt Baker 1999, a thousand inches and then some. They called it "the Noah snowfall", forty years of snow, layer upon layer. Glaciers surged. Highway 35 wiped out again, as it had been many times, but then it was the slow relentless march of White River Glacier that took out the latest bigger-better bridge. But it was curiously warm, so the ski resorts were decimated, forced into shorter lower seasons, as the glaciers claimed their upper reaches and the rain compromised their lower runs. Summer crossings of the glacial creeks are impossible. Many have been swallowed by ice, the rest are raging torrents. But the wedges between the glaciers still offer flowery meadows and views of the icy valleys.

Tell us about the Mt Hood you dream of.

[walrus]

I was with you until the streams became impassable. Goats?

[Limey]

Great topic. I'm not as descriptive as you but here goes.
For my Mt Hood we have to return to the early 1800's. No ski resorts or networks of roads. Have to travel by horseback or shank's pony and I can go anywhere I damn well please. I'll enjoy the experience of true wilderness exploration and best of all, when I find that perfect spot, I'll file my homestead claim and build my long wished for little cabin in the woods. Just me, mother nature and the critters all peacefully co-existing because they know I'm no threat.
Oh, hubby will have to be there too because I'm too old to do all that work by myself.

I really think I was born about 150 years too late. OH well, a girl can dream can't she.


Marilyn

[mjirving]

A gondola to the top so I can ski from the summit to government camp without having to climb it.

I’m mostly kidding, but that would be pretty cool.

Mike

[Water]

with the fumeroles at crater rock i've often contemplated some steam-powered tow-rope contraption to the top...

[romann]

Put Mt Rainier here and Mt. Hood in Rainier National Park? I like Mt Hood, but Rainier is just epic, would camp there all the time if not National Park status with tons of "red tape".

And yes, let glaciers grow, and avalanches clear some new alpine meadows.

[Chip Down]

Interesting that some dream of more development, while others want a return to the wild.

Best one-word answer: Goats. But there are so many on other mountains, I don't know that we really need them on hood. Would be cool though.

I do like the idea of switching Hood and Rainier. I'd spend more time on Rainier if it was an hour away and not a park. (I used to go rogue on Rainier, sneaking in at night and camping up high where rangers didn't go, but I hear it's getting hard to do that.)

[Charley]

My dream:
Fall: snowfall and accumulation starts exactly whenever the rain starts, so that I can go directly from warm, dry mountain biking into skiing.
Winter: every three or four days there will be a cold storm (enough inches to be great for skiing, but not enough for increased avy danger); as soon as that fresh snow gets all chewed up by snowshoers, there'll be another storm to lay great tracks on. The non-storm days are all bluebird skies. At least once or twice a year there's enough snow in the Valley for my work to be cancelled and for me to ski the Wildwood Trail instead.
Spring: the skiing is great at every elevation until suddenly all the snow melts overnight and it is high country hiking and mountain biking season!
Summer: rain once a week, so that I don't have to water my fruit trees all summer, and so all the trees on the mountain don't burn to a crisp.

(It's the transition times that are less fun, though fall backpacking in good weather is the best, and spring mountaineering season requires snow, etc. Also, much as in Lathe of Heaven, my dreams would probably completely screw up the existing ecology of the mountain. It's probably best not to mess with it.)