Early Season Backcountry Snowboarding on Mt. Hood

The beginning of the ski season is always a special time. Day dreaming of powder and watching weather patterns preoccupies your mind, and you feel angry when you hear anyone predict a low snowfall year.

This year was an easy transition, we rode on two different occasions in October after going ice climbing, one of which had great new powder. Then the snow actually came.

The Zig Zag glacier snowfield held great powder this day in early November. We made cruisin surfy turns down into the Little Zig Zag drainages. There it was surfs up! with a tasty left hand break that was just overhead. Here I am using my halfpipe skills in the Mt. Hood backcountry.

That same day we were reminded that the backcountry was a dangerous place. As I dropped into a heavy toeside turn on a southwest facing wind-loaded slope in Zig Zag canyon proper, the slabs
started breaking away. I'll let the video tell the rest.

On Thanksgiving and the day before, we shared our gratitude for winter conditions. Newton Canyon had some tricky river crossings, but the snow up high was unreal! Unfortunatly we did not get any action shots, on Wednesday it was far too good to stop, and that night sleeping in the snow froze all our electronics.

No one said that backcountry skiing was easy! Come join Next Adventure in our love of winter outdoor sports, we shell out a ton of stoke and local knowledge on a daily basis and also run free monthly clinics on topics such as snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and backcountry skiing and snowboarding. See you in the Mountains!