Portland/Timberline Lodge/Mt. Hood

This past week, I took a quick trip up to Portland. The main reason was to visit real winter, but more specifically I was hoping to climb Mt. Hood, Oregon's highest peak. While I didn't make it to the summit, I'm not particularly disappointed, as I had a pretty good time making it as far up as I did. In short, I gained 2500 vertical feet in the first two hours, up a groomed trail, and only 1000 feet in the next two hours, slogging through knee-deep snow.

Skiing in Taos

Much like I did last year, this week I took some vacation days (Monday already being a holiday) and drove to Taos, NM to go skiing. Because I waited until the last minute to book anything, I couldn't get a reasonably priced room in the ski village like last year, and I stayed in town. I took a city bus that runs between town and the mountain for 50 cents each way the three days I went skiing. The bus was easy and convenient (it stopped at my motel), but because the last bus back to town leaves at 4:30, I missed a talk by a world-class mountaineer Tuesday that started at 5 in the ski lodge. I took a group lesson on Wednesday morning that actually turned out to be pretty useful.