Looks like we’re about done with passing through the Mt. Hood area. It certainly has been quite the mixture of weather as we’ve experienced everything from sun, rain, wind, and fog. Our first two days started off great with sunshine and some great skiing.

Here I am just passing through the Timeberline parking lot en route to a lovely day of skiing. 

During our time here we skied with “bunch” pros. Here’s Mike Hornbeck ready to drop into the public park jump line.

The Flanagan family was on site with us for the week, making it happen on and off the slopes. Here are Seamus (age 12) and Paddy (age 10).

For the first part of our stay in the Hood area, we camped by the shores of Trillium Lake. Our neighbor, Jeff Java, was a professional musician and let us record a few tracks for our upcoming video release. 

Keri is so into mustaches…

Unfortunately, on the third day of our adventures in Hood, our stay at the shores of Trillium Lake were interrupted by severe rains. We awoke to a leaking tent and a messy campsite. After a two hour clean up, we found ourselves at home inside the Cozy Cabin Cafe in Welches, Oregon for a day off. It was the perfect place to be with free public wi-fi, delicious mac-n-cheese, and other wholesome comfort food.

We quickly bunked up with the Level 1 Productions crew where we spent much of our time at Da Hood House.

Level 1’s Kyle Decker goes through some shots with Phil Casabon, Mike Hornbeck, and Henrik Harlaut.

We also made a pleasant trip to Windell’s to do some skating in Bob, which is the indoor training facility at the camp. 

Henrik Harlaut skates the mini-ramp…

Mike Hornbeck drops ‘er down…

Kimmel and I get the shot of Level 1’s Freedle Coty. Notice the shotgun mic. I’m totally meant to be a grip… 

Bob is home to indoor trampolines, skate parks, and foam pits. All around it’s just a pretty darn good time. In case you’re wondering what that floating grey ball is around the middle of the frame, that’s Tom Wallisch. Yep, the actual Tom Wallisch. He can double flip, no big.

Tomorrow morning we take Kimmel to the Portland Airport so he can catch his flight to the LA Film Festival. There he will be doing some video work on the red carpet and dealing with “bunch” celebs. Keri and I head up to Bainbridge Island for the night en route to the Whistler area and some more skiing. Stay tuned to justpassingthru.tv for more info on the trip…

We arrived at Mt Hood around 8:00PM on Tuesday evening, just as the last tendrils of daylight were leaving the Oregon pine sky line. Finding Seamus Flanagan and his family who were lingering around Government Camp, the squad headed down to find a camp site at Trillium Lake. There were plenty of sites available, and we were able to snag a nice one just 10 yards from the water. This would be our home for the next three days.
Wednesday we finally got to embrace real snow under our feet at Timberline Ski Resort. In the lift line we found a gaggle of shred bots, many affiliated with Jiberish, Salomon and Level 1. Windells brings up a plethora of top notch talent to coach campers stacking the hillside with the whos-who of ski and snowboard industry talent.
We spent the next two days chasing the likes of, Matt Walker, Liam Downey, Tom Wallisch, Tanner Rainville, Phil Casabon, Henrik Harlaut, Adam Delorme, Nick Martini, Sammy Carlson, TJ Schiller, Mike Hornbeck, Anna Segal, Corey Vanular and Jiberish snowboarder Justin Norman, to name a few. The high speed quad accessed public park was a morning favorite featuring 5 jumps in a row. In the afternoon, the newly installed Windells rope tow cycled shredders through a small rail and jump garden that was fun for the whole family.

Yesterday, after a short break from shredding, we met the Level 1 crew in the Timberline parking lot at 4:45PM to head up to the biggest jump on the glacier for their traditional Mt Hood spring shoot. A long, bumpy ride in an archaic snowcat, brought us back to the Windells lane which was now being whipped by high winds. Sun was come and go. Adam Delorme, who can never sit still, took some speed checks with Mike Hornbeck, trying to feel out the feature and make something happen. Delorme finally got the speed dialed and got off the ground, straight airing with perfect speed. With Hornbeck in tow and one more test run, the wind continued in its ferocity. Nothing was getting done on that mound in those conditions, so everyone packed it in and headed down.

This morning we awoke to heavy rain at our campsite, and fumbled to get our soggy gear into our car and leave. With bad weather up top, we didn’t bother skiing. Perhaps a day trip to Portland… Stay tuned.

A brush fire we stopped to watch in the Columbia River Valley on Tuesday.

Trying to look excited about a car ride.

Mt Hood in the distance.

Keri pulling a sneaker roadside before we set up a choice road shot with Mt Hood in the background.

Corey zoning into the camp fire at Trillium Lake. Keri and Paddy Flanagan playing the logic game “Rush Hour” at the table.

Ticket pass off, use your voice and holler loud!

Liam Downey and Tanner Rainville riding the Magic Mile lift.

Tom Wallisch riding a snow cat that is at least twice as old has him up to the Level 1 jump.

The Level 1 launcher with ’space ship’ clouds on the sky line.

Delorme and Hornbeck fuxin wit it.

Casabon, Clarke, Harlaut and Wallisch swinging in the wind.