Mt. Hood: Meadows or Timberline? (Portland: buying, price, tickets)

[J24]

I just moved to Portland last December. As I was crazy busy with my new job and getting settled in, I didn't have a chance to go up to Mt. Hood. I'm a big snowboarder, so I'm wondering which of the two main resorts would be better to invest in a season pass with.

I'm sure this will be a pretty simple question to any snowboarders out there, as one of them has to be superior. But I could be wrong. What are your thoughts? Looks like the deadline for buying a cheaper season pass is fast approaching, so I'd like to make that purchase this weekend.

[AndyAMG]

Meadows, hands down, not even a constest

[EnricoV]

Yeah, Meadows is where everyone I know seems to go.

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Meadows is better for the season pass.

Timberline is better for the lodge and for the late season/summer skiing.

[Deezus]

The cool thing about Timberline is that the pass allows you to go to both Timberline and Mt. Hood Ski Bowl. And this year the pass allows you to go for three free days each to a bunch of other ski areas across the Western US(though this only matters if you're travelling to those areas). Both passes are the same price if you buy before November 3rd.

In terms of terrain Meadows in superior though, overall. Timberline is pretty flat and more a begginner/intermediete hill except for a few tree runs and the Palmer lift up top(which is more a summer thing, since they don't open it that often in the winter and when they do it's a free snowcat rather than lift). They do have very good parks at Timberline though if you're a snowboarder into tricks and that sort of thing. Mt. Hood Ski Bowl has awesome experts terrain and bowls up top(steeper than Meadows even) and great night skiing, but it's really small and the low elevation means that it sometimes gets rain while it's snowing higher up earlier and later in the season. But, I have fun at Ski Bowl usually.

Meadows on the other hand has more of a Colorado/Tahoe vibe as far as being a medium-sized ski area. There's some things I dislike about it though--it's very, very crowded on weekends, even more than the other two and they sometimes don't open the good terrain in Heather Canyon and Clark Canyon due to heavy snowfall and avalanche danger. They have some good terrain parks though maybe not as good as Timberline, but overall the natural terrain is much better than Timberline.

If you just want a consistently good and fairly interesting sizable ski area to explore in terms of terrain, go for Meadows. If you're the kind of person who likes low key and funky ski areas and wants a really long extended season go for Timberline/Ski Bowl. I usually buy a Meadows spring pass(which will start March 1st usually) for a really cheap price if snowfall looks good at that point for March/April--and then just buy day tickets earlier in the year on powder days.

[PDXJ]

What Deezus said - he pretty much nailed it with the advice on this question. I'd second that while Meadows has the overall best combination of terrain and snow quality, when the snow is good, the very best terrain is often closed due to avy danger and the crowd factor is high if its a weekend day with good snow.