This is the third (and fourth) stop on our road trip through the Powder Alliance

Check out our intro to the trip here: http://www.newschoolers.com/membernewsread/4-Dudes-Subaru

Article from our first stop: http://www.newschoolers.com/news/read/NSxPowder-Alliance-Stevens-Pass

Article from our home resort: http://www.newschoolers.com/news/read/NSxPowder-Alliance-Schweitzer

For the condensed, ratings based portion of this review, skip to the bottom. If you like reading things, continue onwards.

If you’re like most freestyle skiers you have at least dreamed about, or maybe even visited Timberline in the summer. If you haven’t, it’s definitely worth a visit. Where else can you shred perfect parks in July? We’ve been out to Hood in the summer before but this was our first time here in the winter. We were not disappointed.

First though, Timberline by the numbers:

Elevation:

Peak: 8539 ft

Base: 6000 ft

Total drop: 2540 ft

Terrain:

1415 acres

5 parks

Lifts:

5 High Speed Quads

1 Triple Chair

1 Double Chair

We showed up Timberline with no idea what to expect. I’ve seen park edits from the spring parks here that look absolutely dialed but the park has been moving around recently as conditions change around the mountain so we didn't expect too much. We were pleasantly surprised.

When we arrived the mountain was crawling with racers, flocking like ants to an empty wine bottle. Unperturbed we headed down to the park. Although much of the mountain was rather wet and sticky the park was freshly groomed and ready to rip. At lunch Josh and the rest of the local NS crew met up with us to crank some hot laps. We fed off their stoke and had an awesome afternoon playing on Timberline’s creative hits and jibs. Thanks for the stoke boys! The park crew was hard at work keeping everything groomed and fun all day long.

Day two opened with what some marketing departments might call “marginally sub-optimal conditions.” Translated that means freezing rain and sleet. What do you do when life gives you lemons? Make the photo guy learn how to do backflips of course! We headed out behind the pool and threw together a sketchy booter. Five tries and one massive faceplant later I finally stomped my first backflip. I can now honestly rate Timberline five stars out of five for backflip-ability.

Photo guy hucking

Later in the day the sun came out and we built a jump up in the Magic Mile gully. After some hasty shoveling I hurried the guys into hitting it as the sun set behind the mountains. This decision would come back to haunt me, as we started shooting before smoothing out the run in. After a few banger shots Ian came close to stomping his first double and I decided it was time for me to hit our creation.

It looked a lot bigger from the drop in but un-phased I pushed off. As my skis skittered into the icy compression before the lip my life flashed before my eyes and I remembered why I try to stay behind the camera. I hauled, backseat into the jump, trying desperately to stand up and regain control. Mere feet before the lip I gave up, electing to bail off the ramp instead of flying to certain death. I exploded in a flurry of skis and poles, slamming my baseball hat clad head into the packed out run in. I’ve learned my lesson and now I’m content to leave the skiing to the pros.

Why I stay behind the camera

In the evening we headed over to Mount Hood Ski Bowl. Renowned for its night skiing, Ski Bowl also contains some fun looking terrain. Unfortunately they had been rained on for the last few days, so we were left lusting after closed cliffs and bowls. We were consoled with beautiful views of Mount Hood as we skied soggy groomers.

Ski Bowl has a nice view of Hood

Good terrain, not good snow

Some day we will return to Timberline and Mount Hood Ski Bowl with better conditions, until then Timberline's parks and Ski Bowl's lights have a little something for everyone.

Another confusing backflip from Ian

Super Scientific Ratings

Creative features: I’ve never seen a hit like the cube tranny feature here, nine found trannys out of ten

Lodge Historicity: This lodge is about as historic and beautiful as you can get, Ten informative plaques out of ten

Scenic views: Some people might discount this as a meaningless statistic, those people are stupid. Skiing on Mount Hood is incredible, I’ve never skied anywhere this beautiful: Ten glowing peaks out of ten

Stoked NS kids: It was awesome shredding with the local crew, thanks for the stoke boys! Five whooping NS’ers out of five

Local grocery stores: Govy is expensive, one overpriced sausage out of five

Overall stoke meter: Hyper stoked! Timberline might not be the steepest or gnarliest resort but it’s parks are dialed and skiing on the volcano is awesome!

We're in Tahoe now, getting set to shred Sierra at Tahoe in the morning. Stay tuned for more of of our highlights from the road along with a recap from Sierra at Tahoe!