Snowshoeing to Palmer Glacier

SNOW!! Tonight I am a very happy girl because I spent today snowshoeing on Mount Hood. A few weeks ago, REI was having a killer sale on snowshoes so of course I had to pick up two pairs. We knew moving to Portland would mean having access to snow all winter long because of our close proximity to the mountains, espeically Mount Hood and today, Rachel and I drove out to Mount Hood to put our snowshoes to the test. The day was absolutely stunning, yet cold, with temps hovering in the twenties and a blue sky (for awhile at least). As I was driving up to Government Camp I was giddy with excitement as the trees became covered with snow. As we began our climb from Timberline Lodge up the Mountaineering Trail # 798 towards Palmer Glacier, we left the clouds behind us and the view was better than heaven. We made it up to the base of Palmer Glacier before I made the call to turn around. Other than the fact that my legs were screaming from the steep climb, dark clouds began rolling in from all directions; sure enough, right as we hit the parking lot it started to snow. Overall it was a great first day snowshoeing but damn, was it hard! The climb up to Palmer Glacier would be hard with no snow, but add snow to the equation and everything gets 10x harder. We had originally planned to hike all the way up to Crater Rock, but quickly realized in snowshoes there was just no way we would make it. But, like I said, I can’t complain because it was an absolutely gorgeous view!!