NW Col. PfiefferhornTen years ago, a man told me tales of getting off the chair lift at Alta and being up to your neck in powder snow. My mind tried to make sense of this....neck deep snow? How could that be possible I asked myself? My mind began to wander, but I could not imagine this "powder snow." It was akin to the human mind trying to conceptualise quantum mechanics.
Rippin' turns with SLC looming below
Mt. Superior across the canyon from Alta Ski AreaWhen the storm cleared, I couldn't believe my eyes. Skiable mountains everywhere, covered in snow. The lone sets of ski tracks carved in fresh powder snow, scattered on the mountain faces across the canyon were inspiring pieces of art work. "Dude, its like Tuckerman's Ravine all ovah the place guy," I thought to myself. Ski track set down the fall line, not crossing another track, sheer beauty!
Louie's Rock
A bunch of other boyz up at Alf's Restaurant thought the same thing. We left confines of the resort and went in search of adventure and freedom. This became the regular and now nine years later I find myself skiing with many of those same boyz, The Skier Boyz.
~Richard Pumpington
I am trying to ski off the summit of all the skiable Cascade Volcanoes(getting close!!!), but I spend most of my time here at Mountain Hood 11,249. As a guide in the PNW most of my employment is guiding people to the summit and back on Hood. Its "mechanicalized mountaineering," meaning we either take the chair lift up or use a snow cat to access the Wilderness Area and the summit of the great one. Below is Moon Beam, basking in glory in lot at Timberline Ski Resort, with the South Face and Wyeast face of Mountain Hood looming 5000 vertical feet above. 
When I'm lucky people hire me to go ski corn from the summit! This lucky fellah skied the Wyeast, West Crater Rim variation to the south side, and the Sunshine route in 2 days on Mountain Hood. If you look closely you can see the ski lift and cut trails. This picture was taken from the top of the Old Chute on the South facing side of Hood.
After taking the chair lift up to the top of the ski area at 9,500 ft, we hiked the last 2,700 vertical feet to the summit of Mountain Hood. From the summit you can drop north to the Sunshine route, which is a 4000 ft descent As you can see here Doug is enjoying the perfect corn on the snowdome portion of the Sunshine rt. 
On this day of Independence(July 4th), Doug and I skied some grade A corn down the 45ish degree upper section of the Sunshine route, between crevasses and above the bergschrund pictured below. I solo skied the route the week before and the shrund was about a 10 foot vertical drop and a 5 foot gap. A week later when we skied it, the shrund opened up and there was about a 20 foot drop. I set up a T slot, put in a picket, and lowered Doug over shrund. After Doug made it to safety, I thought to myself, what would Shreddy do? Thus, I yelled down to Doug to pull the rope. I cleaned the anchor, pointed my skis, and went airborn over the gaping hole. You can see my corn bomb-hole almost diretly above and to the right of Doug's ski pole.
