Mt. Hood gets big dumping of snow as spring break arrives

GOVERNMENT CAMP Ore. (KPTV) – Friday was a First Alert Weather Day for the Cascades and the snow came just as students were getting out for spring break.

The snow early this morning has made for powdery conditions at Government Camp’s Summit Pass. The conditions have been great for experienced riders, and a little harder for the kids just learning.

“I got an early start on spring break. I drive a school bus and my schools have no school today,” says skier Rick Krane.

“She doesn’t have school on Fridays, so we came to test it out,” says snowboarder Alexis Buturoaga. And even though it’s officially spring break, Portland’s still not seeing sunny spring weather, so Rick Krane decided to get some runs in at Timberline Summit Pass. “It changed my other plans because spring is now winter again,” says Krane.

Just a few miles from Government Camp, roads were relatively easy to navigate with studded tires but it wasn’t a smooth drive up for everyone. The farther you drive up the mountain, the dicier the road conditions are.

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“It was worse than I thought it would be. I got studded tires, and I was spinning out. Thought I wasn’t going to make it a couple of times, so, even with the traction tires it’s bad,” Krane says. While the fresh snow is an experienced rider’s dream, it posed a challenge for novice snowboarder Noel Buturoaga.

“It was hard because it was a lot of snow,” says Noel Buturoaga.

“We wanted some fresh powder, and we got it alright,” says Alexis Buturoaga.

But she got some good practice in with help from her hand-me-down snowboard.

“It was my aunt’s,” says Noel. “It was too small for her, so she gave it to me!”

If you’ve already taken your studded tires off for the season and have plans to ski or snowboard for spring break, be sure to have chains and a shovel handy.

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