Weather is always a tricky thing. You can go insane just staring at a mountain waiting for the weather to clear enough for a summit My friend Luke and I were planning on summiting Mt. Hood and sometimes the weather just doesn’t play out, so instead of endless thumb-twiddling, we decided to tackle the lower mountain to just put some miles under our feet.
We left early afternoon with the goal of just heading up into the headwaters on the White River, which is sourced from Mt. Hood meltwater. There was a thick cloud cover as we set out, but we didn’t mind at all. As they say, theres no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear - and we were set testing out some new Mountain Hardwear gear. We trudged through then snow, following the riverbank up, snow coming up to our calves.
The sights were plentiful, we could even see the top of the mountain. It was like a winter wonderland with everything covered in snow. We headed up until about an hour before sunset, and came back down. Nothing like a little walk in the woods while you’re waiting for weather to clear.
I was impressed by the Mountain Hardwear gear. Even though we weren’t able to push its limits on the summit, just taking it for a walkabout on a wet day gave some insight into the apparel. It is all very well made, and created a good barrier from the elements - in this case, rain and wind. You can shop their holiday gift guide HERE.
This post is sponsored by Mountain Hardwear.