Winter can be tough for me with shorter days and colder temperatures, making it challenging to get out and get my typical dose of nature. However, over the past few years, I’ve fallen in love with skiing. Skiing has made the winters not only bearable, but enjoyable. Now rather than dreading the harsher days of winter, I embrace the snow and get excited about skiing new mountains!

I grew up “skiing” on the east coast in areas like Liberty Ski Resort, Roundtop, and Whitetail. My family, friends, and I would go maybe a handful of times per season. I considered myself a decent skier, but I really had no idea how much I could love the sport until moving to Colorado in 2021. My 3+ years there provided me with opportunities and adventures in the mountains I never thought were possible. For me, skiing has been both an emotional and physical outlet during the darker days of winter. It’s been a way for me to stay motivated, physically active, and get outside when I might not otherwise. Naturally after living in Colorado, being able to ski wherever I moved next was pretty important to me.

Luckily, Mt. Bachelor is just a 30 minute drive from Bend and has some pretty awesome terrain that has been a blast this season. Although Bachelor is a fun mountain, it can get really crowded and traffic getting there can be a pain. So one weekend, Ben and I wanted to try something new! We decided to put the camper on the truck and check out Hoodoo Ski Area.

Although you can pay to camp in the Hoodoo parking lot, we decided to find a free spot and camped at Scout Lake, a short 10 minute drive from Hoodoo. It rained all night, which has seemed to become a theme for our camping adventures, but we hoped that meant snow for the mountain! We woke up to partial blue skies, which we saw as a great sign for the day.

We made our short drive to Hoodoo, parked, and made some breakfast in the warmth of the camper before heading into the office to buy our passes. Full day passes at Hoodoo are affordable ($75) compared to larger resorts, which was part of our draw to check out this mountain.

As you can see, the blue skies we awoke to were simply a tease that day. And, while the mountain did get snow as we had hoped, it was very heavy, very wet, very tough snow to ski. Despite the difficulty in seeing and turning, it was a fun day! Hoodoo is definitely a family friendly area, more affordable than your typical resort (I mean we actually spent less than $20 per person on lunch), and seems like it has some fun terrain pockets if you can find them.

While it wasn’t the perfect blue bird day and our jackets were covered with rime within seconds of loading the lift, we got outside. Without skiing, why else would I be crazy enough to go outside in weather that looks and feels like that? I wouldn’t. And that’s why I’ve come to love skiing so much. It challenges me to do things I wouldn’t normally do, and enjoy weather I would normally despise.

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