Mount Hood - Wy' East Face

Another classic line off one of the classic North American volcanoes. The Wy‘East Face is a southeast-facing panel of extremely fun 45-degree skiing. It makes for a moderately easy steep skiing outing, especially in the springtime. If you were dismayed by the aggressively large crowds on the western side of the mountain then this will be a wonderfully, quieter, ski option. It’s a simple approach as well as you basically park your car and start skinning up some resort groomers. Go towards the only mountain in view.

You can park your car before the closed gate at the Mount Hood Meadows ski resort. Simply walk through the gate and towards the groomers on the western side of the resort. From here just start walking uphill, hugging the western ridgeline as it begins to weave its way up to Mount Hood. If for some reason you can see the conga line at Pearly Gates on the West Face, then you’ve gone too far west. Depending on conditions, you may need to start booting in a few different locations unless you don’t mind a little bit of rock skinning. But no matter what, once you get to the bottom of the Wy’East Face, you’ll need to put the skis on the backpack. From here begin the steep stair stepper to the top of the face.

Timing. It’s a southeast-facing line which automatically means it’ll be the first thing to heat up. Best to beat the heat and enjoy a beautiful sunrise.

When descending, our group took a line down a drainage a bit more skiers left to our uphill route. This allowed for about 5000’ of continuous skiing back to the parking lot. But be warned, don’t go too far left otherwise you’ll be too low and will need to do some uphill traversing. As always, consult Fatmap, Caltopo, or Gaia.