Mt. Hood Heather Canyon Opening

Heather Canyon Opened - Gated Access to Double Black Diamond Terrain

Heather Canyon, Clark Canyon, Private Reserve, S&R Cliffs - our most advanced and challenging terrain!

When the gates are open, you're in for one of the most exhilarating, pulse-pounding thrills a Northwest mountain has to offer. This terrain is phenomenal and serves up experiences you'll remember and brag about for a lifetime.

Access to Heather Canyon, Clark Canyon, Private Reserve, and S&R Cliffs is through control access gates. It's a spectacular experience for expert skiers and snowboarders only. You should always ride with a partner in gated access areas, and carrying a beacon, probe, and shovel are highly recommended.

These areas are not patrolled on a regular basis and avalanche danger exists at all times. You may be entering tightly wooded and cliffed terrain. Beware of waterfalls, creek holes, and other unmarked obstacles.

When Heather Canyon opens at Mt. Hood Meadows. The franchise expert terrain sports some of the most advanced and expert terrain in the northwest. Thanks to more than five feet of fluffy powder and a considerable amount of human effort to build the snow bridges over Clark Creek, the resort opened lower Heather today.

Heather is a magnet attracting expert skiers and snowboarders looking for pure steep with room to carve as they like. Part of the appeal of Heather is its sheer size, it�s almost like an entire ski area by itself. Heather signals to skiers and snowboarders across the country that Mt. Hood Meadows is OPEN � meaning snow coverage is deep and 100% of the mountain is rideable, once the Cascade Express is opened.

The main factor for opening the canyon is getting enough snow to build snow bridges over the Canyon runout. Meadows used its innovative snow harvesting program to haul snow from its lower parking lot into the canyon runout to start building the bridges before this last storm. The five feet received this last can also be credited for one of the earliest openings of the Canyon on record. Ski Patrol staff has conducted extensive avalanche control work before opening the lower canyon. The upper canyon is under evaluation but also requires Cascade Express to access the top.  

(It takes a lot of snow, followed by enough clear weather to do avalanche control, to open Heather.)