GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. — Timberline Lodge has been slowly ramping up operations for the season with limited open hours over the past week, and the lodge announced Saturday that it will begin operating daily amid "tons of snow in the forecast."
Timberline first invited guests for a "Winter Sneak Peak" last weekend, according to its Instagram page, and followed it up with another round this weekend before announcing partway through the weekend that it would switch to daily operations from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting.
"This is wild," snowboarder Kat Grandel said while hitting the slopes at Timberline on Monday. "Yes, November 11th, this is insane."
Siblings James and Monica Kim from Salem said their last ski season was cut short by a lack of snow, and they only got to board a handful of times with a season pass, making this year's early start a welcome turnaround.
"That shows you how the season was," James said. "So we are grateful for the amazing snow early in the season. Oh man, it’s just beautiful."
A Timberline spokesperson said this year's opening is the earliest for the resort since 1972.
"Honestly, we didn’t even get out here until early January last year," said Ryan Rege from Portland. "So the fact that we have an extra 6-plus weeks in our season passes is going to almost double the runs. We get up here."
Only the Pucci and Molly's lifts have opened so far, with most of the others still listed as "waiting for snow" on Timberline's website, and another Instagram post earlier in the week warned that the slopes are still in early season conditions and beginner terrain isn't open yet.
A strong weather system began making its way into northwest Oregon Sunday evening, with heavy rain expected overnight and into the morning in the Portland area and another strong system set to bring more rain midweek, according to KGW meteorologist Joe Raineri.
Up at Timberline, that's going to mean repeated heavy snowfall during the week, with the potential for up to 6 inches of snow at Government Camp over the first couple days and up to 3 feet of snow at Mount Hood Meadows over the next week, according to Raineri.
The National Weather Service has also issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the southern Cascades at elevations over 5,000 feet from 4 a.m. Monday through 10 a.m. Tuesday, warning of snow accumulation of 8 to 16 inches and wind gusts of up to 50 mph which could make travel very difficult.
A previous weather system arrived in the final days of October and had already built up around 13 inches of snow at Timberline Lodge by Halloween. Oregon Department of Transportation officials began warning drivers heading to Mount Hood or the Cascade passes to expect temporary closures and winter conditions.