I swear I've seen this same picture but with different seasons/colors/time of day like 5 times on here now. Can't be bothered to find the others though.
So, I see a picture of Mt. Hood up here like every week and have mixed feelings about it. I'd like to explain why. Hope you'll read it.
This mountain is a childhood spot of joy for me. Grandparents have a cabin house at government camp at about 5,000 ft elevation. Learned to ski at Timberline and have so many awesome memories of that and how awesome it was to come back to the cabin surrounded by over 10 feet of snow sometimes more after a day of skiing adventures. One winter the snow was piled up to the height of the power lines lining the roads after the snow plow came through. Cousins and I would collaborate with the neighborhood kids to build snow forts, sled runs and a maze of tunnels through the mass of white surrounding the house. It's was just heaven for a child. The mountain was able to get that much snow because of its temperate rainforest location making it very ideal for precipitation.
Those memories have, in recent years, become more and more valuable. The mountain will still get snow, but the snowpack won't be anywhere NEAR what it used to be. In the last several years, there's been at least a few times where I've gone during what used to be peak season, only to find barely any snow at all. To be at the cabin and have it be surrounded by nothing but disheveled forest, to not see a resemblance of that blanket of white is simply heartbreaking. Even at Timberline (altitude 8,000 ft.), the lower altitude runs that I learned to ski on were continuously shut down cause the snow conditions were too poor. Like skiing in slush. There was a secret trail that my Dad showed me you could take to ski all the way from the slopes at Timberline down to the cabin. Rarely ever get to use it anymore.
Sure I'm not a kid anymore and my days of snowforts and sled runs are behind me, but I always imagined I'd be able to let any future kid of mine enjoy the same heaven that I did. When I was younger, I remember my parents and all the adults talking about how Mt. Hood government camp was going to become much more popular commercially and would start building its way up to the quality of places in Colorado. As you can guess, the ROI for real estate investors there hasn't been as hot as they thought (hah...). I realize now that all those dreams I thought I had to look forward too will probably remain as fiction. If I ever take my kids there I'll get to tell them the tall tale of the time we built a sled run starting from the power line 25 ft above his head. They probabaly won't believe me.
So, when I see these pictures, on one hand I'm glad my childhood happy place gets the attention it deserves. It truly is a beautiful mountain. But I also feel like these pictures delude people into thinking every winter there looks like this nowadays. I really hate to be the guy that casts a shadow over the beauty of these pictures, but I'd much rather people look at this and think, "this is what we are losing... fuck." When it comes to building support and shutting up morons, pictures like these can sometimes be far more valuable then all the data in the world supporting the fact that man-made climate change has some very real effects. But in case anyone here needed the latter. Here:
For those wondering, I'm only 22 years old. My childhood wasn't too long ago.
TLDR: My childhood place of nostalgia is on this mountain and its slowly melting away. I'd like at least one picture to have some context. Effects of climate change are noticeable and depressing, which makes the content of this photo even more valuable then most people realize.
![image showing Mt Hood, Oregon [OC] [1280 x 879]](9d172435-9f4f-5e11-a4c9-b43093feac15_ygOvbVi.jpg)
hankikanto on April 27th, 2017 at 02:42 UTC »
I swear I've seen this same picture but with different seasons/colors/time of day like 5 times on here now. Can't be bothered to find the others though.
mcarlini on April 27th, 2017 at 06:11 UTC »
STOP PROMOTING OUR STATE TO THE GODDAMN WORLD THEYRE MOVING HERE IN DROVES AND DRIVING RENT THROUGH THE ROOF
whadup5 on April 27th, 2017 at 06:50 UTC »
So, I see a picture of Mt. Hood up here like every week and have mixed feelings about it. I'd like to explain why. Hope you'll read it.
This mountain is a childhood spot of joy for me. Grandparents have a cabin house at government camp at about 5,000 ft elevation. Learned to ski at Timberline and have so many awesome memories of that and how awesome it was to come back to the cabin surrounded by over 10 feet of snow sometimes more after a day of skiing adventures. One winter the snow was piled up to the height of the power lines lining the roads after the snow plow came through. Cousins and I would collaborate with the neighborhood kids to build snow forts, sled runs and a maze of tunnels through the mass of white surrounding the house. It's was just heaven for a child. The mountain was able to get that much snow because of its temperate rainforest location making it very ideal for precipitation.
Those memories have, in recent years, become more and more valuable. The mountain will still get snow, but the snowpack won't be anywhere NEAR what it used to be. In the last several years, there's been at least a few times where I've gone during what used to be peak season, only to find barely any snow at all. To be at the cabin and have it be surrounded by nothing but disheveled forest, to not see a resemblance of that blanket of white is simply heartbreaking. Even at Timberline (altitude 8,000 ft.), the lower altitude runs that I learned to ski on were continuously shut down cause the snow conditions were too poor. Like skiing in slush. There was a secret trail that my Dad showed me you could take to ski all the way from the slopes at Timberline down to the cabin. Rarely ever get to use it anymore.
Sure I'm not a kid anymore and my days of snowforts and sled runs are behind me, but I always imagined I'd be able to let any future kid of mine enjoy the same heaven that I did. When I was younger, I remember my parents and all the adults talking about how Mt. Hood government camp was going to become much more popular commercially and would start building its way up to the quality of places in Colorado. As you can guess, the ROI for real estate investors there hasn't been as hot as they thought (hah...). I realize now that all those dreams I thought I had to look forward too will probably remain as fiction. If I ever take my kids there I'll get to tell them the tall tale of the time we built a sled run starting from the power line 25 ft above his head. They probabaly won't believe me.
So, when I see these pictures, on one hand I'm glad my childhood happy place gets the attention it deserves. It truly is a beautiful mountain. But I also feel like these pictures delude people into thinking every winter there looks like this nowadays. I really hate to be the guy that casts a shadow over the beauty of these pictures, but I'd much rather people look at this and think, "this is what we are losing... fuck." When it comes to building support and shutting up morons, pictures like these can sometimes be far more valuable then all the data in the world supporting the fact that man-made climate change has some very real effects. But in case anyone here needed the latter. Here:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/pnw-snowpack/
For those wondering, I'm only 22 years old. My childhood wasn't too long ago.
TLDR: My childhood place of nostalgia is on this mountain and its slowly melting away. I'd like at least one picture to have some context. Effects of climate change are noticeable and depressing, which makes the content of this photo even more valuable then most people realize.