Day 35
Location: Highway 58, Oregon
Resorts: 17 out of 50

Willamette Pass Resort in southwest Oregon was our first stop in the Beaver State (that’s what she said). The sky was doing its snow/rain thing which stopped that morning leaving us with a greybird day. The good news was that Willamette closes during the week which means that Thursday has a high chance of fresh snow on the hill.

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There’s front row RV parking with hookups. Now, that last part may not make much sense to you hotel loving softies, but in the Love Boat that means that we can use all the futuristic devices like the microwave and the television.

We headed straight to Peak 2 on the backside of the hill. There’s a hand full of black diamonds back here mixed in with a few intermediates. Check out the gladed areas in between runs for the best snow. Adrenaline junkies can find cliff shots right under the lift and a few challenging lines by Down Under.

For a small mountain, there are a few surprisingly steep runs. Most of these are grouped off Eagle Peak in the front. RTS was our favorite over here with a pitch that made you feel like falling into the meadow below.

A couple tips for the area. Willamette Pass is about an hour southeast of trippy Eugene. If there’s any weather at all, it’s worth slapping down the money for a roundtrip bus ride up to the mountain. It’s going to run you $15 dollars for a roundtrip. For saving money, your best bet is to take a half-day on Friday, grab a friend, and take advantage of the Shell 2 for 1 offer that starts at 12:30pm. The ski area is closed Monday thru Wednesday.

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Apres-Ski Report:

We spent an evening checking out funky Eugene. Plenty of ample RV parking meant we based ourselves out of the Cosmic Pizza building. This roomy joint has an Internet cafe, free wi-fi, and coffee shop. Dinner found us at super local joint, Cornupcopia, which had bottomless spaghetti and meataballs/cheese ravoli along for only $8.50 and soup and garlic bread. Suck on that Olive Garden.

The Cheat Sheet:

Willamette Pass Resort
Highway 58, Oregon

Cosmic Pizza
199 West 8th Avenue
Eugene, OR

Cornucopia
295 West 17th Avenue

Eugene, OR

Willamette Pass