The Gorge is my Gym

A powerful offshore low sets up off the coast today, setting up a light wind start today. As the low moves closer to the coast this afternoon, it sends a front our way. Timing is going to be everything with this setup. I’m thinking we’ll see 17-20 by midday at Stevenson and in the corridor. Winds build from there, but it’s going to be gusty and short-lived, most likely. Having said that, I think we’ll see a couple hours of 24-28 late this afternoon at all sorts of random spots (probably 90 minutes at the Hatch and longer at Stevenson), with a slight chance of 30+ and a slight chance of annoyingly strong gradients with no visible wind (check Avery and Celilo if that happens… the wind hides there).

The front blasts through the Gorge tonight, leaving us with wind remnants in the eastern Gorge tomorrow morning. Overall, Thursday is looking pretty uneventful, maybe 17-20 or so.

Starting Friday, several fall-like, wet cold fronts smash into the Norhtwest. This will shift winds into the eastern desert. At this point, it’s hard to tell how windy it will be, but I’m guessing westerlies will hold through the weekend.

But the weekend’s a long ways away. Tomorrow night, local photography phenom Richard Hallman has a slideshow of Gorge sports images at Dog River coffee at 8pm. His photos are fanatastic, and his slideshows are more like parties, so go check it out!

In other news, you skiers, riders and freeheelers, the snow level is forecast at 8,000 feet on Saturday, and that means it’s time to talk skiing. Meadows launched their new website yesterday, and season passes are officially on sale.

Have a great day today!

First off, Art and Judy left their Chinook carbon boom at Maryhill Sat. about 5:00 pm, if anyone has the boom please leave a message for Art at Northwave. Art and Judy are very nice people, so if you happened to pick up their boom, please get it back to them. I’ll throw in a batch of brownies as part of the reward.

Also, I still have an XS Gath helmet that someone left at Cheap Beach about 5 days ago. I would like to give it back to the owner. As you know, my car is very small… =)

On to the forecast…

West winds yesterday beat the models and the forecasts for a pretty nice day on the water. Weak high pressure off the coast today combines with weak low pressure in the desert to keep west winds flowing. We started off with gradients at .12 and west winds in the low twenties. I think we’ll see 22-25 early, picking up to 25-29 later. The morning looks good, but strongest winds will be late afternoon from Doug’s out to Maryhill.

Models and forecast discussions are in complete disagreement tomorrow, with models predicting wind and discussions calling for less onshore flow. With low pressure hitting the coast in the afternoon, low clouds should fill back in to Portland late tomorrow. So, I think we’ll see a light start tomorrow, picking up into the gusty mid-twenties late in the day from Stevenson out to Maryhill.

As an offshore low moves through the Northwest on Thursday, winds keep blowing through the Gorge.

In other news, ait’s time to start thinking about the last swap meet of the year, or at least the last before the Ski and Gear swap on Halloween. So, start clearing out your garage for CGWA’s swap meet, coming up this Sunday at the expo center parking lot.

And coming up towards the end of the month is the Dirty Fingers Bike Repair mountain bike campout at Lewis River. Give dirty fingers a call for more details!

Whatever you do today, have an awesome day.