By Eliza Ridgeway

Photos courtesy of Timberline Lodge Ski lifts climb to more than 8,000 feet on the slopes of Mount Hood.

Ahandful of lucky skiers are tearing up the slopes this month while the rest of the country dreams of far-off winter.

Mount Hood, a dormant volcano an hour east of Portland, Ore., offers year-round glacier skiing on its southern slopes, and the autumn season started with a fortuitous snowstorm in September. The 11,245-foot mountain, the highest in Oregon, hosts the rustic Timberline Lodge as well as a day lodge for skiers from the lowlands.

Mountain-loving guests who don’t want to risk ski adventure on the glacier and its snowy canyons can hike or bike in the area, explore the displays and lectures at the lodge, or lounge by the heated outdoor pool and hot tub. An autumn skier experiences real luxury when, head wreathed by snowflakes, he or she can sip wine in a hot tub ringed by pine trees.

The lodge was built in the 1930s as a Works Progress Administration project. Unemployed artists and craftsmen, hit hard by the Depression, were recruited to create this National Historic Landmark. The workers, some of whom had been homeless and hungry, responded to the job offer with enthusiasm, filling the lodge with wood carvings, intricate ironwork and paintings as they built it from the ground up. The lodge now offers a time-capsule-like experience of that decade of desperation and hope through historical displays and the artwork, much of which has survived well preserved. The U.S. Forest Service’s “Builders of Timberline” tour and documentary film unveil some of the history and hidden charms of the historical site.

While the privately operated lodge offers up-to-date amenities, it preserves a rough-hewn aesthetic, with massive wood beams and huge fireplaces. Many of the bedrooms are dormitory-style, with bunkbeds, but there are also more conventional single rooms.

The lodge’s dining room offers pricier Northwest cuisine and an extensive list of wines from Oregon and Washington, while the Ram’s Head Bar boasts lighter food and the Mount Hood Brewing Company’s local beers. The Cloudcap Amber Ale, for instance, makes an excellent après-ski aperitif. The microbrewery, located 6 miles down the mountain, offers daily tours.

The lodge rests at about 6,000 feet on the side of Mount Hood, nestled in the midst of a network of five ski lifts that serve, during the peak season, more than 1,000 acres of skiable terrain.

At 8,500 feet, atop the Palmer Snowfield, the advanced lift drops skiers into a breathtaking limbo, just below the mountain’s craggy peaks and just above the sea of clouds that extends, southward, toward the Cascade Mountains and Mount Jefferson in the distance.

The vistas might seem hauntingly familiar to visitors who don’t realize that Timberline was used for the exterior shots in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” Brave overnight visitors are sometimes treated to an evening showing of the film. The less stalwart stick to children’s films, shuffleboard, pingpong, board games or reading by the fireplace. Dog-loving visitors seek out Bruno and Heidi, the lodge’s mascot St. Bernards. They live with employees and come to work at the main desk and ski school many days of the week.

For more information, visit www.skitimberlinelodge.com.