Mt. Hood - 11,239 ft
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* Click HERE for an annotated picture of Mt Hood identifying some of the mountain's features.
Attempt #1
Date: 5-24-08
Gain: ~4800 ft
RT Distance: ~7 miles
Climbers: George, Joey, Mark
After 2 hours of sleep, our hotel alarm clock went off at 12:30AM. The parking lot of the Mt Hood Inn was wet, but the skies had cleared and we could see a few stars. The drive up to Timberline Lodge went quickly and we noticed that the cloud cover increased from 0 to 100% as we made our way to 5800 feet. By 1:35AM we were suited up and leaving the parking lot for the climbers trail located east of the groomed ski runs. No snow shoes were required, but the foot of mashed potato snow made for slow and less than enjoyable hiking. The 2 hour monotony was occasionally broken by jumping off the trail to let a snow cat loaded with other climbers pass us.
At 8900ft we stopped and decided to cache our hiking poles, assuming that the remainder of the hike would be steep enough that we’d not want them. Above this point we noticed a significant amount of soft new snow. As we made our way towards Crater Rock, we hiked in near white out conditions. We would occasionally get brief glances of the Steel Cliffs and Illumination Rock, but mostly conditions on our remaining route up the mountain were a mystery.
At around 9400 ft we noticed two large TMG guided teams turning around due to snow conditions, visibility, and rumors of a weather front moving through at 11AM. Having 6+, not so experienced, people on your team can limit your options and climbing windows, and with our small and fast team we felt comfortable pushing upwards. As we proceeded we met another team of 3 heading down to due to their being uncomfortable with the snow at 10.2K. Below Crater Rock we were getting to a point where we should be able to see our remaining route, but visibility was so low that we weren’t confident where to proceed or what the safest routes were. We took a break at an old engine for over an hour hoping the weather would clear off. During this time 3 climbers passed us and proceeded towards the Hogsback. During a 15 second window we were granted a glance of them proceeding across the Hogsback. We later saw them working their way towards the Old Chute, doing the “bowlegged cowboy walk” through what looked like extremely deep snow (picture a climber with both legs completely buried in snow, pulling one leg out and flopping it above the snow to his next step, repeat, etc). After an hour of sniffing hydrogen sulfide gas from the volcano, we were pretty anxious to get moving for a change of smell. Not all that optimistic we decided to head up to the Hogsback and at least be in a better position should the weather clear.
As we arrived at the snow ridge (Hogsback), we intercepted the 3 climbers we had seen earlier on their way down. They had made it into the Old Chute and reported waist deep, unconsolidated, and wind slabby snow. I think they described their wallowing up the snow slope as “pretty stupid”. Further discouraged we figured we would head across the Hogsback before turning around since it was only 9AM. This snow ridge was pretty eerie due to the worst visibility of the day (10-20 feet?) and slabby new snow that would break off and shoot out of sight. I think this was enough for us to finally acknowledge the writing on the walls, and we unanimously agreed that today was not our summit day.
The walk out went pretty quickly, although route finding back down the mountain was extremely nontrivial. Our ascent tracks were long gone, and with no visibility we kept getting sucked too far to the climber’s right into steeper terrain. The GPS breadcrumb trail I left on the way up proved valuable, especially in finding our trekking poles.
Back on the trail beside the ski runs we noticed that the weather was starting to clear up, and by the time we reached Timberline Lodge we could see most (and briefly all) of the mountain. Still, we knew that even with acceptable weather there probably was no safe snow route up the peak and we had done the right thing by backing off.
Day Off in Hood River
Date: 5-25-08
Macro
Herman the Sturgeon at the Fish Hatchery
George and Abby on the Multnomah Falls bridge
Abby through a kaleidoscope
Attempt #2
Date: 5-26-08
Gain: ~2800 ft
RT Distance: ~5 miles
Climbers: George, Joey, Mark, Paul
After a rest day in Hood River, we were back on the mountain at 1:30AM. We drove up the road in heavy fog, and once we arrived in the parking lot it started to rain. This didn’t do a lot for our motivation, and we took our time getting out of the car. When a snow cat pulled up shortly before 2AM, Joey and Mark figured they’d chat with the driver and see if they could learn anything about getting a ride up to the top of the ski runs. It turned out that the 2AM cat was a guided team, and despite not being full no one else is welcome. The driver did mention that another cat was scheduled for 3AM, and being privately organized we might be able to tag along. He didn’t know how to contact the group’s leaders, so we had a parking lot meet and greet until we found the group. It turned out that 3 of their 4 group members were so discouraged that they were going to bail on their reservations. Looking to recoup some of their non-refundable costs, they offered us a steal of a price to ride in their stead on the cat. Their fourth member, Paul, was still interested in heading up, and eventually become a great addition to our team.
The cat dropped us off at over 8000 feet in a complete whiteout. What was rain at the parking lot turned in to sleet, graupel, and eventually snow. The boot prints from the guided teams were quickly found, and made for quick progress towards the Hogsback. Despite the snow, visibility was actually better than what we had experienced two days earlier. Standing on the Hogsback at 7AM, I was optimistic that we were going to make it this time. We decided to rope up at the start of the Hogsback, not because we thought it was immediately necessary, but because it was a convenient place to do so. As we had hiked up with Paul, we learned that he had been to the summit of Hood a dozen times, and any reservations about tying into a rope with him were quickly dismissed. I tied into the lead end of the rope, with Paul in the #2 position to give me tips on route selection.
We approached the bergshrund cautiously, despite being told that it was still closed. The six foot maw in the ridge in front of me suggested the contrary so we needed to find a detour. Traversing to the climbers left I found a snow/ice bridge that wasn’t completely connected but looked and felt solid. The uphill side of the bridge that I would need to hop up onto looked icy, so I hammered in a picket before crossing.
We had been discussing an ascent of the Old Chute route, but seeing 2 guided teams getting short roped up the route gave us pause. We had just watched their guides teach their clients how to put on their crampons (“you have to put the toe bails on before the heel”, etc), so we didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about tangling with them on the route. Paul had been on the mountain 3 weeks prior and mentioned that they had found decent alpine ice in the couloir immediately above the Hogsback. This is not the more common “Pearly Gates” route, as the Hogsback has formed up quite a ways left of its previous positions.
“Alpine” and “Ice” are two of my favorite words, so this harder route sounded good to me and I was quickly kicking steps to the base of the chute. I intended to reach the base of the alpine ice portion and set up an anchor at which point we’d bring everybody up and lead the ice portion as a normal lead climb (not wanting to simul-climb with 4 guys on a rope). The higher up I climbed, the more loose new snow I found over rock and junk ice, so the snow picket anchor I’d been hoping for wasn’t looking too likely. Ultimately I found a large rock that seemed well frozen and slung it for an anchor. I brought Paul up to my stance, and we discussed our options. I had been climbing with just an ice axe up to this point, so I belayed Paul back down to Joey and Mark to retrieve the team’s ice screws and extra pair of ice tools.
Throughout this series of events the weather and conditions had been getting progressively worse. Visibility was decreasing, the snow was getting heavier, and spindrift avalanches started to pour down the route on us. We discussed how we were going to descend the mountain if we continued up this route. The lack of anchors didn’t make us optimistic about rapping from higher on the route, so descending the Old Chute route using the track from two TMG teams seemed like a good option… until we watched both of those teams turn around and head down the mountain.
Paul mentioned that this was “your” climb and that he was up for whatever we decided to do, but that if it was “his” climb he’d be heading down and these were the worst conditions he’d seen on the mountain. To add weight to his words, the spindrift sloughs became small but continuous rivers of moving snow, and I think we all knew it was time to throw in the towel.
We down climbed out of the couloir and back over the bergshrund, belaying each other with snow pickets when possible. Once back on the Hogsback the clouds cleared partially to the point that the sunlight hit quite a bit of the upper mountain. We briefly considered using this break in the weather as a chance to run up the Old Chute route (now that it was vacant), but thought better of it due to the new snow we knew had to have accumulated on the route. As we were un-roping and refueling for the hike back to Timberline we watched the Old Chute, Pearly Gates, Devils Kitchen Headwall and every route in between naturally release sizeable avalanches which ran for upwards of 500 feet.
Turning around (twice!) on a mountain far from home definitely isn’t easy, but watching all that snow pour down the mountain certainly made it easy to justify our decisions. As if to quell any remaining regrets, thunderclouds formed during our descent and the Steel Cliffs were soon rumbling with thunder from cloud-cloud lighting.
Despite doing a lot of flying, driving, and hiking to not stand on top of any summits we still had a pretty great time in Oregon on an impressive mountain. I think I know what I’m doing next May.
