Date: June 19, 2020.
Stats: Approx 8 miles and 5,300' of vert. Grade II, class 2/3.
Gear notes: Two ice axes recommended. Carried full glacier travel and crevasse rescue gear that went unused (a good thing).
GoPro video from skiing the Palmer Snowfield the day before the climb.
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| Mt. Hood from the north on the drive in. |
This trip was originally supposed to be a climb of
Mount Rainier, but all the COVID stuff had pretty much turned everything upside down. The team we had put together consisted of three buddies from work and myself. We were all dealing with scheduling conflicts, child care etc and basically everything was in flux right up though the climb itself.
Since Rainier is in a National Park and the park was closed, we needed a new objective that we could hit in a shorter time frame and Hood seemed to fit the bill nicely. Roy and I headed out a day before what should have been the other half of our group to do some skiing/boarding on the Palmer snowfield and to get a good feel for conditions on the route. We talked with several parties that were descending from a successful summit via the Pearly Gates Left Route and we also heard that the Old Chute was in. From what we could see the Bergschrund was not open which was slightly concerning because at some point the snow bridge that covered it would surely fail.
We were climbing at the end of a short weather window after a decent stretch of not great weather and that meant there were a lot of people on the mountain. If for nothing else, Mt. Hood is known for a few things; rock/ice fall, heavy traffic, accidents and rescues. Objective hazard is very prevalent on Mt. Hood. Cue the anxiety.
Unfortunately we found out the day before the climb that one of our team members was unable to make the climb. We were bummed to say the least. This also changed the approach since we would now be skinning up the snowfield, planning to stash the skis/boards somewhere above Palmer and ski down, instead of booting the whole enchilada.
Todd met up with Roy and I at our camp site at Trillium Lake a bit after 3pm on Thursday. We got our gear sorted and went though some technical refresher stuff. With most of our gear packed up we finally hit our tents about 7 with an alarm to get up at 10:30pm. With "Trilliumfest" going strong, sleep was basically non-existent for us. Even with my sleep mask and ear plugs, I managed maybe one hour actual "sleep" by the time my alarm went off. I was groggy and a little tight from skiing that morning but quickly snapped to. We were up, fed, caffeinated and out of camp and headed to Timberline at about 11:30.
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| Gearing up in camp. |
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| Tech training. |
10-15 minutes later we were up at Timberline and registering for our climb. We searched in vain for a restroom, but we were out of luck. We were also out of time. We needed to get rolling and were actually about 20 minutes late getting out of the parking lot.
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| Packed up. |
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| Time to go. |
Once we were headed up the climbers trail we realized we were behind more traffic than we would have liked. It was rather warm at the base and the snow was a bit soft and punchy, even with skis on. We hit a good groove and fell in with a good crowd. After about an hour and 1,000 feet of gain, we took our first break near the Silcox Hut. 10-15 minutes later we were back on the trail and over taking most of the people who had passed us at Silcox. We ended up near the same group of people we started with and pushed up to the top of the Palmer Snowfield were we took our next break on the flat cat track at the top of the ski area.
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| Me, Todd and Roy near Devils Kitchen. |
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| Leaving Devils Kitchen. |
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| Looking up to the Hogsback. |
I quickly realized how cold it was here and put on my down hoody and warmest gloves. Other than the shocking cold, two other things of note happened here. Todd, the youngest of the group, offered to take the climbing rope. He was in Beast Mode and his offer still stood even after my "are you sure" retort. As we focused on our individual needs Roy popped off with "guys, I forgot my crampons in the car" in the flattest, most realistic tone he could. He got Todd and I pretty good with that one. I think even one of the guys next to us took the bait.
With a good laugh under our belts, we set off above Palmer. We made it maybe a few hundred feet up on skins but it was far too icy to continue. I had thought about carrying the skis up higher, but eventually decided the best thing to do was to stash them and save the weight. I was also wanting to get a good test of my crampons on my ski boots. If I was going to have a problem, I wanted to have it down here on mellow terrain.
After switching to crampons and ice axes, all systems were go and we motored up to the top of Triangle Moraine for our next break. We stuffed down some calories and donned helmets and harnesses for the push up to the base of Devils Kitchen. The smell of sulfur was crazy strong and that was all the motivation I needed to keep moving.
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| Hogsback. |
The climb up the Hogsback was where the hangups really started to happen. Todd and Roy ended up in front of a slow moving pack that I got stick behind. Eventually I made it past them and we regrouped for a micro break. We could see most, if not all groups were heading up the Pearly Gates. It looked like the line was moving well so we went that direction. Roy, AKA Mr. "I forgot my crampons" ended up having a crampon issue about midway up the Hogsback. He and Todd were able to figure it out and we were once again under way after a slight delay.
The Pearly Gates are a bottleneck and would be best avoided with significant traffic. We ended up stuck in line for a few minutes. Roy was in the lead and had the best view of the situation. Eventually the climbers above us made it though and the line was moving again. The left chute was about 30 feet high and a bit steep at maybe more than 40 degrees. It was a little icy but it went without too much trouble. Once past that it was a straight forward walk to the summit.
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| Summit view. St. Helens, Rainier and Adams are visible. |
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| Summit selfie. |
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| Summit shot. Todd C. photo shot by a nice stranger. |
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| Mt. Hoods summit ridge. |
We topped out at about 6:45 which was little later than we had hoped but still not too bad considering all the factors up to this point. There was still a lot of traffic headed up and we knew descending the Gates was out of the question. The best option was to descent the Old Chute and to try to get ahead of as much traffic as we could. After a few pictures we moved off the true summit for a break and to finalize everything for the down climb. The summit traverse was only a little more than a boot path wide with a fantastic drop down the north face just inches away. The most exposed section was just before the top of the Old Chute but really did not pose any significant difficulty.
At the top of the Old Chute we had another hang up. A lot of people were down climbing below us and not spread out enough and moving quite slow. We hung back for a bit and waited for the traffic to thin out but people kept jumping right in. Eventually we were able to begin our down climb even though it was a bit too crowded and stacked to be really considered "safe". Using two tools and facing in was very secure and we made good time. Other than an ice bulge near the bottom of the steepest section, there was no major difficulty.
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| Down climbing the Old Chute. Roy (left) and Todd (right) are the two climbers on the bottom. |
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| Looking down towards the Hogsback. |
The snow was a fine mix of crusty-punchy junk and bullet proof hardpack that kept us on our toes. The smell of sulfur rising up from the fumarole's was even stronger than it was earlier and enough to make me gag. We discussed taking a break at Hogsback but eventually we just descended to the flat area just below, near Devils Kitchen that was still in the shade.
After a nice rest, peeling off a layer and doffing helmets and harnesses we began the trudge down. I think we were all pretty tired at this point. Since we were basically back on easy street we took our sweet time going down, stopping at our leisure and enjoying the view. The snow was still a bit firm at Triangle Moraine but it would have been nice to have our skis/boards.
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| Looking up from Triangle Moraine. |
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| Looking down. |
Back at our stash site we plopped down and chugged the last of our water. The ski down was fun but the soft snow and 30lb pack put my tired legs to the test on the 2,500ft descent. Once back at the car we couldn't get our boots of fast enough. I went to sign us back in at the climbers registration kiosk but all of the days "out climbing" sheets were gone. Odd, but nothing I could do about it. At least our spouses knew we were off the mountain and safe, so there was little chance of the National Guard being dispatched.
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| Cheers and summit beers. |
Burgers and beer at the Ratskeller replenished our depleted fuel reserves. In hindsight we should have climbed and descended the Old Chute to avoid the traffic jam at the Pearly Gates. I could also argue a case to start an hour earlier than we did. Overall it was a solid day with a strong crew on a big volcano in June. Days like that are hard to beat.
