January 16, 2009, Mount Hood, Birthday Penetentes!

I like to take the opportunity on my birthday to try and prove that I am not succumbing to the effects of old age.  This year being my 43rd, I climbed the south side of Hood under perfectly clear blue skies.  Above 8500 feet, the "snow" was a sea of verglace and penetentes... which made for difficult walking... skinning was out of the question.







I expected the snow and ice to be a bit softer, and therefore did not bring my crampons or and ice axe.  Turned around at 9000 feet and walked down to where I could make some progress on skis.  At 8000 feet the snow turned to perfect 'spring' corn... until about 5500 feet where the top layer was melted, but still fun.

Apologies for the poor quality pics... they are screen grabs from video.  Full video coming soon!

All photos here --> http://flickr.com/photos/22552896@N02/