June 28, 2009, Mt Hood, S Route

After attending the Mnt Rescue Association 50th anniversary conference at Timberline with teams from all over the country it was time to ski what we had been looking up at the last few days.  I must admit we cheated and took the lift up as we all felt like sleeping in at our stellar digs in ZigZag.  About 9:30 saw us at the top of the lift and then a leisurely pace got us to the top a little before noon.  Route goes up from the Hogsback through the old chute and is pleasant with nice steps all the way.  We had the axe out, but did not put the crampons on, but it is a little icy through the steepest part before you hit the summit ridge.

Hung out in gusty winds till about 1 pm when we traversed towards the top of the Sandy, took a left and headed down towards Crater Rock.  Snow was still a little hard at the top, but it had softened just enough to be grippy.  On this day an hour later would have been better at the top.  We traversed back to the Hogsback saddle as skiers right of Crater Rock is littered with rocks and did not look pleasant.  Stayed skiers right of the lifts on very pleasant corn until we traversed through a short rock section a couple of hundred feet above the lowest lift top station.  Skied the ski area all the way back to the parking lot in pretty grabby conditions.

Great day in the hills, traffic home sucked bad.