Home > Trip Reports > 7-5-10 Mt Hood circumnavigation

7-5-10 Mt Hood circumnavigation

7/5/10
OR Mt Hood
2762
5
Posted by rong on 7/10/10 8:33am
This was finally the day when this trip could be done, at least in my case.   Dave L. and myself had tried on 2 other occasions this spring to go around the mountain, and had met up with unsuitable weather.  On this day, conditions finally blessed us, and we started on our merry way at 5:45am from timberline, ascending the standard climbers route. The wind was howling out of the NW so we decided to do the circumnavigation in direction opposite (counterclockwise) from our original plan to try and use the mountain as a wind block.  This proved to be marginally effective, and we probably would have been best to stick with the original plan.  Any way,  we crossed the white river glacier @7700' and proceded to climb out of the canyon up towards the wy'east face topping out at 9000' at the base of wy'east and the head of super bowl.  Wy'east was in perfect condition, but we had to pass and continue on.  From here it was an easy skin across newton Clark glacier to cooper spur (first picture looking south to Jefferson and the 3 sisters).   At Cooper Spur, only one small slot at 8000' allowed passage onto Elliot glacier across the flank bergshrund, and Dave took this route (smart).  I thought i could see an upper line and decided to stay high and save energy.  To make a long story short I executed a rather unorthodox method of dropping the small 4' rock band and bergshrund onto the glacier.  To the party down on the lower glacier watching,  I am fine.  From this point,  I skied down and met up with Dave on the lower glacier (so much for saving energy!).  The snow was perfect, and at this point, we skinned across below the ceracs and up the west flank to snowdome for lunch.  Once again we had to pass on some really great turns and continue our traverse.  The crossing of the Coe was uneventful, although there was a considerable debris pile to navigate through, from a recent slide.  On the west side of the Coe is Barrett spur, where I took the nifty picture of Adams bracketed in the notch atop Barrett.  Next came the Ladd, and Glisan glaciers, of which the Glisan is pretty much just a snow field, with really nice downhill terrain.  Again passing on nice turns we continued across cathedral ridge onto the Sandy glacier.  The headwall still had plenty of cover, but runnels were deep, and plentiful.  The crossing of Yokum ridge onto the Reid glacier, and ascending the Reid proved to be the toughest part of the entire day.  I can appreciate why most folks do this trip clockwise.    Because of the late time of day the snow on the lower tongue of the Reid was very soft and deep, leading to a torcherous bootpack up onto the main glacier.  Fortunately for us stability was good, because at this point there are no other option, with the exception of a boot out on the Yokum ridge trail to Ramona Falls trail head about 7 miles.  Once on the main body of the glacier we were able to skin again,  getting away from the post holing, until we reached the last steep pitch up to illumination saddle.  This last climb across yokum, and  the Reid involved 1600', and took whatever energy we had left from us, but from the saddle it is truly 'all down hill from here'.  I got many great photos at this point looking out across the valley, including the one of  Dave booting up to the saddle with the sea of clouds below.  Now for the last descent.  Taking advantage of the lateness of the day, Timberline's grooming team was out, and we skied the corduroy down to the lodge completing a truly unforgettable trip.
What an awesome way to finish up the season, although I didn't feel so awesome when finished.

Ron, it's been pleasure to skis with you. I feel incredibly fortunate that I found such an accomplished and motivated partner....and who didn't mind sharing his secret spots.

Looking forward to when you can visit us and I can share my secret stashes. 

It was enjoyable reading your TR and traveling in a counterclockwise direction.  Looong day.  Nice photos.

Looks like a really nice trip!  I'd imagine you were spent by the end of the day.  Did you do any roped skiing?  Thanks for the report!

Nice - that's quite a feat!  The last picture deserves to be on a magazine cover.

"Did you do any roped skiing? "


we were prepared, but never felt the need.

Reply to this TR

7681
7-5-10-mt-hood-circumnavigation
rong
2010-07-10 15:33:24