2-19-12 Lookout Mountain near Mt Hood

The trip started out at 8:45am from a spur road 5/8 mile north of the Gumjuwac trail head heading SE with Wayne (aka Koda) and myself.  The attached map shows the approximate line of ascent and descent traveling in a clockwise direction.  At 4000' we left the top of a small clear cut and began and eastward bushwack on thin snow pack with about 4-6" of soft fresh on top.  Much dead fall littered the route, and the debate began regarding route selection, but both agreed that we were out for adventure, and this fit the bill.  Rounding north of a pinnacle capped butte we dropped down through a tight saddle into Hellroaring creek, and executed a treacherous crossing.  From this point the route eased, and in a few minutes we were into a large clear cut that would take us up to the ridge to the SW of Lookout.  By this time it was noon, as the bushwack had consumed much time, and we were beginning to temper our goals of skiing a pitch to the west of high praire, and focus on Lookout itself, and our return route.  After a quick lunch the final climb began, and by ~2pm we were on the summit ridge, skipping the true summit as it didn't have the down line we were interested in.  The ski down the south aspect was better than expected with excellent glades, trees, gullies, about as varied of terrain as i have skied in the hood area.  Snow quality remained good all day with no significant warming, and very good stability.  Nicely bonded to the rain crust, with very little wind effect.  Propagation was nil.  We both would have liked another lap, but time was running short, so we started our westerly traverse back to the ridge.  At this point we were back at the top of the large clear cut with about 750' of vert, so the decision was made to down ski this slope, and take a contour traverse w/sw to the Gumjuwac trail for the remainder of our escape.  Simple, right.... This bushwhack made the mornings route seem like child's play, as it traversed a very steep cross slope, and involved the worst stream crossing i have encountered.  We finally reached the trail at ~5pm, and descended as night was falling, hitting the trail head without the need for headlamps, and booted the remaining 5/8 mile east on hwy 35 to the jeep.  A very satisfying trip leaving us both weary and in need of food and beer.