June 22, 2013, Mt Hood, Old Chute

After failing to put together a Hood climb this year, and with time running out I decided on a one day smash and grab raid from Seattle. Leaving home at 3:51 am I was skinning up the climbers trail on a perfect summer day a little after 8 am. Not much to say about the climb, it went fast with perfect skinning conditions (as long as you had ski crampons) in tee shirt weather. Booted the last few hundred feet of the Old Chute with crampons on, though they were not really necessary in the softening snow. After a good long pause on a windless summit I skied down the€ skiers right€ variation of the chute, which features a few puckeringly steep turns near the top. Skirting west of crater rock gives the opportunity for a few more very steep turns before reaching corn paradise below crater rock. For whatever reason this 1,500€™ or so pitch has offered the most amazing snow every time I have skied it, slightly soft over a hard base, table top smooth and zero stickiness. A Cloud Cap beer in the Ram€™s Head and an ice cream stop in Hood River had me back home a little after 7 pm, with almost the whole trip competed in daylight.