Home > Trip Reports > February 9, 2016, Mt. Hood, Hogsback butter

February 9, 2016, Mt. Hood, Hogsback butter

2/9/16
OR Mt Hood
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Posted by thatcherk1 on 2/9/16 1:05am
Here goes my first TR.
Skinned up south side of hood. Left parking lot at 5:15am. Crusty, but nice skinning. Donned crampons at about 9,000ft. Got to hogsback at 10am. Snow was softening nicely. dropped the skis and booked it up old chute.  The traverse to the chute was a bit of a bowling alley with the sudden high temps this week, but no pieces larger than a tennis ball raining down.The upper chute was icy, but softening. It looked skiable (by a much more skilled skier than me), but not a fun ski. Summit ridge traverse was airy as usual with some cornice action, but well booted out. Hit the summit at 11 with almost no wind and high temps. It felt like July. Back to hogsback with skis on and ready to rock at 12. Lots of nice buttery turns from hogsback, getting better and better down skiers left of palmer cat track. Most of the ice was slushing out. Waiting another hour would have made the skiing even better up high.  The last 1500ft to the car was rough (probably more because of how tired my legs were than anything else). The snow was getting sticky, and the slope isn't too steep down there.  I cut over to the groomed tracks back to the parking lot.

I didn't get any photos of sweet turns, so here is a sunrise photo instead.

This was my first big-mountain ski. I've just done short powder BC days at Baker, Crystal, and Blewett until now. Skiing after climbing 5200ft is a whole different beast. I felt the burn! Sure is better than walking down after a climb.
:)! Mighty fine photo, too.


"Sure is better than walking down after a climb."
;)

Thanks for the post, and the sunrise shot, looks like you hit it perfect.

Great picture! I really like the ski down from the Hogsback after climbing, its a very enjoyable grade for ripping big turns.

Great first trip report.  " the summit ridge was airy" .  He'll yeah, heh heh, I still pucker up thinking about it.

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thatcherk1
2016-02-09 09:05:07