January 14, 2007, - Crater Rock Area, Mt Hood
1/14/07
OR Mt Hood
2552
2
I left the Timberline parking lot a little after 8:00 on Sunday morning hoping to test out my new Never Summer splitboard. Since I'd never been skinning before (always had to lug the board on my back) I was going to take it easy with the goal of getting to the top of Palmer. The skin up the Mile was fairly easy and I wondered why I didn't get a split before now. The weather was beautiful and about 14 degrees with no wind. The sky was a deep blue and the mountain as white as ever.
I reached the top of Palmer around 10:30 by splitting and using splitboard crampons due to the icy conditions. The wind has pretty much scoured off any of the remaining soft snow from a few days earlier. At this point, I could tell that going much further wouldn't yield many turns, but I put the board on my back and crampons on my boots and headed up to about 9600 feet. The snow was rather icy, so I took a few photos and decided to turn around at about noon. I made a few sketchy turns on the decent, and quickly decided to take my board off and climb down to the top of Palmer, where I was able to ride all the way back to my truck in the parking lot. The board rode great (I'd already dialed it in at Hoodoo a few weeks before, but didn't skin with it). A few pictures from the outing are below:
I reached the top of Palmer around 10:30 by splitting and using splitboard crampons due to the icy conditions. The wind has pretty much scoured off any of the remaining soft snow from a few days earlier. At this point, I could tell that going much further wouldn't yield many turns, but I put the board on my back and crampons on my boots and headed up to about 9600 feet. The snow was rather icy, so I took a few photos and decided to turn around at about noon. I made a few sketchy turns on the decent, and quickly decided to take my board off and climb down to the top of Palmer, where I was able to ride all the way back to my truck in the parking lot. The board rode great (I'd already dialed it in at Hoodoo a few weeks before, but didn't skin with it). A few pictures from the outing are below:
Nice photos. Wasn't that just a beautiful day? We skinned up out of Pocket Creek that day and got a 7 volcano day - views of Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, Hood, Jefferson, Washington and the Sisters - all from the top of Gumjuwac Butte. Sure made up for the lack of snow conditions.
H2OJOE - Yeah, it was a great day! It's not too often you get a day like that in the middle of January on Mt. Hood with no wind. The great winter views more than made up for the icy conditions. Let's hope for some fresh snow next week!
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