April 5, South Side Old Chute, Mt. Hood

I decided to skip work for a day because of the fantastic weather forecasted for Thursday and go climb and ski Mt. Hood.  Slept in the lot Weds night and ended up sleeping in until after five.  I left the lot at 6am and started skinning up the mountain making it to just below Crater Rock before it became more efficient to start booting.  A guided group was making their way up the Mazama Face, so after heading part way up the Hogsback, I decided it would be faster to follow their nice boot track.  It was, and I topped out 3.5hrs after leaving the lot.  No weather anywhere, but great views all around! 

I skinned back to the top of the Old Chute since the traverse to the summit was somewhat treacherous, tore off the skins, and then carefully side-stepped down the upper 30 ft of icy sastrugi until I got onto skiable snow.  From there on down to below Crater Rock the snow was fantastic and pleasantly steep...perfect for ripping tele turns!  I may have let a few shouts of joy out on the way down even...

Below Crater Rock it was windblown ice and pretty unpleasant, but once down to the Palmer Lift it was fresh tracks on the freshly groomed snowfield back to the car since the lift hadn't opened yet.  Took about 4.5hrs RT.

As a side note, somehow my avy probe became separated from my pack, so if anyone sees a BD Probe in an orange sack on Hood and feels like returning it, well, I'd sure appreciate it.  ;)