May 10, 2007, Mt. Hood, Wyeast Face

Drove up to Mt. Hood Meadows parking lot and got on the snow by 4:30 am.  Enjoyed a night skin up to the top of the highest chair lift and watched the sun rise.  At that point we were 2000 vert and 1.3 hrs into our climb.  There was a bit of dirt ridge walking before we could put the skis back on.  We continued to skin up to about 9200 feet at which time it got too steep and frozen to continue with skis on.  We put the crampons on and topped out at approx 10,600 at 9:50am.  We spent about an hour enjoying the view, looking at the 24 people climbing on the south route, and waiting for the snow to soften.  Our timing payed off as we had PERFECT spring corn for the top 3K vert.  We were able to stay left toward Heather Canyon and ski all the way to the parking lot.  A highly recommended trip...at least for the next couple weeks or so :)