May 16, Mt. Hood South side
5/15/07
OR Mt Hood
2349
1
May 15th, I spent the "post 5 o'clock" hour and a half enjoying Après Work and catching the happy hour food prices in downtown Bellevue waiting for the traffic to die down.
I finally tired of the Bellevue ambiance around 1845 and began my southern migration to Mt. Hood. Washboarded pavement gave way to smooth sailing just south of Tacoma and I pointed straight for Timberline in summerlike heat. I arrived at Timberline around 1130 and immediately bedded down.
I awoke to the alarm at 0300, which came far too soon. The van was a rockin, not the good kind, but the kind indicating wind. This was just what I needed to secure another hour of sleep. Groggily, I restart my alpine start at 0400, finally pulling out of the parking lot at 0505 in very light wind, the same time as a recently packed antique mini-snowcat, which I prefer to refer to as a Unimog, which is a different beast, but is much more fun to say and is somehow more appropriate. Although I was feeling really strong, they beat me up to the top of the Palmer lift. Just before the end of the cat tracks, I found an orange helmet bearing "OMS", which I picked up thinking I would probably find it's owner up ahead.
Technically, I was traveling solo, which was how it felt for the first couple of hours before I bumped into the masses, really only about 3 parties of 25 total. Was great, almost effortless skiing up the Unimog track, once that ended it got a bit icy and the skis came off around 9500, at some tent platforms. The walk up through Hell's kitchen (I think that is what it is called) was cool. I ran into the bulk of humanity when I got up to the Hog's Back, where I found a group of about 12 people, all roped together, 11 wearing orange helmets. I guess my lost and found game was easier than I had though, buddy was glad to get it back and offered me his ball cap.
I passed most folks on the Hog's back, as there was a bottleneck on the left side gully of the Pearly Gates. I had been warned that the left gully had become the standard this year (thanks RonJ). Deciding that I did not want to deal with the cluster and to avoid them clustering on top of me, I moved right and got into the right gully. It was fairly firm, with about 5 ft of water ice. I ascended in alum crampons with ski poles, the axe was left on the pack. I summited alone at 8:50 and was joined by all of the people in the lower 48 about 5 minutes later. The summit was obscured by cloud but was still nice. Got a summit photo, had a nip out of the bottle of Macallen's 18 that a fellow had brought up and went back down whence I came.
I gathered some beta from my fellow ascenders, who claimed there was 20 ft of water ice on the left hand gully, prompting me not to want to go that way. I did not see it, so I am not sure as to what they meant by water ice (it this by Valdez ice climbing standards? Or just firm neve? I don't know). As I skied towards the Pearly Gates, I scouted skiers right to see if I could descent into the larger bowl below for better skiing and not dying. All I found was gully drops. My Pearly Gates Right gully was nastier than on the way up, I switched to axe and mounted skis on to my pack. I tried descending, it did not feel good without crampons and I wanted to ski, so I bagged it, went back up and over the far climber's left of the crater rim, and skied all the way down through the "Old Chute", which was not pleasant but far from EXTREME!
The ski down was uneventful, standard alpine unpleasantness until I hit the groomer and then it got pretty sloppy pretty fast. Hit the cars at 1100. Made it back to Seattle before the worst of rush hour.
Good day off.
I finally tired of the Bellevue ambiance around 1845 and began my southern migration to Mt. Hood. Washboarded pavement gave way to smooth sailing just south of Tacoma and I pointed straight for Timberline in summerlike heat. I arrived at Timberline around 1130 and immediately bedded down.
I awoke to the alarm at 0300, which came far too soon. The van was a rockin, not the good kind, but the kind indicating wind. This was just what I needed to secure another hour of sleep. Groggily, I restart my alpine start at 0400, finally pulling out of the parking lot at 0505 in very light wind, the same time as a recently packed antique mini-snowcat, which I prefer to refer to as a Unimog, which is a different beast, but is much more fun to say and is somehow more appropriate. Although I was feeling really strong, they beat me up to the top of the Palmer lift. Just before the end of the cat tracks, I found an orange helmet bearing "OMS", which I picked up thinking I would probably find it's owner up ahead.
Technically, I was traveling solo, which was how it felt for the first couple of hours before I bumped into the masses, really only about 3 parties of 25 total. Was great, almost effortless skiing up the Unimog track, once that ended it got a bit icy and the skis came off around 9500, at some tent platforms. The walk up through Hell's kitchen (I think that is what it is called) was cool. I ran into the bulk of humanity when I got up to the Hog's Back, where I found a group of about 12 people, all roped together, 11 wearing orange helmets. I guess my lost and found game was easier than I had though, buddy was glad to get it back and offered me his ball cap.
I passed most folks on the Hog's back, as there was a bottleneck on the left side gully of the Pearly Gates. I had been warned that the left gully had become the standard this year (thanks RonJ). Deciding that I did not want to deal with the cluster and to avoid them clustering on top of me, I moved right and got into the right gully. It was fairly firm, with about 5 ft of water ice. I ascended in alum crampons with ski poles, the axe was left on the pack. I summited alone at 8:50 and was joined by all of the people in the lower 48 about 5 minutes later. The summit was obscured by cloud but was still nice. Got a summit photo, had a nip out of the bottle of Macallen's 18 that a fellow had brought up and went back down whence I came.
I gathered some beta from my fellow ascenders, who claimed there was 20 ft of water ice on the left hand gully, prompting me not to want to go that way. I did not see it, so I am not sure as to what they meant by water ice (it this by Valdez ice climbing standards? Or just firm neve? I don't know). As I skied towards the Pearly Gates, I scouted skiers right to see if I could descent into the larger bowl below for better skiing and not dying. All I found was gully drops. My Pearly Gates Right gully was nastier than on the way up, I switched to axe and mounted skis on to my pack. I tried descending, it did not feel good without crampons and I wanted to ski, so I bagged it, went back up and over the far climber's left of the crater rim, and skied all the way down through the "Old Chute", which was not pleasant but far from EXTREME!
The ski down was uneventful, standard alpine unpleasantness until I hit the groomer and then it got pretty sloppy pretty fast. Hit the cars at 1100. Made it back to Seattle before the worst of rush hour.
Good day off.