11/23/07 pearly gates, hood (w/pics)
11/23/07
OR Mt Hood
6048
4
left the truck around 8, and barely beat the crowds up as they opened the lift at the top of plamer, although i was hurting as i was in the process of hangover recovery, and i had just chugged one of those 5hour energy shots(dont do it) above palmer there was alot of ice, there was a skin track which weaved through the ice patches until maybye 9k, then poons were nessacery for a direct ascent. once gaining crater rock, a "crowd" began to accumulate, and i started up the old chute, digging a pit and doing several tests, I found the snow to be mostly stable except for several inches of slabby wind deposited snow on the surface, i made it about halfway up the old chute, when a natural r1 point realse cut out from somewhere in the rimey rock face to the east, the crowd below began screaming at me to get down. I felt irresponsible especially not haveing a beacon, i belived the snow to be stable, but my concious was telling me that there is always the off chance that something could happen, and these people would be burdened and possibly endangered with a rescue,,(i wish they had kept there mouth shut though), i had skiied this a couple weeks ago anyway, so i skiied down to crater rock area, and got stoked on the pearly gates after oogaling the route. there was already a bootpack up the 2' deep snow. the crux of the route was about 15' feet of steep water rime ice, with several small bulges and manky ice, spicy with just my snow axe and whippet. (i think this route may be knarlier in early season, i saw a picture from the spring when it looks like a low angle ramp) Then shallow pow over ice sustrgi to the summit, which sucked for skiing, but there were a few excellant light density turns off the summit before i hit the burried ice chunks, the downcllimb through the crux was timeconsumeing. the best part of the ski down was knee deep pow for the ~50' below the crux, then the lower section of the route was icy, then windcrust. back at crater rock i met Scott, an Exum mt. guide, who was up in the area checking out the mountain, we found some nice pow on the zigzag, then traversed over to palmer which looked like it had got some love thorugh the day. There was snow down to the parking lot in the little canyon next to the lift, but it was all chewed up from tractors, and generally manky.
Wow Dan, looks like fun. The crux looks kind of knar. I think it usually fills in later in the year and is skiable, depending on conditions/timing and can be quite fun. I was up on Saturday, and the weather started out nice, but turned poorer around noon with no vis up high. We had planned on possibly heading up towards the Hogsback, but ended up riding the Palmer, whcih was nice. Should be good up there in a few weeks after this week's dump :)
Fascinating report, Dan, thanks for sharing, especially about the turn around in the old chute. So for discussion purposes, do you think you would have ignored the shouts of the on lookers if you had a beacon? I'd like another solo skier's thoughts on that one...
I would like to say/think that i would still turn around. if it had slid, than there would be a real possibility that a secondary slab/p.r. could cut out, endangering any rescuers.
However it is often hard to turn around once one is "in gear" and an exuse to justify turns (such as haveing a beacon,,(but did they?)), I may have kept going, especially if I had'ent skiied it before. The reasoning of ambition is often irrational.
Nice turns out in the Never Summers! I miss that area.
However it is often hard to turn around once one is "in gear" and an exuse to justify turns (such as haveing a beacon,,(but did they?)), I may have kept going, especially if I had'ent skiied it before. The reasoning of ambition is often irrational.
Nice turns out in the Never Summers! I miss that area.
The first time I skied Hood it was through the Pearly Gates. I wouldn't recommend it really. To find it in skiable conditions meant going in the fat part of the year. This also typically means hundreds of people a week are climbing it (I'm talking late April-Early june). The bootpacks are sooo deep, it's a whole new objective hazard. Not to mention the piles of death cookies from the melting rime off the cliffs. To get it filled in would mean a lot of recent snow, therefore back to the avy hazard thing. I'm sure people have had wonderful turns through there, but I have a feeling it's a rare occasion. The old chute has always provided me with a much kinder base to work with.
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