Feb 17, 2008, Mt. Hood
2/17/08
OR Mt Hood
2109
1
After a successful summit ski of Mt. Catherine behind Hyak a couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to take the next logical step.
So off to Mt. Hood we drove.
We rolled out of the luxurious Mazama lodge at about 2:30 and were climbing by about 3:30. Beautiful gibbous moon lit the way up the Timberline Ski Area as we made our way to Crater Rock. The bulletproof ice from the Palmer lift up to Crater was definitely cause for concern. The other skier in our group of 4 decided to drop the extra 8 pounds 1,000ft below Crater as skiing that stuff was the farthest thing from his mind. At Hogsback we took a long break and looked on as several climbers seemed to be having a hard time working up the Pearly Gates. We found out later it was pretty nasty in there and more technical than we would have wanted anyways.
Instead we decided to scope out the West Crater route. It looked like some others had been up that way in recent days and there was a remnant boot pack. Pretty uneventful kicking steps up to the ridge.
We all summitted with a strange feeling that we shouldn't be there. Definitely not in February with Bluebird sky and a light summer breeze. I'm definitely going to have to pay for that one.
The "skiing" was interesting with various pockets of turnable snow and bulletproof ice. It was amazingly hot in the crater though and depending on exposure the turnable snow varied from styrofoam to mashed potatoes. Southeast side of the Hogsback had buttery turns, then on to the bulletproof slabs beneath Crater all the way to groomers.
Traversed over to Illumination looking for better snow and found a few 100 ft of good skiing. Looking up it looked like several others had enjoyed pretty good snow as they dropped off of the West side of Crater Rock towards Illumination/Zigzag.
Finished off with a poached run down the groomers and into the lodge for a celebratory beer.
Last two photos courtesy of Chris Willett. Thanks Chris.
;D
So off to Mt. Hood we drove.
We rolled out of the luxurious Mazama lodge at about 2:30 and were climbing by about 3:30. Beautiful gibbous moon lit the way up the Timberline Ski Area as we made our way to Crater Rock. The bulletproof ice from the Palmer lift up to Crater was definitely cause for concern. The other skier in our group of 4 decided to drop the extra 8 pounds 1,000ft below Crater as skiing that stuff was the farthest thing from his mind. At Hogsback we took a long break and looked on as several climbers seemed to be having a hard time working up the Pearly Gates. We found out later it was pretty nasty in there and more technical than we would have wanted anyways.
Instead we decided to scope out the West Crater route. It looked like some others had been up that way in recent days and there was a remnant boot pack. Pretty uneventful kicking steps up to the ridge.
We all summitted with a strange feeling that we shouldn't be there. Definitely not in February with Bluebird sky and a light summer breeze. I'm definitely going to have to pay for that one.
The "skiing" was interesting with various pockets of turnable snow and bulletproof ice. It was amazingly hot in the crater though and depending on exposure the turnable snow varied from styrofoam to mashed potatoes. Southeast side of the Hogsback had buttery turns, then on to the bulletproof slabs beneath Crater all the way to groomers.
Traversed over to Illumination looking for better snow and found a few 100 ft of good skiing. Looking up it looked like several others had enjoyed pretty good snow as they dropped off of the West side of Crater Rock towards Illumination/Zigzag.
Finished off with a poached run down the groomers and into the lodge for a celebratory beer.
Last two photos courtesy of Chris Willett. Thanks Chris.
;D
Nice work on the summit ski. I may have saw you guys (could have been another group though) on the West Crater route from down below as I was up there riding the lifts. I thought about heading up towards Crater Rock in the morning but a similar day last year didn't yield great "turns." It was definitely firm and icy up higher on the mile. About 1:30 I tired of lift riding and took the splitboard out up towards the Palmer for a quick mini-workout. Interesting to hear about it being so warm in the crater with the mushy snow.....
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