Lookin Good on Hood

3/8/15

Mt Hood has been on my radar for a long time. I don’t know how anyone can live in Portland, seeing that beast every day (well, every day it’s not cloudy), and not want to climb it. And if there was ever a perfect day to climb, I’d say it was today.

Goodness and I drove up to Timberline Lodge Saturday evening and got a few hours of sleep in the car before setting out at ~2:15am (Pacific Standard Time, daylight savings confused the heck out of me). This early “alpine start” is standard practice for this kind of climbing, where the sun softens up the snow and increases danger of ice and rockfall. The moon was just past full, and with its light reflecting off the snow, we didn’t even need to use our headlamps as we climbed.

Portland city lights behind Illumination Rock
Portland city lights behind Illumination Rock
The dark specks on the left are climbers
The dark specks on the left are climbers

 

The first 2500′ up are easy walking following the ski lifts up. At the end of the lifts we put on our crampons in preparation for the steepening terrain and headed up towards Crater Rock. We passed several parties along the way and by the Hogsback, there were just 3 other climbers ahead of us. We opted for the Old Chute route – steep, but the snow was very stable and good for climbing.

Twilight on the hogsback.
Twilight on the hogsback.
Goodness looking up Old Chute, with the moon over Crater Rock and the hogsback, with steaming fumarole in the back for good measure.
Goodness looking up Old Chute, with the moon over Crater Rock and the hogsback, with a steaming fumarole in the back for good measure.
The first herd of climbers
The first herd of climbers
Old Chute route
Old Chute route
Alpenglow, looking down Hood all the way to Mt Jefferson
Alpenglow, looking down Hood all the way to Mt Jefferson
Mt Jefferson and at least one Sister
Mt Jefferson and at least one Sister
Our route up Old Chute
Our route up Old Chute
Mt Hood has a shadow!!
Mt Hood has a shadow!!

 

The first 3 climbers descended the Old Chute just as we arrived, so we had the summit to ourselves for a few minutes before a couple of badasses came up from Cooper Spur, humbling our feat. We basked in the sun for a short while, enjoying a perfectly calm summit.

Goodness on the summit.
Goodness on the summit.
Drop N Roll on the summit, with Mts St Helens, Rainier, and Adams in the background.
Drop N Roll on the summit, with Mts St Helens, Rainier, and Adams in the background.

 

By the time we headed down, those we had passed on the way up were on the summit ridge, so we had no traffic to contend with climbing down the chute – absolutely perfect timing! We encountered the second wave of climbers once we were back at the much less steep Hogsback.

You can see the Timberline parking lot all the way from the summit, so it was a very long slog back to the car. We were stripped down to single layers by the end and still sweating profusely in the hot sun. There were a bunch of folks out playing on the mountain, but the skiing just looked pathetic. This crazy weather is a skier’s loss, but a climber’s gain. What a great day!

 

Back down!
Back down!
Hogsback
Hogsback
What a fine day!
What a fine day!

 

5 Comments to “Lookin Good on Hood”

  2. Warren
    · Edit

    Wow, that is some steep climbing; not so bad going up, but going down! No thanks! -Awesome job for sure and “badass” in my estimation.

Comments are closed.