Mt Hood

Mt Hood (Palmer-Hogsback Route)
Elev: 11,237 feet
May 1, 2005

Mt Hood has been on my radar for some time now, I guess because of the allure that all big mountains have. Yet it's been difficult to get motivated to climb it because I tried it a few years ago only to turn back half-way up the ski slopes when my partner began feeling sick. That's a long way to go to get turned around! Then there's it's reputation for being very crowded and of course that horrible accident three years ago when nine climbers fell into the bergschrund and the rescue helicopter crashed. Unfortunately, that event made me a little wary of the climb. Still, it's a climb I've been badly wanting to do. So with the summer-like conditions occuring this spring, Kirsten and I decided to hit it a little early, hopefully avoiding the fantastically large summer crowds while getting it in good shape.

Before leaving Saturday afternoon, the weather forecast was not so great, so I was a bit nervous. And even though Kirsten had climbed it before, she was a little nervous. I guess being tent-bound alone for 3 days in the middle of the Ptarmigan Traverse had left us a little gun-shy.

On the way down to Oregon, the weather wasn't looking too bad, until we got across the border and Hood was nowhere to be found. The only mountain-like image on the horizon was a large, puffy orange and gray cloud, stacked up vertically, piling up on top of itself in the place where Mt Hood should have been. This was a little concerning, but in my best effort to remain positive, I cheerfully predicted that there was no way it could still be there in the morning.

After a short night of sleep in Kirsten's Jeep (Plum) in the Timberline parking lot at 6,000 feet, we awoke at 4am to a clear, star-sprinkled sky. We could see headlamps high up on the Palmer Glacier and we hastily got ready to go. We chose to leave at 5 because ranger reports indicated that the Pearly Gates were coated with rime so there was little risk of rockfall and we also didn't want to begin our ski descent before the snow had a chance to warm up. That would be a big waste of all the effort to take the skis up there! So off we went, following wands marking the ski area boundary with our headlamps on. The soft rays of the slumbering sun were just beginning to leak over the horizon, and before long they grew bright enough that we put the headlamps away.

After a couple hours we reached the top of the 2,600-foot ski slope and encountered the first groups of other climbers on the route. I imagine it wouldn't be a true Mt Hood experience without seeing a few strange things along the way. The first of these was a group of climbing students at the top of the ski area practicing French technique in crampons at 6 in the morning. A bit too early for that sort of activity, in my mind! As we climbed closer to Crater Rock, we passed a family carrying plastic sleds, intending to sled down the um, frozen snow in their flat, plastic death sliding devices. Then we passed a team on their way down. We asked them how the summit was, and they replied they didn't make it -- that they had to turn around before Crater Rock because they had a 6pm flight out of Seatac back home to North Carolina.

As we slogged up the icy glacier, we were thrilled about our luck with the weather. The temperature was mild, there was barely a whisper of wind, and the only clouds to be seen were below us to the eastof the mountain. They were blowing in a southwesterly direction, trying to push their way onto the mountain, but making little progress. After reaching the Hogsback at around 9am, we stopped to put on our crampons and harnesses and have a bight to eat before climbing up past the bergschrund toward the Pearly Gates. As we got ready, the clouds suddenly started pouring over the top of the mountain and within minutes we were in a whiteout with as little as 100 feet of visibility at times. There was a well established boot pack leading up the Hogsback, so we had no hesitations about continuing to the summit, but we were a little worried about how route-finding would be below Crater Rock on our way down the Palmer Glacier.

We headed up and found the snow in great shape for cramponing and the bergschrund mostly closed, although the snow bridges are not going to be around much longer. We didn't rope up because we weren't worried about the bergschrund and we didn't plan to put in any protection on the way up. Getting through the Pearly Gates was easy -- certainly not worth the anxiety about it that I had fostered in my mind -- and before long we were on the final slope to the summit. The last hundred feet to the summit were tough as the accumulation of the long climb, the altitude, and the excess of clothing layers began to drag us down. We reached the summit at 10am, a little disappointed at the lack of any kind of view, but extremely happy to be at the top. We hung out for just a few minutes, just long enough totake a few pictures, and the clouds actually thinned out enough a couple times to open up views of Mt Rainier and Mt Adams.

We descended back to the Hogsback and donned our skis. We wanted to hang out and wait for the snow to warm up a little more and hopefully corn up, but because the clouds were getting so thick and there were afternoon thunderstorms forecasted, we decided to scrape our way down on the frozen stuff. The first 1000 feet down to below Crater Rock were icy and cruddy! Kirsten took a bumpy ride on her butt at one point because her edges didn't grab. Below Crater Rock we ran into a Ranger climbing on skis who bemoaned the icy conditions and feared that he would to have to initiate a rescue of the family with the sleds. He was a funny, chill dude, and a welcome relief from some of the not-so-pleasant rangers we've run into in the North Cascades.

We decided to sit down and have lunch and see if the snow would corn up, but after about half an hour we got really bored and decided to continue down. We timed it pretty well because thesnow immediately improved and within a few hundred feet we were on sweet, creamy corn! We took endless turns on the stellar snow down the broad expanse of the Palmer Glacier and a few hundred feet further we found ourselves below the cloud ceiling. We aimed for the ski area and before long we were just another pair on the resort ski slopes. With the exception, of course, of the packs full of climbing gear on our backs. We enjoyed the smug feeling for a few moments, but I was quickly humbled as my quads started quivering from the tele turns and the snow turned into grabby shmoo, forcing me to parallel turn. And my parallel turns are uggg-ly. Especially when I'm tired and have a pack on filled with the aforementioned climbing gear.

We did manage to survive the ski resort, though, and we made it safely back to Plum just after noon, where we enjoyed a beer and the warm, fresh memories of our climb and ski. Now, having that first climb of Hood under my belt, and having enjoyed it immensely, we have resolved to try and make it an annual trip.