Hood - Sunshine - attempt 7/6/2008
Trip: Hood - Sunshine - attempt
Date: 7/6/2008
Trip Report:Headed out for the annual fourth of July ski tradition, and we had made plans to add the Sunshine route this year. The road to cloud cap is blocked by logs (not really blocked by snow, from what we could see) about halfway, but in talking with a friend we learned that we could head straight up the ski-trail, adding "about 1,000 feet of gain" and untold distance - but much shorter than 5 miles of road. We left town at 10, running on caffeine and adrenaline. We met up where the road is blocked - the impromptu parking lot/TH - and departed around 1am.
The ski trail is *reasonably* easy to follow in the dark, except that the blue trail blazes really blend in with bark under headlight illumination, and none of us had ever been on that trail before. After reasonable progress/bushwhacking/"routefinding" in the dark with no moon (we finally resorted to GPS to learn that we'd overshot the cloud cap TH)...we were on the moraine after about 2 hours - a little bit behind schedule.
After a futile attempt at skinning up the lower snow dome, we were back in crampons, lugging the damn skis up the hill - a little more behind schedule. Ray-lax was breaking in his new split-board set-up, so every change necessitated a boot change. On the way up we soaked up an amazing sunrise...red orange light with the sun rising like some kind of giant orange through low clouds/haze/(smoke from California wildfires?). We arrived at the top of the dome - a little more behind schedule - to find that the route was melted out significantly vs. 54-55 weeks ago. Perhaps this supports the hypothesis that the great snowpack this year is not any better above 9k feet.
We roped up and went left of the rock at the top of the dome, up and around some small crevasses. After just a short break at the top to eat/hydrate/gear up...it was amazing how quickly the snow started to soften. We were punching in ankle deep on the steeper, NE facing section. Things were still pretty firm on the traverse over to the ridge, but starting to soften up. Altimeter said 10.4k, and it was about 9am as I recall. We had a quick pow-wow and decided that things were too soft to ascend and come back down the sunshine route safely.
The descent to the dome was straightforward. More food, water, gear change...nice temps and breezy. By this point things had softened up to the point that we thoroughly enjoyed schralping the gnarr - to the point that we forgot all about the summit. Ray-lax was in love with the new split board.
We found the trail a little easier to follow in the daylight, but not much. Between fatique and sleep deprivation, none of us could recall exactly which trail/road crossing we needed to turn at. It seemed like a week had passed since early that morning. We kept telling Ray-lax that it was still only 6:45am. We found the cars without too much trouble, enjoyed getting our boots off, cotton on, and cold beer in the belly.
All in all, the most no-summit climbing fun I've ever had. Thanks guys, for a great trip.
pictures forthcoming
Gear Notes:-would have been a great day for ski crampons
-4th of July partay leftovers...MMMMM, MMMMM
Approach Notes:-10 consecutive months of skiing
-we felt that mountain bikes & 5 miles of road would be easier/more fun than the trail (especially for the descent!)
