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Trip: Mt. Hood - Infinity Loop Trip Date: 06/21/2019 Trip Report: After a hard day and a half in the mountains, I'm stoked to report the Mt. Hood infinity loop goes! The past few weeks I was busy with graduation stuff and couldn't get on the mountain. Finally, on the 20th, the weather looked alright and I decided to head up to attempt the loop. My plan was to climb up Cooper Spur, run half of the Timberline trail, climb Cooper Spur again, and then run the other half of the Timberline trail. Knowing how much gear I needed, I cached some food, water, and clothes by Timberline Lodge before I started up. The rest of the supplies I would hike up with and stash at Cloud Cap Campground. At around 4 or so I arrived at the trail head to go to Cloud Cap Campground. The gate was still closed so I hiked up the trail to camp in about an hour and half. The weather was pretty nice despite some wind and clouds surrounding the summit of the mountain. I was all alone at camp which is always welcome. After eating some dehydrated pad thai, I was asleep before the sun set. The beautiful approach hike 4 am rolls around and my alarm goes off. I throw some food in my small pack and head up trail. Everything is going pretty good until I start the switchbacking up to the route. Visibility could have been better, the wind was howling, and I was pretty cold. The tee shirt plus R1 was probably not the best clothing choice for the conditions that day. When I got to tie in rock, I hid behind it and warmed up for a few minutes. Having never been on Cooper Spur before, I was surprised at the type of climbing. The first few thousand feet were basically a moderately steep snow slope, however, the last 600 or so involved thin ice climbing, mixed moves, and lots of exposed rock. I was glad I decided to bring 2 tools. After about 3 and a half hours I was on the summit. There still wasn't any visibility but the wind was gone. I cruised down the old chute and was at Timberline by the early afternoon. Part of the trail up Summit selfie When I got to my cache, I put on running shorts, ditched the boots, crampons, and stocked up on more GU and water. I decided to take the west side of the Timberline Trail first, the west side was longer and would provide less down time before the second summit. The first few miles of the trail were pretty snowy but after Paradise Park it was largely dry. It was pretty wet and fog obscured any scenic view. I think I made it to camp around 7 pm that night, the first climb slowed down my pace on the trail significantly. At camp, I was no longer alone. Apparently the gate opened that day! I was stoked because I could hitch a ride down after my trip instead of hiking back out. After eating some apples and changing into climbing stuff again, I was off on the second lap. This time conditions were absolutely perfect. Clear skies and no wind allowed me to enjoy the stars and see the lights of the city. That view will never get old. This time it took me about 6 hours to reach the summit. I took liberal breaks because I didn't want to be tired for the mixed section. At 2:30, I was on the summit for the second time in 24 hours. It was quiet, clear, and very enjoyable. This time, the descent was harder. The hard snow put a number on my knees during the descent. At this point, the lack of sleep was catching up to me. Cool rock I saw The stunning, but haunted Ramona Falls Creek crossing with huge carin Enjoying better conditions later in the day When I made it back down to Timberline, I had 16 more miles to go. My legs felt surprisingly fresh when I headed out. The first 6 miles or so were cruiser, however, intermittent snow slowed me down on the last little bit. I made it back to the parking lot after 32 hours, 28 minutes, and 8 seconds. This trip was one of my favorites in recent memory. I hope the infinity loop catches on on Mt. Hood. I would love to see some hardmen knock down the time. In total it was 56.65 miles and 20,445 feet of elevation gain. Get after it Gear Notes: Tee shirt and R1 Approach Notes: Road to Cloud Cap is now open

Trip: Mt Adams - Adams Glacier Headwall "Ice Extension" (IV, AI3+, 55 deg snow) Trip Date: 06/09/2019 Trip Report: @nkimmes and I climbed a variation of the Adams Glacier Headwall "Ice Extension" June 8-9. First ascent by @wayne and @YocumRidge July 4, 2011. Approach was straightforward from Killen Creek TH. Open air bivy at 7,000'. Minor glacier travel with little to no crevasse danger to base of the route. A long, moderate snow slope began at about 9000'. Some rock and ice fall as the sun hit the cliffs on the upper headwall. We solo'd a short WI2 pitch on the left side of the lowest cliff band at 10,400'. The WI3+ pitch began at just below 11,000'. In this case it climbed in one 60m pitch to the upper snow slope. Ice was a bit thin in spot but took 10 and 13cm screws well. From there we ascended a bit more to the rime at the base of the upper cliffs. We checked for an exit to the right but this is a no go. As mentioned in the FA report, the traverse to the left is sketchy with hardly any pro (hollow screws and some makeshift rimy/snow horns that I chopped out and slung). Unfortunately, the AI4 pitch in the left corner looked nothing like 2011, and was mostly rotten rock. Instead, we opted to traverse all the way left to the spine which divides the headwall from the next snow ramp over. We solo'd this to 11,800'. From there it's a long flat slog to the summit. We had initially planned a ski descent of the nf of the nw ridge. However, we watched another skier drop in and climb back up after about 1,000'. He joined us on the summit to report that it was completely bulletproof. We opted for plan b and found cruiser corn all the way down the north ridge to our bivy. 13 hours camp to camp. View of Rainier from the bivy. Ascent in red. Descent in blue. Solo'ing the WI2 pitch. Approaching the base of the WI3+ pitch. First moves of the pitch. Noah following the ice pitch. Route zoomed in. We actually stayed more left on the snow slope. Sketchy traverse. Summit! S Noah on the ski descent. Gear Notes: 2x10cm, 4x13cm & 1x17cm ice screws; 2-3 pickets Approach Notes: Approached from Killen Creek TH.

Trip: Mt Hood - Cathedral Ridge (via bike approach) Trip Date: 06/22/2019 Trip Report: Ever since I encountered this excellent-looking bike ride on the interwebs, I've been scheming to combo it with a climb of Hood. http://bestrides.org/lolo-pass-back-road/ I left the town of Zigzag (at a painfully low 1500 ft elevation) on my bike at 4:30am, and began the ascent up to the trailhead via FR 1828. The pitch was quite reasonable, I was worried about the bike ride with all my gear, but after popping it in my lowest gear I was able to putter up without too much effort. I reached the trailhead around 6am and began the hike up Timberline trail. Pretty fantastic misty-light-through-trees action on the way up. I downloaded a trip report of Cathedral Ridge onto my phone, but hadn't started reading it until I got up to McNeil shelter. The TR made it seem quite convoluted and exciting, which gave me a bit of pause since I was just going up solo in my approach shoes. The route turned out to be quite straightforward though. Between 7400 and 8800 it stays more climber's left of the ridge, and ducks right of the ridge around a big cliffband at 9200. At least the way I did it. I took crampons on & off a few times when nice snow slopes appeared, but I encountered nothing steeper than 40 degrees. And it probably goes without saying, but the rock was pretty shitty and loose. I summitted around 11am, and saw my first humans of the day. Largely uneventful on the descent, other than a few exhilarating glissade runs. The road surface on FR 1828 was a bit iffy, so I instead descended East Lolo Pass Rd, which just consisted of open straightaways at relatively mellow grades. I was really psyched on this trip! Really cool part of the mountain, although this was my first time up Hood so I can't really compare. Route: Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, bike Approach Notes: Zigzag --> Timberline trail

Love how casually you guys dispatched that!

This is one of my favorite of the summer (new to me at least)!