Leaderboard

Trip: Mt Hood - DKH- Elliot HW linkup Trip Date: 04/03/2021 Trip Report: Unable to secure a partner for Saturday, I opted for some soloing on Hood over the less preferable slog-to-climb ratio in the Three Sisters. Drove up from Bend at 3am and was skinning by 5 from Timberline. Ok skinning to Palmer, complete trash above that. Should've ditched the skis there, or booted the whole thing. Looking up DKH1: Looking down above the crux: DKH1 was spewing a near constant stream of little rime pebbles despite the freezing temps and there's a considerable debris field at the base. The main couloir itself was in pretty gross shape, lots of exposed rock and thin plastered ice, but not too steep. However the crux was a bit fatter and better ice than when I climbed it in late January. I climbed it carefully, anticipating being hit in the arms or head at any moment, but went off without a hitch. At the fork I headed right for a couple more fun moderate ice sections. There was a fork about 200ft below the ridge, went left, looked more fun, delicate move over a little rock and ice bulge then more easy ice and snow. I had to make a couple awkward, catwalk like moves to bust out left from the top of the couloir onto the very upper Wyeast face. Here I found the least consolidated snow of the day. Easy walk to summit from there. The weather had been looking marginal, cloudy with chance of increasing winds, but at the summit it was calm and the clouds seemed unthreatening and happy to remain pretty high. I figured I'd head over to check out the Elliot, taking a look at the exit options from the summit ridge. Looked steep! The leftmost exit in Mullee looked like very steep snow and shitty ice to gain the ridge, the rightmost exit looked nicer. Elliot from the base. I took the flow just left of the rock center of photo: I sat at the little saddle above Horseshoe rock to have a bite and look at the route. The amount of ice back there is incredible! Go get it folks, it's fat, and it's good. I traversed in and down on steep snow, above the schrund, to the base of a pretty fat WI3 ish flow that seemed like a logical way to start. From there I trended slightly left, then back right, aiming for the obvious "Wallace 5.7 chimney" exit described in Mullee. Many more WI2 ish sections followed, all on bomber ice, interspersed with some steep snow. It's truly a pick-your-own-adventure headwall! The exit looked steeper and steepr as I got closer and I could feel the adrenaline starting to pump through my veins; thankfully it was filled in with a nice little WI3/3+ ribbon. There seem to be lots of fun mixed exit options all over up there on half decent looking rock. I plugged a couple screws at the base of the last pitch and took a breather, psyching myself up. It was surprisingly steep, but was able to get good stems up it with the occasional pon-on-rock stem. The exposure was a little heady, I took my time, and soon enough was on epic easy ice and a few feet of steep snow back onto the ridge, a nice cornice-free top out. The cloud cover kept the snow above Palmer nice and rimey all day, so I had to take the walk of shame back to Palmer where I could finally ski back to the car. Pretty psyched on the linkup possibilities on Hood! It's go time in Oregon! Gear Notes: 3 screws, 3 alpines, 4 pins and 60m x 6mm tagline for bail options (not used) Approach Notes: Standard

Trip: Mt Hood - Devil's Kitchen Headwall (4/2/21) DKH Trip Date: 04/02/2021 Trip Report: Climbed on 4/2/21, very solid climbing conditions. Not "super fat", but still very possible to get good sticks and place screws and protect without any rock gear or pins. Full trip report: http://gethighonaltitude.com/2021/04/03/mt-hood-the-devils-kitchen-headwall/ Gear Notes: Screws, pickets Approach Notes: South side, you know what to do

Trip: Mt Hood - Cathedral Ridge Trip Date: 04/03/2021 Trip Report: Images https://imgur.com/gallery/qoDJPvE 10:00 PM Climbers lot at Timberline 12:00 AM Top of Palmer 01:10 AM Illumination Saddle 02:40 AM 7775 feet at Yocum Ridge crossing 03:30 AM At bottom of Cathedral Ridge ramp 05:20 AM At top of ramp and on ridge 06:30 AM 9345 feet 08:30 AM Past crux pyramid rock tower 09:45 AM 10540 feet 10:50 AM Summit Climbed Cathedral Ridge on Saturday on foot from Timberline. A little bit of breakable crust but not bad from Palmer to Illumination Saddle. Downclimb onto the Reid was easy. Across the Reid had mostly semi firm nice snow. No crevasses in sight. Crossing of Yocum at 7775 was easy. Ran out of energy in the middle of crossing the Sandy Glacier. Only had a single bar to that point, not that my stomach would have like more. Sounded like a river of small ice pieces was coming down from the cliffs to the left of the ramp up to Cathedral Ridge. Also, there was a ~4-foot-wide rock that had recently fallen down off the ridge sitting on the Sandy. Not good signs but oh well. Went up the ramp. The right side was getting a good bit of ice fall. One barrage had several 2-3-inch sized chunks and one football sized or larger. Seriously contemplated turning around. Staying to the left kept me out most of it, was hit only once and not too bad. Got up into the rocks on the left side of the ramp and around something that I though might take me to the ridge but was a dead end / cliff on the left. Traversed right back to the route and then up to the ridge proper and was able to stay out of any icefall. In the future, if I try this again it will have to be where there is a better freeze. Freezing level this morning was only forecast for 7800 feet. Getting around the gum drop was super easy, barely noticed there was exposure on the right. The crux pyramid rock tower had good snow and the lower part was easy to climb. About half way up traversed left and then climbed that side. Seemed a whole lot safer than down climbing out on the Ladd Headwall or whatever it is called on the left side even though it is much less steep. One slip and that’d be it. Another option would be to stay at the same elevation and climb through the rocks - a bunch more work and still have to climb up later in maybe worse conditions. Went on hands and feet along the knife edge traverse though it was still better than expected. Gear Notes: Crampons, 2 tools, helmet Approach Notes: Normal slog up cat tracks. MtHoodCathedralRidge.gpx

Nice work! I enjoyed your trip report. Haha, caveat emptor to those who follow the steps of @zaworotiuk! I’m going to try your tool/picket combo the next time I find myself doing battle with the steep sugar snow.

I'm glad someone else "enjoyed" our "useless variation" at the top I also did the "right" exit above the crux that you mention last weekend. I'd never gone that way but recalled the book mentioning it. It was... weird. Not totally clear where to go and we ended up belaying a short section of traversing downclimbing to get onto the finish of the Wy'east route.

Nice perseverance, but you were not in powder but Cascade Cement :-)