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Thanks for all of the information it has been really helpful! After a lot of research, I think that the timing of a summit and downclimb via a route as technical as the Wy'East with skiing the Newton Clark headwall is going to be too tight to have a good margin for safety. If I had experience climbing the Wy'East route, and knew exactly how long the climb and downclimb would take it might be a different story. However, I don't want to rush the climb (and downclimb) of a route as exposed as Wy'East, nor do I want to ski the Newton Clark headwall when there is high risk of causing a wet slab avalanche. Especially when (depending on the year) there is some crevasse hazards on the Newton Clark headwall. At the end of the day, for me, its better to plan these two objectives on separate days to ensure that risk is kept within a manageable zone. @bedellympian you are correct, the fact that the Newton Clark headwall is one of the 50 classic ski descents did factor in to my decision. I had the opportunity last year ski a different 50 line (summit Young's Peak in Rogers Pass, BC and ski down the Seven Steps to Paradise). It was the best back country run I've ever skied, and figured it would be great to see if another 50 line is as good. @Fairweather Thanks for the suggestion re the Cooper Spur, I will look into that line a bit more for sure! Since I have spent a considerable amount of time researching the Wy'East route, and because everyone on this board has been so helpful, I figured it would be a good idea to consolidate some of my research here to show how serious the route is and to assist anyone else trying to climb this route. I will state that a summit via the Wy'East route is a pretty serious objective with a fair amount of exposure. The below research is meant to assist people with understanding the seriousness of the route, and to help them understand what they would be getting themselves in to if they do attempt it. I make no warranties or representations about the accuracy of the information. Any potential climbers need to also conduct their own research and make an informed decision on whether or not to take on the risk, and whether or not they have the skills necessary to climb it. Getting to the first Crux: The first resource should be the Mt Hood Climber's Guide by Bill Mullee. It gives a great overview of the route with some general descriptions. Although I found the descriptions and photos to be lacking in detail, it definately gave me a good starting place to do research. The guidebook suggests leaving from Timerbline and crossing the White River glacier at 7100'. If leaving from Meadows Caltopo maps show a few paths that appear reasonable. I have highlighted the first crux on the map with a red star. (Map from CalTopo with Google Satellite baselayer, the map builder overlay, with countours and slope angle shading. I've attached the top down map as well. same parameters as the map above, just with 3d turned off. When climbing to ski the Newton Clark Headwall, Cody Townsend and Michelle Parker chose to start at Meadows: When climbing the Wy'East route and skiing from the summit (including the Newton Clark headwall - absolutely crazy), Michael Wirth also left from Meadows: There are some really good photos on MountainProject.com of some of the aspects below the first crux. Photos and information here: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106202622/wyeast Chris Comair has a blog post on climbing the devil's kitchen headwall and Wy'East. I found the photos and information concerning the Wy'East route to be quite helpful. it can be found here: https://gethighonaltitude.com/2020/05/15/mt-hood-flying-buttress-wyeast/ There is one particular photo I found in Chris' blog post that shows the terrain before the first crux well (photo appears to have been taken from the first crux looking down): (Photo by Chris Comair from his blog referenced above) The First Crux: In terms of the first crux (the traverse) I found a few good pieces of information and some photos. There were two photos posted by Scott Branscum on the MountainProject.com link referenced above: (Photos by Scott Branscum uploaded to MountainProject.com link referenced above) It is worth noting that the Mount Hood Climber's guide by Bill Mullee states that it is usually best to stay low on this traverse (which appears to be the route advocated for in Scott's photos). In his Blog post, Chris Comair suggests a different route over the first crux than the route suggested by Scott in his photos. Chris is climbing the route at a different time of year than Scott, but his logic behind the route choice (while not stated explicitly) appears to be to minimize the size of the fall if one occurs by climbing above a smaller cliff. Chris advocates for this route: (Photo by Chris Comair in his blog post referenced above) The Rising Traverse: Once above the first crux, there is a rising traverse to the summit. According to the Mt. Hood Climber's Guide by Bill Mullee, there are some gullies to the climber's left (above you)but these are dead end ice chutes so don't be lured upwards too soon. A general map of the traverse can be found below (Note how exposed this is, an avalanche or uncaught fall on this portion of the route doesn't seem survivable) (Photo from Mt Hood Climber's Guide written by Bill Mullee) I have scoured youtube to try to find different perspectives of climbing the route to try to get an idea of what protection people are using for this rising traverse. At least one video showed roping up and using pickets for the rising traverse: The Chimney: After the traverse is done and you've reached the chimney, Chris's blog suggests going straight up instead of continuing to traverse: (Photo by Chris Comair from his blog post referenced above) It seems like once you reach the chimney, keeping a bit climber's left, its straight climb to the east summit ridge: (Photo by Bob Pool posted to MountainProject.com at the link referenced above) Here's a video showing the top portion of the route: another video showing the top portion of the route: Other helpful links: - https://www.summitpost.org/wy-east/157708 - https://mazamas.org/activity/70/ If I've missed something feel free to add it. Again, information is provided to show how serious the route is and each person needs to conduct their own research to decide if they are capable of climbing it. I make no claims about the accuracy of the information either, I have merely compiled what I found into one place. Climb at your own risk.

I’ve had little to no motivation for TR writing this last year, but figured I should try and get this story out into the world before I forget some of the fun details. Last April Eli Spitulnik and I flew onto the Ruth Glacier with about five weeks of food. We hoped to stay there until it warmed up, then bump to the Tokositna to do some climbing on Huntington. We got deposited right next to a very cold and dejected Brit and Slovene. The winter cold was still holding on strong, with nightly winds burying our camps regardless of how recently it snowed. Tom and Gasper had been there for about a week already and spun tales of vertical sugar snow and towering snow mushrooms. Their attempts on Blood from the Stone, and the direct start to RGG were valiant, but fruitless. Huge thanks to basecamp gear sponsor Kurt Ross. Chamonix style storm day skiing with Tom and Gasper. Who needs a pack anyways? Scouting. After almost two weeks and various attempts on other routes, we began skiing towards the SE face of Bradley at about 3 in the afternoon. Along for the ride was 3 days of food and a rack suitable for El Cap. Our intended line would start on Vitalogy (Zimmerman/Allen 2010) to gain the hanging snowfield in the middle of the face. Once there, we would climb more or less straight up the center of the face intending to finish in a couloir that would take us to the summit ridge. Day 1.) Following the same night climbing method as Graham and Mark, we hung out below the face as it went into the shade. Watching and listening as it calmed down for the night. Once things fell quiet, we began up the approach ramp. At the end of the ramp was a cave guarded by a 25ft tall overhanging mushroom. Still in simul mode, I fiddled in a small nest of gear and began pulling some steep mixed moves to surpass the overhanging portion of the shroom. From off to the side and around a corner 60m away, Eli heard a faint “watch me!” as I hung my pack off a beak and committed out onto the face of the shroom. Kicking myself for leaving the picket at camp, I beat the mushroom into submission until I was able to flop over and into the cave. Downclimbing from a gear cache on an early "false start". The weather changed and we decided to retrieve our rack the next morning and pivot to a different objective. The start ramp continues out left. Eli mantles onto my pack before stepping out right onto the mushroom. The next few pitches were some of the most brilliant mixed climbing I’ve done outside of a crag setting. A perfectly splitter slightly overhanging #4 crack, and short pendulum took us out towards the lip of the cave, where ice blobs allowed for an easy exit. A pitch of junky slush and a short traverse (dubbed M5R in the Vitalogy topo) took us to the M6 turf flakes pitch. A wonderfully long series of dirt filled grooves and flakes just frozen enough to get good sticks. By the time Eli made it up to the belay it was officially dark. Eli pulled on his rock shoes and took the lead. He took us out right up a well protected corner that gained a pillar, then up and right out into the slabs below the snowfield. Following in my crampons, I scratched my way up to the most heinous hanging belay. Balancing on crystals in my mono points I belayed as Eli swapped back into boots and began a long extremely runout traverse crossing fingers of barely refrozen snow over slab to gain the snowfield. Desperately sliding out of glassy fists. Delicious blobs Glorious turf At one point while readjusting to keep my legs from falling asleep I turned around to see the sky erupting in green and purple stripes. I shouted into the darkness to look at the sky. A distant hoot followed a moment later and I began lowering out the bags. The rest of the night was a blur of unprotected wallowing up crusty sun-baked facets in an attempt to reach the prow bivy before sunrise. Staring at the rope snake off into the darkness I weighed my options of preparing to unclip in the event of a fall, or try and catch a 120m whip. We arrived at the bivy just before sunrise. My perception of time is beginning to slip. Day 2 After a restless few hours festering in the tent listening to wet slides, we began prepping for another night of climbing. This time we would be leaving behind the comfort of previously traveled terrain and entering an unknown world. Bailing from above the snowfield while likely not impossible, would have been a bad time. More sparsely protected snow climbing took us up to a flared and wet crack feature that Eli dispatched fairly easily in his rock shoes. From there a few pitches of engaging mixed climbing took us to what I expected to be the crux of the route. From photos, a large snow plastered double corner system seemed to be the most obvious way, but it would likely involve some gross aid climbing tactics. We arrived below the feature in fading light as night two began. It looked so much worse up close than from afar. In a last-ditch effort to find an alternative, I traversed left looking for anything else. As I swam my way around the corner, a pillar revealed itself with a perfect wide crack and thin seam alongside it. It didn’t entirely look like it went all the way, but it was a good next step. With high hopes I began trying to free climb my way to the top of the pillar. The climbing was wonderful, but as soon as my feet began to skate off the sloping edges, all style went out the window. I took my crampons off and went full aid mode. From the top of the pillar, the seam kept going as the angle lessened. A mixture of direct aiding off of my tools and free moves on massive granite jugs took me to a generous belay stance. We were likely through the hardest pitch, but still had a lot of mountain above us. Some slab climbing in double boots took me to a delaminated slabby smear of ice. I equalized two garbage beaks and put my crampons back on. Despite my best efforts at being gentle, my beyond dull picks threatened to send me, and this detached smear down the mountain as every kick and swing bounced off. The next several pitches were a lesson in route finding as Eli took us up down and around to the main gut of the face above. I still don’t know where the best way to go was, but a diagonal rappel and some faff took us where we wanted to go. The sun began to rise as we entered a massive funnel that was invisible in the pictures we had. Afraid we’d be swept away if we lingered too long, we shifted into gear and made it to a semi protected bivy before anything had a chance to warm up and start falling. The massive snow choked chimney is visible in the background. When in doubt, traverse. Another restless day of napping came and went without any surprises. At this height, the mountain was much quieter and felt less affected by the sun. At some point in the day, Eli was awoken by a loud rumbling from over in the direction of Mt Wake. He mumbled 6/10 and rolled over back to sleep. A shovel would have been nice. Day (night?) 3 We started climbing at about 5:30 with several pitches of quality mixed and neve climbing. At some point I was pounding a pin when the hammer of my tool snapped off and flew into the abyss. Mildly perturbed I shrugged and continued bashing the hopelessly bottomed out beak with the back of my tool. All around the same time, the sun set, the snow began to fall, and the trenching began. Juuuust enough ice. After a long cold belay, I took over the lead and made one of the biggest rookie mistakes. I had just followed the previous pitch in my down parka but was still chilled, so I chose to start leading the next pitch with it still on. It was some of the most awful steep snow climbing I hope to ever experience. As the snowfall picked up, so did the spindrift. It smacked me in the face and dumped down the back of my parka, melting against my back and freezing the down solid. I was in no position to stop and take my pack off, so just suffered until I could get a belay out of the firing line. One block later we made it to a sheltered flat spot and decided to call it a day. We knew the storm was going to be short lived, so opted to wait it out and continue when we had a better idea of where we were on the mountain. Beginning another pitch of trenching Spindrift avalanches lulled us to sleep as they scraped over the top of our tent. After about ten hours, the storm seemed to be subsiding. Slightly worried about our skis getting buried at the base, I texted Tom asking if he could go check on them for us. WET Day 4 Two long simul blocks took us to the summit, where swirling clouds gave us brief glimpses over towards Hunter, Huntington and Denali. In an attempt to investigate how overhung the summit cornice was, I tiptoed my way around on relatively flat ground until I could see the other side. I must have taken one step too far, because the next thing I knew I was in freefall. I came to rest about 25 feet down in soft powder with snow filling my glasses. Unharmed, I frantically clawed my way out of the maw. Once free, I damn near fell back into the thing crossing back over to uphill side. Once in earshot of Eli I shouted over to him that I was okay. He just looked at me with a confused gaze that told me he had no idea I'd just fallen. There was so much slack in the system at that point that he didn’t feel a thing. Now I know that summit crevasses exist. Big D showing off. The "let's get the fuck out of here" thumbs up. After a few celebratory summit photos and facetimes with Eli’s family and my partner, we began down. The descent was supposed to be easy, but we knew of a few parties who had epics getting down. It proved to be mostly walking and easy downclimbing. A few easy rappels got us to, and down from the Bradley-Wake col, where we slogged back to our skis at the base. Where's Waldo? How not to back up a V-thread. Upon arrival at our skis, we were greeted with an unexpected sight. ONLY my skis, poles and one skin were stuck in the snow surrounded by evidence of extensive digging and stomping. A ziplock bag with a few jelly bellies and a twix bar were stuck in between the skis. Mildly strung out despite our long sleep the night before, we theorized what could have possibly happened and messaged Tom. 6/10 While repacking, I stumbled across one additional ski buried under the snow, followed shortly by both of Eli’s poles. It wasn’t going to be easy getting back, but at least it wasn’t going to be awful. We limped back into camp at 11:50pm. Happy and ready to lay down for a while. We named our route "sports" due to the ridiculous grade that the route got. Rock climbing, mixed climbing, ice climbing, aid climbing... snow climbing. All the sports. Not to mention the equally ridiculous song "Sports" by the Viagra Boys that kept making an appearance throughout the trip. 3 days later after plenty of rest, we bid Tom and Gasper a farewell and skied over to search for the missing ski and skin. We found the skin nearly 100m down glacier, the ski itself had been blown almost 30 meters from where we left it. Gear drying Style Eli scavenging for leftover food. The lower face had already melted out considerably in the days since we were on it. I'm guessing our traverse to the snowfield on the first day was likely gone the next. That same evening there was an accident on Mount Johnson. The next morning, we woke to the sound of a helicopter and messages from Kevin explaining the situation. We packed up for a rescue, not knowing what would be needed and began skiing down glacier. Clouds were threatening to thwart the helicopter rescue. By the time we got there, Kevin and Louie were already on their way down. We helped coil ropes, feed them and carry back the other party's gear. During our time before Bradley, we attempted “On the Frozen roads of our incertitude” on London tower. Mildly gripped Bailing We successfully climbed “Freezy nuts” to the summit of London Tower First tunnel of the trip Summit of London tower Attempted “Shaken not Stirred” on the Mooses Tooth in a push from our basecamp below Bradley. We made it one pitch from the col but turned around because of continually horrendous snow conditions. 24hrs camp to camp. Crux pitch. Felt like M7 conditions. Ropes going everywhere you don't want them to. Getting psyched to ski back down into the Ruth. After Bradley we flew to the Kahiltna and made a half assed attempt on the Bibler-Klewin on Hunter. Great conditions if you don't mind having no pro. Climbed “It’s Included” on Radio Control Tower 1.5 times. Digging the tunnel through the P2 cornice that was used for most of the ascents throughout the season. A solid 2 hour lead. Weather became continuously poor at the beginning of May, so we escaped while we still had a chance and became the bunk house locals until we could get a ride back to Anchorage.