Karl_S

South Side Beta: Climbed Wed night-Thr day 6/6/13. Very warm,but even by noon there was no ice fall at all. Pearly Gates: Berg is open some, but can easily be skirted to the right and climbed avoiding the main runnel and still giving a 'safe' runout to side of berg. There is a boot track for a small amount of the route. Rest was very firm snow. Right chute was very long and narrow. Left chute was reported by others to have some water ice, but I didn't see it myself. Pearly Gates is definitely more of a fear factor for first timers than Old Chute at this point. Descended Old Chute. Knife edge ridge had a groomed wide flat path. Descent has a deep boot track most of the way down. More than one boot track exists and will allow larger numbers. Runout is into the hot rocks dirt. After 10am snow was soft enough for skiing.

Nice climb! What did you use to track your route and onto GoogleEarth?

Did the Ice Cliff Glacier on 7-1-thru 7-2-2011. Conditions were on the soft side. Crux for us was the ice cliff. Must have gotten off line. We were a team of 3 and used 3 screws a few times and 3 pickets a few times. Upper berg was fairly easy with one big high step. Didn't have to try the Vertical Limits move, but in coming weeks it may require some creativity or skirting down and to the left. On descent, Sherpa Glacier bergs and crevasses were filled sufficiently with runnel snow to be walkovers. Cascadia route still all snow. Worst part was the mosquitoes on the hike in and out.

Thanks for the beta. What were your times to hike to camp? To Summit and to descend?

Great report. How far from trail head until you hit continuous snow? Did you take hiking shoes or go all the way in climbing boots? Was the summit ridge climbing boot compatible or would rock shoes have helped? Did you use the screws? Thanks. Thinking of climbing it this weekend.

Thanks all for the information!

Any beta on conditions and approaches to Mt Stuart for a July 4 climb?

Thought it might be good to start over on this issue with so many posts on the old one. As of 6-20-11: Pearly Gates: Main berg is open and wide both directions. A second berg lower and to climber's right of main berg has opened up making it impossible to climb the Pearly Gates without one of the bergs being in your fall line. The gates look in good shape. I could not detect any ice steps in the gates from my vantage point on the Hogs. Cliffs along West Crater Rim and most of Devils Kitchen are still 90% ice covered. Ice on Steel Cliffs is rapidly melting, but most is still there. Old Chute: In great shape. Topping out routes include direct to ridge and then a short 'walk' along the knife edge ridge or instead take one of at least 2 chutes to the climber's right after you are about 3/4 the way up the slope. These bypass the knife edge ridge, but that keep you in ice fall hazards and are prone to bottlenecks. Strategic route down low is to drop down from the Hogsback, rather than the high traverse under the cliffs, and after crossing the hot rocks (dirt) ascend straight up keeping the hot rocks in your fall line rather than the drop off into the fumerole to the climber's right. This puts you in the fall line of ice above, but you are some distance from them allowing time to "run". Part way up, move to the right to get out of line of cliff ice fall (now the fumerole is in your runout, but you have some distance to self arrest.). Choose your topping out.

On 5/14/11 the snow conditions at the Hogs and above were firm 2" crust over soft sugar. Before 9am it supported your weight. After that many places broke through resulting in post holing above the berg. Wasn't around long enough in the day to see it soften up high. I imagine its pretty consolidated by now and ava free even late in the afternoon until a very warm spell or more new snow.

South side had great weather Saturday 5/14/11, notwithstanding the crappy forecast. A little windy, but sunny. Berg open some. Easy skirt to right. Small shallow crevasse 50 ft downhill and a little left of center from gate tower face. Right gate had a steep section in center. Went up left Pearly Gate. Left gate was a narrow steep tunnel through rime ice barely wide enough for shoulders. No water ice, yet. Most climbers going up the Old Chute with a variation shortcut to the right up through a chute to avoid the knife edge ridge. Best sled ride ever using kiddie snow sled! Left the Triangle Morrain 9500' and in 30 minutes without getting out of the sled once ended up 100 yds from parking lot!

A fun route if you are in for at least two days is to start from Lolo Pass (Rd) on NW side of Mt Hood where the PCT crosses the road. I've put a couple of trip reports with pics at: http://stums.org/karl/Climbs-and-Hikes/Mt-Hood-Cathedral-Ridge-2007/index.html You need to call the ZigZag ranger station to find out if the road to Lolo Pass is open, yet. Send me an email if you want a topo map with way points. Karl Stum kstum@summitbe.com

Thanks. That worked!

Two pics below show closed crevasses and slightly open ones where you can kinda see where the more 'active' crevasse zones are.

I have two pics showing closed crevasses and slightly open ones where you can kinda see where the more 'active' crevasse zones are. Problem is I can't figure how to post them from my hard drive. Do I select the icon "Enter an Image" or "PhotoPost"? And when I do it doesn't let me browse to my hard drive???

Interesting thoughts on roping up (or not). Generalizations are dangerous, though. Poor techniques of teams of past disasters don't warrant discounting appropriate roping up. Successful team self arrest is highly a function of what position the first fallen climber is in, the rope slack and the skill of the climbers. If the fallen climber is at the top of the rope, the likelihood of successful team arrest goes down dramatically. Many teams are composed of a few experienced climbers and the rest inexperienced. The team leaders feel great responsibility for the safety of the team. That warrants a different approach than if all were experienced. In such cases, I like to rope up above the Hogs (with only 15-20' between climbers) and have the top two climbers (ascending and descending) be the most experienced and carry two axes each. They can dagger in all the way up and virtually negate the chance of a team not arresting a fall. On the descent it is a little less safe unless the top two climbers crab down backwards the same way they went up (which can be pretty fast). This sounds like way overkill, but the first time you take up your 11 year old daughter I think you'll think twice about not roping up!