Trip: Der Hood-Wand - Luethold's Little Coulior'a'Kix ePiC!
Date: 11/24/2007
Trip Report:
did some Xtreme camping at illum-gap on friday w/ a newbie - i'll climb w/ anyone who, upon waking at 2 AM to take a leak returns into the tent w/ a friendly "wanna burn one?"
left saturday morning to climb luetholds under an overcast sky - snow conditions down on the reid are heidously deep and the first 1/4 of the couloir blew rhinos until finally becoming good scoured styrofoam - the typical minor rime chunkage poured down w/ the occasional heavy artillery mixed in - ken, who i think is probably going to suffer some serious PTSD after this whole experience, was climbing only his second volcano after the even more intimidating adams-wand, and was working on his own version of ww2 (french vs german technique, w/ the krauts winning too damn much), which slowed him considerably. i roped him through the hourglass, which has a real fun section of alpine ice currently.
while belayign him above i noticed rapid wisps of cloud carrying snow coming up from the lowlands, obscuring visibility down low, and rising. by the time we were just a hundred feet below cathedral we were in high winds and whiteout - i didn't relish the thought of trying to get him to downclimb the coulior again, so we battled on up to the summit ridge, totally clad in growing rime - which offered the shittiest vision, my ice-particle blasted naked eyes or my jedi-trainer-simulation iced-out goggles? couldn't help but think of those poor bastards who topped out in a such a storm last year about the same time and didn't know how to get off.
it was very bizarre feeling my way down the old-chute descent w/o seeing a single landmark - verrrry deep powder, a creepy feeling and i thought i hard a loud crack at one point but what the hell else was there to do? the hogsback appeared just as i stumbled over it. i was sure there had to be a boot-track, given the # of folks i'd seen headed up that way on friday, but it was completly invisible or destroyed by storm and fog. goddamn i love altimeters - did the entire traverse from below crater rock back to illum gap w/ no references at all but w/ my watch i hit the tent perfectly. ken was bad freaked n' shaken - i think he might be done w/ the whole "mountaineering is kewl" thang. don't know that i could blame him - the only sketchier descent i could remember having done was w/ iain on a very cold halloween years before...
the storm showed no signs of abating, and totally soaked and covered in snow the tent was not nearly so pleasant as i'd wanted - it was 2 PM and staying the night wasn't an option w/ no fuel left and a divorce practically assured if i didn't get back by 7. we busted down camp in the howling soup - ken's foam pad, left unsecured for a brief second took off in the direction of the summit at 900 mph. woulda loved to have policed up the mother-of-all turds i'd left right before leaving that morning, but the mountain had claimed it by covering it in a foot of new powder. sorry future illum-campers! we stayed roped for the traverse back to the palmer lifts, which eventually began to appear below the clouds as we descended. the ski slopes were lifeless, a stark contrast to all the gnarly 15 year olds who'd been shred'n'da'shit the day before.
gotta love how hood can remain a challenge after a gazillion ascents, and how the experience of as many climbs can maintain confidence in trying conditions!
Trip: Der Hood-Wand - Luethold's Little Coulior'a'Kix ePiC! Date: 11/24/2007 Trip Report: did some Xtreme camping at illum-gap on friday w/ a newbie - i'll climb w/ anyone who, upon waking at 2 AM to take a leak returns into the tent w/ a friendly "wanna burn one?" left saturday morning to climb luetholds under an overcast sky - snow conditions down on the reid are heidously deep and the first 1/4 of the couloir blew rhinos until finally becoming good scoured styrofoam - the typical minor rime chunkage poured down w/ the occasional heavy artillery mixed in - ken, who i think is probably going to suffer some serious PTSD after this whole experience, was climbing only his second volcano after the even more intimidating adams-wand, and was working on his own version of ww2 (french vs german technique, w/ the krauts winning too damn much), which slowed him considerably. i roped him through the hourglass, which has a real fun section of alpine ice currently. while belayign him above i noticed rapid wisps of cloud carrying snow coming up from the lowlands, obscuring visibility down low, and rising. by the time we were just a hundred feet below cathedral we were in high winds and whiteout - i didn't relish the thought of trying to get him to downclimb the coulior again, so we battled on up to the summit ridge, totally clad in growing rime - which offered the shittiest vision, my ice-particle blasted naked eyes or my jedi-trainer-simulation iced-out goggles? couldn't help but think of those poor bastards who topped out in a such a storm last year about the same time and didn't know how to get off. it was very bizarre feeling my way down the old-chute descent w/o seeing a single landmark - verrrry deep powder, a creepy feeling and i thought i hard a loud crack at one point but what the hell else was there to do? the hogsback appeared just as i stumbled over it. i was sure there had to be a boot-track, given the # of folks i'd seen headed up that way on friday, but it was completly invisible or destroyed by storm and fog. goddamn i love altimeters - did the entire traverse from below crater rock back to illum gap w/ no references at all but w/ my watch i hit the tent perfectly. ken was bad freaked n' shaken - i think he might be done w/ the whole "mountaineering is kewl" thang. don't know that i could blame him - the only sketchier descent i could remember having done was w/ iain on a very cold halloween years before... the storm showed no signs of abating, and totally soaked and covered in snow the tent was not nearly so pleasant as i'd wanted - it was 2 PM and staying the night wasn't an option w/ no fuel left and a divorce practically assured if i didn't get back by 7. we busted down camp in the howling soup - ken's foam pad, left unsecured for a brief second took off in the direction of the summit at 900 mph. woulda loved to have policed up the mother-of-all turds i'd left right before leaving that morning, but the mountain had claimed it by covering it in a foot of new powder. sorry future illum-campers! we stayed roped for the traverse back to the palmer lifts, which eventually began to appear below the clouds as we descended. the ski slopes were lifeless, a stark contrast to all the gnarly 15 year olds who'd been shred'n'da'shit the day before. gotta love how hood can remain a challenge after a gazillion ascents, and how the experience of as many climbs can maintain confidence in trying conditions!