sweatinoutliquor

Mammut serenity 8.9mm... It's awesome.

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Backbone Ridge Date: 7/29/2007 Trip Report: Jason (sparverous) and I hit up backbone ridge on Sunday with perfect weather and conditions. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report other than the route is sick and you should do it. Jason led the offwidth and didn't really have any trouble with it. If you haven't been paying attention, your shiny new #5 C4 cam isn't big enough to get you all the way up to the top (thanks to the previous TR's that indicated so) and although we were bummed to be dragging the 6 all the way, it was probably worth it for this one pitch. I followed with the pack and struggled a lot more than Jason did (he was taking stemming breaks and stuff) but in the end not having to haul the pack was nice. Right after this we thought we were sorta kinda off route (we got alarmingly close to Gary and Ania's roof) but it turned out that if you climb past it on the left you are probably fine and don't get stuck with more OW. I don't really remeber what was above that... Maybe one more pitch than easy simulclimbing to the base of the fin (one long lead). Another psudo simul lead up the ledge at the base of the fin and the good stuff starts. We were armed with every fin route description that we could find, and still we had no idea which cracks were which. We followed something that looked clean and indeed it was spectacular. The next pitch was this sweet traversing double crack (one for you hands, one for your feet... how convinent). Then one more also spectacular pitch and we were at the crest! As Jason reeled me in I was rejoicing at the thought of "easy rock to the summit". Or at least so I thought... When I arrived at the belay, what I saw was not easy rock. It was the top of triple couloirs, and no, it didn't look easy, it looked sketchy as S___! I begrudgingly took the lead and downclimbing into the mouth of this beast. Things were going poorly, and I was trying to figure out if it was even worth tying in because the rock was so loose. Just when I thought all hope was gone and I was going to be in the heart of this mess, I took another longing look back towards the crest of the fin and noticed a gully of vertical garbage that possibly led back to the fin crest beyond the gendarme that was previously blocking progress. I thought "What the heck, it can be worse than down here" and started up. After mining my way upward for about 30 feet things started to take on a more solid feeling and within another minute or so I was again stradling the ridge crest. I couldn't see where the route went from here, but my little pirch was solid so I set up a belay and reeled Jason in. From that spot, Jason traversed right around a corner, and then followed a ledge that was indeed the beginning of "easy rock to the summit". Thank god... I really didn't want to end the day in TC! Thanks for the fun trip Jason. The offwidth: The fin: Back on the good stuff (they call it the fin for a reason!): Looking back down the chossy gully: Summit view: Looking Back: Gear Notes: TCU 00-2 (didn't use 00 or 0) BD C4 .4-3 +#5 and #6 (doubles .5-2) A small selection on nuts I thought the rack was pretty perfect. If you are pretty comfortable with OW climbing and don't mind running it out 10 feet or so in one of the harder spots you could probably leave the #5 at home... Approach Notes: Brought crampons and axe, didn't really need them for getting on or off the mountain cause the snow was soft enough.

Nice work with that!

You probably made the right decision, at least in my mind... I have two friends who almost got wiped out by rockfall from that same place on seperate occasions. One ended up playing dodgeball with a bunch of microwaves that had bracketed him, the other on a different trip felt that the conditions weren't good for traversing below the gully and was right cause 15 minutes after heading down a huge rockslide cut loose that literally obliterated where he would have been, and even filled up both bergschrunds with debris. I didn't see either of these happen, but on my trips up there smaller stuff coming down inspired some turbo traversing too.

Quote: Jan 1998, p. 18, Coombs, Doug, "Hood: Commitment on the NE Face" In late spring, 1997, the author skied the southerly of two couloirs on the NE face of Mt Hood. These couloirs are just north of the Cooper Spur route. The northerly chute was descended on snowboard five years earlier by Steve Koch. The author climbed to the summit from Timberline and kept in touch with a friend on the Cloud Cap side by radio. After a few hundred feet of turns at the top of the couloir, he encountered a sun crust and exchanged his ski poles for an ice axe. He sidestepped narrow ramps to pass two rock bands, then switched back to ski poles to ski the central portion of the couloir to a final rock step with 40-foot ice gully. Here he placed a rappel anchor to inspect the gully. Concluding that he could straight-run the gully, he climbed back up and pulled the anchor. While sidestepping back down with ice axe in hand, his skis scaped through to ice. He let go of his ice axe, schussed the ice gully, and made a high speed turn lower to stop. He switched to crampons to climb up and retrieve his ice axe, then completed the descent on skis, which required a ten-foot jump over the bergshrund. He called the route a "ski descent not a ski run."

Amazing photos! My favorite is the one of the knife edge crest! Awesome!

Not sure what the conditions are gonna be this weekend, but last weekend the knife edge still had snice on it (as reported by a friend who flew over it). Not sure what the glacier looks like.

Yep, I've done it a bunch with a mini-traxion, I think it works out great. Usually the cliff I do it on is short enough to throw both ends of the rope down, so I run the traxion up one side, and tie in short with the other line as a backup at good rests. I don't know who in their right mind would clip into a traxion with a long sling instead of right into their harness, but I guess people do lot's of strange things. In general, I find that when I fall, it's really pretty gentle on the rope... I'm not throwing dynos while solo TRing. I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and I don't think the teeth have caused any sheath damage whatsoever. If you search, I think there are other topics discussing this (check newbie forum maybe?).

Anyone know if or when cloudcap road opens up, or how I can get that info? These ski pictures are getting my stoke on... Thanks!

Or 2 door bibler eldo... I second clints suggestion as well...

You guys rule! Can't wait to get up there this summer and check it out!

Great! You guys the first names in the summit register this year? Good photos, thanks for sharing!

3% triclopyr (garlon) + 97% oil carrier (diesel or crop oil) + little spray bottle. Need to have a public applicator licence to be spraying that stuff in the park though.

Great write up, and congrats on the success!

Yup... You've discovered my alter ego...

Yeah, I was down there this weekend and it looks freaking awesome. Hopefully the non-climbing folks reconize theefforts that's been done and refrain from smashing any more bottles! Good to see you down there 111.

Good to see that you are bringing some stoke with you from FL! Welcome to CC.com! Sounds like you have thought through your trip pretty well... Adams south side probably requires a lot more stamina than equipment. Get an ice axe and some strap on Al crampons, toss your skis on the pack and tear it up! You don't need to break the bank on boots or anything, at least not for that trip. For a mountain ice axe, I suggest getting something that is cheapish (less than 100 bucks), light as hell, and about 65cm (i'm your height and I find that's pretty good). Grivel and black diamond make great options. Good luck man, welcome to the NW (at least soon)!

Excellent work to you and other SAR teams for unifying against this bill Rocky!

Redpoint in Terreborne, much, much better. It's right off the highway as you make the turn heading to smith.

I got my tickets to go tomorrow night... I'm stoked!

John, Scary I guess, and a bummer that you had to bail on your route. I do wonder what really happened because it seems a bit unusual for gear to be left behind in a rescue situation such as this, when it appeared there were a lot of people on the mountain helping out? Anyway, karma to you for hauling it out!

Sweetness pics guys.

Nice pics Oly, sounds like you picked a great weekend to be out there.