Davy_D

Sorry to offend the purests. I should have said the highest point on East Crater Rim were if you continued West you would fall off the other side of the rim into the Crater. Actually nowere near the summit of the MOUNTAIN but the TOP of what is commonly called the W'east Face ski route. As for stopping mid-slope or having no trace of tracks on top of the steel cliffs I don't know what to tell you. As you can read from others on this posting there was a lot of us skiing from the crater rim down that day. If you were comming thru the steel cliffs to the summit you must have paased our starting point on East Crater Rim.

Climb: Mt. Hood -South side/Mazama route Date of Climb: 5/15/2006 Trip Report: Started skinning at 8:00 from the timberline parking lot. Top of Palmer chair 8,600ft then up to triangle morain in soft warm snow but really windy. Able to Skin all the way up to the lower portions of the hogsback just below the “shrund.” From there bootpacked in up to calf deep slush to below rock bands then to the chute that defines old mazama route. Rock and ice fall below rock bands to the left of “shrund” as well a wet snow slides. Glad I had helmet but still got beaned in the hands by some pretty good sized chunks of ice. At top of chute at noon and winds howling leaving a chunky wind crust over warm slush. Don’t go all the way up chute as last 5ft are an overhanging cornice onto north face. Top of decent was chunky with spots of deep gooey snow. We were up there too late I think; 10AM would have been better. Went down west crater rim by Castle crags for a change but found it to be heavily sun-cupped and ash covered; bad choice. Take the standard route to hogsback around the East of crater rock next time. Below crater rock snow gooey all the way to parking lot. Final analysis: thought the cold wind would keep the snow good but it just formed a crust on goo! Should have moved the whole trip back 2 to 3 hours. Gear Notes: Helmet in crater worth it Avy gear smart due to wet slides Crampons helped with tele boots Axe/arrest pole nice but not nessesary. harness/ropes not needed Approach Notes: Skied from/to timberline parking lot. Remembered to fill out a permit this time too!

Climb: Mt Hood-W,East Face Date of Climb: 5/13/2006 Trip Report: Started 6:30 AM in Meadows parking lot and took Texas ridge to top of Cascade lift before resort opened at 9:00. From top of lift skinned old cat track to top of superbowl at 8,800ft. Windy and icey until 10am then started to soften. From top of superbowl skinning possible but faster to boot pack with or without crampons. With teleboots crampons help for obvious reason but AT boots ok without. Snowboarder went up with MSR snowshoes no problem. Hit summit around 12:00 and corn was perfect for decent. Crevases on up reaches of W'East and superbowl not open or evident. Perfect corn on decent until around 7'000ft. Thats roughly top of casscade lift. Best decent is into heather canyaon and then traverse out onto top of shooting star and then down to parking lot. saw about 10 other climber/skiers coming from meadows or across white river from timberline. All had great day. Gear Notes: Crampons helpfull for teleboots AT boots fine without crampons MSR snowshoes will get Boarders to top. AXE/self arrest poles prudent but not nessisary. Crevase and avy gear unused and probable overkill. Approach Notes: You can start at skinning from meadows parking lot and ski back to it.

I have the next 2 weeks off to ski anywere in the cascades but no one to ski with. If you have the time I have a lot of ideas. David 503 961-5113

werez it at?