Sanchez

Wow, skiing when a little mistake means falling 2000 feet to your death. Hey why not!

Wow, that melted out fast this year- I thought maybe our late winter blast could have buried it for a while. Thanks for the info.

Smells like eggs sometimes too. And not like the Dennys Moons over Mihammy kind either. Like the buttholy eggs. Mmmm, eggs...

Has anyone been down to the Jefferson area lately? I called Detroit RS and she said the roads are open but snow covered at various points, at-your-own-risk-type of thing. I was wondering how the roads to either Whitewater (#2243) or Pamela lake (#2246) are looking. And hey if you've climbed from either of those acess points any beta is appreciated. Jefferson newby here.

Wow that top part (the mushroom as you called it) changes so much year to year. I almost didn't recognize it- the cliff below the mushroom was completely snow covered when I was there.

Does anyone know if they are going to open the road to Cloud Cap this year? Last year it was closed for fire restoration (I think that was the excuse). I don't mind them keeping it closed actually because it keeps the traffic down on that side of the mountain, but I sure do miss it come early fall when it's ice-time.

If you enjoy a really long hike then this is the one for you! Most people shuttle a car at T-line to make the return safer and less painfull. That's what I did last April and it was still a 13hr "day".

I called and they said they only contract the plowing until the end of March. In April it's up to good old chemistry to plow the roads. As of last weekend you ARE allowed to "try it" if you think your vehicle can make it up the road. But if you get stuck you'll be the asshole who's blocking the road.

What were the temps like in the 10k-summit area? Looked pretty warm in your pics and I'm wondering what kind of melt/freeze we have up there right now...

Wow, skiing from the summit down the Spur would be ballsy. Anyone know of this being done? I'm sure some nutjobs have pulled it off, but wow, one slip and you're a permanent Elliot Glacier red spot.

Nice! That route is a freaking death march for sure. One time is enough for this life... We went no ropes on our trip last year and I definitely said a few "please don't let me die buddah" in my head. We have bluebird and no wind, I can't imagine dealing with strong winds and cold on top of it all.

Nice work! And seriously, what the F is up with the skeeters this year? I was hiking near goat rocks (not too far from the North side of Adams) yesterday and I was literally running to keep clouds of them off me. If you had to take a leak or tie your shoe, you were screwed. I look like I have chicken pox today. Ticks have been bad too- did we have too mild of a spring or something?

I think the snow will be WAY too melted out by then... you;ll be hiking in ski boots I'm afraid.

Wow, great stuff. My best buddy climbed SS without crampons once when we realized that they didn't fit over his ski boots. The Pearly Gates were pretty icy that day too, but large steps kicked in. Plus I loaned him my 2nd tool, so all in all I don't think it compares to the dude with the rocks. (but still pretty stupid...)

Is it me or is going for the Sandy HW this time of year unadvisable? I pretty much just write this whole mountain off once June 1st hits, maybe I'm too conservative, but climbing on crumbling brownies and brown snow just aren't that fun for me. Beautiful pics though, I'll be sure to take the dogs up there for a hike soon.

No easy way in this summer, I guess I'll have to leave the BBQ and beers behind next Elliot Glacier visit. I'll just bring liquor and cliff bars instead.

Would be accurate to say that the Coe Glacier is the most remote part of the mountain? I know in the summer there are some trail access points but in winter you're stuck traversing your ass off either from Cloud Cap or Timberline, right? I like knowing that there are places like this on Hood.

No we parked at TJ trailhead and hiked in the old fashioned way. There's a sign there saying all motorized vehicles are not allowed on the road anymore and the gate looks pretty permanent. I'm not sure if certain groups will still have access, like the crag rats and all that, but then how do you justify keeping the road clear of slides and trees? Seems like they could grandfather this one into the wilderness zone...

See my TR from today. Road is closed, forever. Mt hood Wilderness act just passed into law, so easy access to TJ and Cloud cap is by special invite only now...

Go crazy early for either route this weekend, seriously. Be on the summit by 6am for Luethold's and 5am for Wy'East. Otherwise plan on buying a new helmet if you're on Leuthold's any later. And the sun hits Wy'East at about 4:45am this time of year, so expect it to get soft.

Trip: Mt Hood - Cooper Spur Biatch! Date: 5/21/2009 Trip Report: My white whale, cooper spur, has taunted me for 3 years now, with 2 failed attempts on the books. Finally nailed it yesterday (Wed night), and I have never been so pumped about finishing a climb. Long long long would accurately describe it, aggravated by extremely variable snow conditions, complete with post-holing in the middle of the night for hours on end. We left P-town at 5:30pm, parked a car at Timberline and me and my twice-cooper spur succeeded partner headed up (he must be a glutton for pain to sign up for this route AGAIN). Got to Tilly Jane Trailhead around 7:30, and left at 8. We hiked through the completely destroyed (sad!) forest on the way to cabin, can't even recognize the trail it's in such bad shape... We stopped for an hour or so at the cabin, but couldn't sleep since we A) didn't bring any bivy gear, B) there was a full grown bear snoring upstairs and C) I was so pumped to finally do this climb. So around 11:00PM we started the never ending march of death up Cooper Spur. Snow conditions sucked, post holing, oh and we got a little lost in the woods like idiots so we had to backtrack and get a proper compass bearing, since the route isn't long enough so we thought we'd add a mile... Finally broke through the trees and saw our white beast looming depressingly far away in the distance, did I mention this is a long one? Snow firmed up finally and we covered some ground quickly up to the climbers shelter (full of snow, don't even think about using it for another 3 weeks). Made it to Tie in rock pretty quickly (around 2am I think) and had a break in the snow moat sheltered from the mild wind. It was probably around 28 degrees, not too bad. Then the uphill began... as I said, snow conditions sucked, 6 inches of powder on top of hard ice. As the slope increased I was getting real nervous about the quality of my foot holds. we made it to the first rock navigating right at first light (sun comes up QUICK on this side, 4:30am first light, 5:30am full sun). It got warm fast and I was getting scared. I had numerous tool placements blow out, so every step was a kick kick kick, every axe was a 3 or 4 swinger to make sure I didn't become an Elliot Glacier antiquity. Some areas were clean, hard pack snow, others were slushy soft, but it all looked the same so there was no rythym climbing at all, every step was in question. We didn't bring any ropes, nor should we have given that no pro would have worked in this junk. I 2-tooled as fast as I could, getting real nervous about the hot sun on my back. We had one snafu where we got dead-ended by a large sideways L shaped rock fortress, Mark said left, I said right. He went and checked the left while I hung (literally) out. Left was a no go, but to go right meant downclimbing (screw that) so I tried to get fancy and go up through a tiny slot in the rock with (what looked like) clean water ice, about a 60 degree pitch for 50 feet. Oops. First tool smacked through 4 inches of rotten, frozen slush which hit me in my shins on the way down. Smack smack smack, then I got down to rock. Oh shit. I was feeling pretty committed now, so I tried pinning a tool in a nice rock divot, which blew little shards of pummicy crap on my face when test loaded (oh yeah, this is mt hood, mental note, don't dry tool on mt hood). I finally got my right tool in some good ice and grabbed the rock with my left and did a little pull up with my feet helplessly kicking away at the crumbling rock/ice. Finally got a crampon on some solid rock and the ice was better above it. "That was stupid" I thought as I made a break for the summit ridge and met Mark on the other side of the rock fortress- some shortcut. Snow firmed up for the last push to the summit. It was T-shirt weather at this time and I was dripping sweat. At about 5:30am made it to the much friendlier slope of the summit approach and was happy to not need the 2nd tool anymore. Stuck my head above the summit ridge and was greeted by 20 degree F south wind that literally froze the sweat to my forehead. Holy shit it was like a different world on the south side, so freaking cold it hurt! I said screw that and kicked nice bench for us on the north side and had a pleasant, warm breakfast with our feet hanging 3000 feet over the Elliot Glacier. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15995&id=1646342363&l=b17612f350 Descent was uneventful but cold at first, then hot, then cold (make up your mind, jeez), summit was a clusterfu*k of huge rope teams, which I was in a hurry to get ahead of, so we made a break for it down WCR, dodging golf balls the whole way. Nice powdery fluff to plunge step, so one of the easier trips down I've ever had. Back to the car at 10am, 14hr round trip. Wow, that was a slow one! Gear Notes: 2 tools, for sure Huge balls Approach Notes: Long deathmarch. TJ trail is pretty beat up, no snow for the first half of it, then soft snow.

I decided to drink high life on the clackamas river this weekend instead of a planned Cooper Spur attempt, I think it was the right call. I still don't get the swimming in jeans thing though... how do the river rats do that?

When I read some of these threads, I feel fat...

Holy crap, that is a long day. I've done that route a couple times with the road open and thought it was a mother f'in biatch. Nice work.

I have seen crevases very close to the top of the palmer groomed area, I had to abort a WyEast attempt last year because we couldn't see a way through WRC and were too lazy to descend and cross. I had no idea! My partner punched through to his knees, just enough to freak us out... "south side then? Yeah cool...." I'm going to just hit it from Meadows from now on, ski patrollers be damned.