jlawrence10

From the looks of a recent north side TR, the Cooper Spur route is still in. I'd like to get on it, but wouldn't mind having someone at least in the vicinity, and would especially prefer a car shuttle after a SS descent. Anyone willing to share a last minute climb, or shuttle? Shoot me an email: jlawrence10@mac.com. We'd have to get out of town pretty soon, and I move fairly fast, aiming for the summit before the sun hits.

If your goalie, Green, had tried to hand anyone's asses to them today, said asses would have ended up in the back of the English net. U S A!

Yep, that was me. Glad the pic turned out. Sorry I killed your battery. Heh... This one is kind of cool, too. Shows a little more depth... Crazy how the shadow changed sizes or apparent distance. Almost knocked me off the north side when I saw it.

Trip: Mt. Hood - Pearly Gates, right side Date: 5/15/2010 Trip Report: Real quick update on Pearly Gates, right side. Solid and obvious bootpack all the way up Hogsback and across to the bottom of the gates, with no sign of the 'schrund for now. The bootpack takes you to the "crux," a fairly minor ice bulge about 5 feet tall, with a crazy fin of ice cutting into it from above and to the side. (Watch your head and pack.) This required some solid axe and foot placements, but was never uncomfortable. Above that, more bootpack straight up to the summit ridge. I would guess I saved myself at least 45 minutes from Hogsback by heading straight up through the gates. I looked up into the left gate, but it didn't look to inviting. Very jumbled and kinda steep. After hearing about the ice bulges in the gates, it was actually a little disappointingly easy... The biggest challenge was worrying about the folks behind me following me blindly up, not knowing which route they were after or where they were. Amazing morning up there, hit the ridge right as the sun came up over the horizon. Didn't carry a good camera, but snapped this iPhone pic of my shadow and halo atop the mountain shadow out above the Old Chute. Gear Notes: One axe. Probably wouldn't have used a second tool even if I'd carried one. Not really any ice to speak of, mostly soft snow with deep ace plants for self belay. Approach Notes: Bum a cat ride so you can be the third one to top out and the first one back down. Good snow all the way.

I could definitely climb some serious vertical, maybe even overhanging, ice... ... in 1/6 gravity. And only in 1/6 gravity.

Yep, found that thread about 30 minutes after I dropped off at Carbide Saw. Doh! Looks like he does awesome work for a good price. Next time for sure. Thanks!

In case anybody stumbles across this thread looking for a way to get screws sharpened, I'll let y'all know that I took mine to Carbide Saw in Portland, on SE Division at 41st, and they took a look and said they'd hand-sharpen them to get the teeth razor sharp, for $6 a screw. Sounds good to me! Don't have 'em back yet, so not sure about the work, but I'm optimistic.

Well, so far so good. The pain never really came on strong despite my worst expectations. I would say later Friday night it reached its height at only about a 3, and has gotten better since. I've been off the pain meds now since about Monday, because they were doing worse things to me than the surgery. The incision looks to be healing well, and I'm pretty much out of the sling already, with about 70% use of the arm already. Overall, I couldn't have hoped for a better result, and I'm obviously pretty pleased with my decision. At this rate I hope to be close to normal after about a month, although I won't know what the docs say until March 9th. I guess in my case the break, while definitely severe, was contained to the collarbone only, and luckily I didn't have any of the shoulder issues like Maine-iac had. Hope everything is progressing well for you... Thanks again, guys, for the input, referrals, and stories. It's good to know what to expect, and in this case to have my expectations set for much worse than actually happened. See you out there! Josh

That would have been Goran Kropp, right? I know he died there, was it a bad placement? I only know about his mountaineering exploits...

depends on the weather, but for just about any climb above 20 degrees, i wear some tight nylon boxer briefs covered by fairly heavy duty full zip shell pants, like an arcteryx bib. the shell pants seem to be overkill, but keep me warm when i need them to, and then fully vent for when i heat up. works for me. i also carry some lighter weight long underwear pants, but run very warm and rarely bust them out.

Last year, around July 25th, there was lots of meltwater every day, coming from the rock area right as you enter camp, around where the glaciers split. We carried fuel just in case (which you'll probably have to) but didn't need it. In fact people were offering us fuel as we pulled in that they hadn't used. The water was running strong every afternoon, but again, if it's colder or cloudier it may not be there. So, carry plenty of fuel, and then carry it down.

Thanks for all the advice, folks. Opted for surgery, which happened this morning. It went smoothly, and after seeing how broken up it was in there, the docs are even more optimistic that surgery was the right choice. I had already been good with the decision, especially given how everything was pushing out, and the likelihood of a big bump, and weird healing. So far there is amazingly really no pain. I had a one shot nerve-block, and I fully expect that to wear off soon and for the pain to start at some point. But so far so good. Really appreciate all the input and stories. Little bit bitter about how nice the weather is right now. Josh

Thanks for the advice, and the doc recommendation. Just went in to see a Dr. Mirarchi at OHSU, and he recommends surgery for this type of break. It is broken into smaller pieces, and is also "shortened" by about a centimeter. He also said it heals just as quickly as not doing surgery, and with better results, better range of motion, and less long term discomfort. Of course, I could die as a result of the anesthesia, but that is less than 1% likely. I like those odds. I guess... As much as I hate to go under the knife, and as little as I trust modern medicine and doctors, it looks like the way to go. I did call Dr. Weintraub's office but he's unavailable until next week, and I think I want to get this done. I do welcome any other thoughts. Thanks again, Josh

Just broke my collarbone playing flag football (and my family worries about me climbing mountains?!). I've done the sling/pain meds thing for 4 days now, and go see an orthopedic surgeon today. Hopefully he knows what he's talking about... I understand for this sometimes they do and sometimes they don't do surgery. Not sure what that depends on, but I wouldn't be looking forward to getting knocked out and cut open. Any thoughts from anyone on where to go from here would be much appreciated. I'm a mountaineer, and get out on the rock and ice from time to time. With two winter climbs on Hood already completed this season, and some time before the summer season gets in swing, and crappy snow on Hood, I guess the timing is actually sort of good, in a way. Thanks, y'all! Josh

I'm in touch with the guy who might below to that crampon piece. Is it a Grivel linking bar?

Q: Why climb? A:

Great TR on our climb! Thanks for posting. That was an amazing climb - what a day! One quick correction: The route shown in the second picture is slightly off. We went up one gully to the right of the one indicated. I tried my hand at the whole "red-line route thing" but I don't know how to make the fancy dashed line. This picture is from a little further away and from a slightly better angle. The route is still mostly hidden in the gully walls. That was a climb to remember, but I'm trying to forget the slog up and back down in the deep snow.

I was just up there on Wednesday, and over the Hogsback up the Old Chute is the way to go. Very deep soft snow above Palmer, so bring snowshoes or skiis. Also very deep on the Chute itself. The one other thing to consider is if you come up the main, very wide portion of the Old Chute, you come up on a soft, narrow ridge and have to walk it to head over to the summit. Seemed stable and not corniced (at that point) but it was a little uneasy going. Here's a pic from Wednesday.

I like my Petzl Fuse 9.4 dry rope. It appears on steepandcheap quite often. Used it for glacier travel and cragging and it's holding up well.

Ski Bowl has a hostel with $20 beds. Don't know anything about it, and you're looking at about a 20 minute drive from there to Meadows.

First of all, condolences to everyone involved and all friends and family of the lost climbers. I can't even imagine how hard that must be. Is it inappropriate to speculate on what may have taken place up there to lead to this tragedy? If it were me, I would want people to learn from whatever accident may have happened, as well as collaborate to try to figure out what may have happened, and where I may be or may have ended up. If this is too soon, or inappropriate, please let me know, or close down the thread. I could picture a time where the combined knowledge in a forum like this one might lead to some sort of help up on the mountain. Apologies if this is in any way hurtful or inconsiderate...

Hey, those tracks on Wy'East were from us on Wednesday (see trip report)... Glad they helped, and glad WE went the right way. Question: As a less experienced climber, I was unsure about the "snow" conditions on the short traverse over those cliffs, just before you round the corner into the last push up to the summit slopes. Basically 2 inch ice crust over a foot of loose sugar. Did you have any apprehension about soloing that stuff, or did it feel ok to you? Or maybe our bootpack was so money you didn't even notice? Nice climb!

Hmm, yes that second pic would probably be just east of what you're looking for. I didn't take a good look at that because, at my level of expertise, I wouldn't consider it something to climb. (One of our books on the route said, "Do NOT climb directly up the Steel Cliffs." Umm, ok, we won't.) Anyway, here are three pics from the descent. Don't know if they show what you want. I would guess not...

Trip: Mt. Hood - Wy'East Date: 12/2/2009 Trip Report: TR on our trip up Wy'East on Wednesday. I didn't take notes and I'm bad with numbers, so any listed elevations are approximate. This was my first "winter" or off-season climb, and the first climb away from South Side for all three of us, and it was a REALLY good one. Very long day, and a bit more exposure than I was expecting (not huge, just more than I was expecting), but overall a great day. Started from the Lodge at 4 AM figuring the weather would stay cold enough for a safe climb and descent, and also hoping that some daylight would help us in route-finding on our first trip up this side of the mountain. We were right on both counts. Quick progress to Silcox, and from what we'd read we figured we had two choices for getting across the White RIver to the base of the route. Cross down low (about 7000 feet) or up high (above 9000 feet, just under the cliffs). I think one was listed as better for early season and one as better for late season, but we didn't really know which of those December 2nd qualified as. We chose low, and were very glad we did. Cutting east from Silcox, and only slightly uphill, we were able to cross each drainage without issue, and getting across the White River that low was no problem, just crossing low-angle snowfields. We were prepared to rope up, but never saw the need. This was a time-consuming process, so 6 AM found us still under 7500 feet (I think). Later we could see the Upper White River and could see the crevasses we had avoided. The full moon helped us find the correct snow field to get us up to the base of the climbing proper, and moonset was replaced by sunrise as we looked at the first section we had to think about. We wound our way up through the rocks then to the right, and took (I think) the second likely looking chute up to the left, which gained us the top of the Steel Cliffs. Coming up that chute: After this it was skirt the rocks, climb through some deeper snow, fall in a moat, skirt more rocks, fall in another moat, and eventually, after two wider snowfields, get up to the ridgeline proper above Steel Cliffs and Devil's Kitchen (is it called Devil's Kitchen, down between the cliffs and Hogsback?). From here we could see Hogsback, and most of the crater rim, but we were disheartened by how much we had left to go, and how difficult it looked (to me anyway). By now, we were past the point of no return. The sun had been hitting the lower route for a while by now, and we didn't want to down-climb what we'd come up, plus the sheer length of the approach made it much quicker and safer to head up and over. So we kept going, hugging the ridge line, through decent snow and more moats, until we got to this section (which luckily looks just like a picture we printed from summitpost showing a red line of the route). We headed up the ridge, staying on the snow, then had to traverse above those cliffs on what I considered pretty sketchy snow (two inch crust of bad ice over a foot of grainy, sugary snow). Before the traverse, we looked back at our route. After the traverse, it was up and around the huge buttress into a nice couloir full of good snow, with another hundred feet or so of nice climbing up to the summit snowfields. Not too steep, but really fun climbing on good snow. From there it was a couple short easy slopes to the top, and we were up at noon, under sunny skies and no wind. My first Hood summit with amazing weather, and on December 3rd! Pretty great. (Of course, I'd never been up there at noon before.) We enjoyed the sun for a little while, but figured we should get moving, since it was getting later. Two climbers coming up the South Side let us know that things still looked good and solid in the Old Chute, and in fact the snow over there was very nice. After descending about 200 feet on bootpack and solid snow, I was able to kick my own steps in styrofoam and then plunge step down to Hogsback. Looking back from Hogsback. The walk back to Timby was punctuated by a failed attempt at downloading onto the Magic Mile lift and not much else. Man that walk sucks every time, but after what felt like our first "real" climb on Mt. Hood, we didn't have any complaints. All photos courtesy of my climbing partner, Frank. Gear Notes: Carried two tools each but it wasn't solid enough to warrant both, in my opinion. We also carried some rope and gear, but on the only places possibly warranting protection, there would have been nowhere to place any. Approach Notes: Drive up Timberline Road. Park.

Agreed! Just came down it on Wednesday. There's a ton of ice and rime clinging to the high spots, so go early or go when it's cold, but we descended around noon on Dec. 3 (after climbing Wy'East) and the snow was perfect.