Water

With all respect to the major, you'll be left feeling dejected after witnessing the ease with which he moves.. Ski with a rookie like me for more tips! Haha happy new years! I learned to ski at age 30.

Unlikely. Google shop or eBay if you know your exact size. I've got a version of the boots from 2008-09, but they're awesome and perfect for hood, assuming they fit you well. Use REI visa and get 10% back on your rebate?

Have g3 saints 170cm, dynafit radical ST. G3 skins. 26.5 garmont axion boots. $700 for all. $600 without the boots. Pics avail by request.

Dig the report. Surely this isn't secret or anything but the first rule of earning your turns in the limited terrain that isn't the South side of Hood is to keep them to yourself or keep them so vague only those who already know, know...

i'm not a ranger basher but fuck that ranger. Humble you had more patience to respond to this than I did. I've found the 'pass through' permits such total and utter bullshit they make me irate. The willamette FS district is so full of shit, they've instituted a paid-reservation system for jeff park camps to help protect the environment, but they have not suggested any increased enforcement of it. If they were having a problem with people camping next to the lakes and building fires a few $250 citations to everyone in the miscreant group in front of everyone else would easily make it known not to disrespect the rules there. Only a matter of time until they put a permit quota on pass through there. Soon the only route to climb Jeff is going to be through the more obscure trailheads that add mileage, which is mostly just irritating.

Rad, OPB puts their field guide episodes online..eventually. you can watch there.

if you're just going out for the weekends.. which I do 99% of the time.. I looked into Zebra lights. Yes they require a rechargeable non-standard battery, but burn times and lumens absolutely destroy the standard 'hiking' lamps available in gear shops and online. It's also waterproof and bomber machined metal housing construction. cost is commensurate.. if you travel abroad I would not get it on account of the battery stuff. Can be used as a flashlight if you needed (comes out of headband holder with effort) I did use it on a 7 night trip in the Wind Rivers and when I got home my battery was only half empty (used it for a few hours every night). http://www.zebralight.com/H600w-Mk-II-18650-XM-L2-Headlamp-Neutral-White_p_117.html

161.00 and a good bottle of wine.

damn, bested. I like this ye olde forum style ebayye method. Jeeves, put me down for $159!

150 here

^ yeah to the above. I think my post maybe seemed overly cryptic of negative but jfs really nailed clearly. I would definitely get a feel for the mountain. Just go up to silcox hut or hike to the stone shelter on cooper spur, etc, get a bit of a feel this winter and read up and possibly sign up for classes. While not for everyone the Mazamas offer a basic climbing course in the spring that is semi-functional instruction. Or yes choose a guiding service to either take you or get instruction from on basic crampon/ice axe etc techniques. Have fun this winter then when the more ideal time rolls around in the spring you will be dialed in and stoked for success. if you're not familiar with crampon use and ice ax self-arrest seriously you must learn those (and some other) skills before you can attempt Mt. Hood, or your risk of injury/death will be very high. Fitness is good and important but less so than knowledge even, but we don't know more about your background so you are getting conservative responses.

sorry for delayed response. What Alan Trick said is correct more or less imo. I like Rmaps because it is free and only limited by how much space you can spare to download. Theoretically if you have the space you could load down every single USGS to the max zoom and every bit of google terrain for the earth. I am not sure how much space it takes up but the USGS and Google Terrain go to a zoom-level 16. Google Satellite goes up to zoom level 20. As the zoom-level increases each step it takes progressively more space. If you go to 1:42 on my video you'll see to download the entire Wind River Range more or less on google sat, at the max zoom, is 20gigs. Keeping in mind if you have a 64gig phone (ok most don't but..) that's fairly incredible to have all that data offline while in the BC. At zoom level 16 I think I had it going for 5,600 tiles @ 80mb total. What I do for GoogleTerrain and USGS is to download much of North America at the widest zoom and that only takes perhaps 10-200mb depending on if you are doing levels 1-8 or whatnot, and gives very broad wide coverage. Then when for instance I am visiting the Wind Rivers, or Sangre De Christo, or Assiniboine, will download my desired area at max zoom (gterrain/USGS). I am pretty sure the can-topo is accessible through there, and if it isn't might be able to be added..ostensibly there is an online server somewhere hosting it that it can be linked to/downloaded from. The interface is basic and I like that. I just need occasional check-ins to determine location/direction/track, not 'flight by instrument' via my phone. free, maps don't expire, simple interface (to me), and ability to download gterrain and usgs offline with ease makes it worthwhile. PM/ask if you want more detail/help with rmaps. edit: but i do all this from my phone, it doesn't have a computer front-end to do the work and push to the phone, might be a deal breaker if you desire that. It will load GPX and overlay it on the map though..

well you went from talking of climbing this month to climbing in December.. Some of the questions you've asked indicate you lack enough familiarity/knowledge of the mountain/climbing to safely go. You want snow coverage. And not a dusting. But like a few feet and more starting at ~8-9,000 and above. I've had good November and December climbs, but it's entirely conditions dependent. Also there's minimal daylight, weather always comes faster, leaves slower, and doesn't break as forecast this time of year. You have to know what you're doing. Gear? Mostly Same stuff you'd use to climb other volcanoes. If that doesn't help you, again, you need to read freedom of the hills, take a climbing class, or find a mentor, or some combination. Not intended as a douche response. If this was tying your own flies, fishing, auto repair, photography, or gardening, we'd give advice and tell you to go for it. Many hobbies are great to learn by just jumping in. This is one that demands a minimal foundation because there is little room for error and no forgiveness for mistakes.

elaborate on what you mean by seamless and high resolution. Google terrain is google terrain and USGS is USGS.. I recorded a video just now. My downloaded Google Terrain and USGS. I kinda zoom around and show you what I have available offline. But then I select Google Satellite and start to download a new offline map...

The best one, truly? It was called rmaps.. it is no longer on google play store. There is a version on github https://github.com/xavier-b/RMaps-xavPatch it is free. it allows you to download in unlimited amounts, google terrain and USGS topo/USA topo, along with all sorts of other maps (imagery) and save it for offline access. paired with GPS status https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en and you have a fantastic program for basic navigation. I don't ever really run my phone GPS to record tracks (though I have on day trips), but mostly for acute navigational needs to make sure I'm going over the right rise or drainage, etc...or evaluation in the tent the night before. Anyways that combo works fantastic, GPX can be imported in, tracks can be recorded over, waypoints, etc.

jacramer you're crazy. i mean that in a good way. west rib in totally dry conditions, wow. that's awesome/brutal. any pictures? Go in by pamelia way or woodpecker? cheers

my buds went, i skipped in part because the mnt is so far gone for the time of year due to low snow. will try to get more details but they bagged it at 13,300 due to unpassable crevasse. maybe they'll post the info of what they saw here.

thanks for sharing. good reads... though 20 minutes in I wondered if in 2015 I really needed to be as engaged with the wood shaft ice axe discussion..but fascinating to read. I think moreover I really appreciated seeing such casual prose from a company. It hadn't been shellacked with marketing speak.

go look on tay or such for the latest TRs. I think part of the chutes are probably still ok. But heard the south side was tore up with suncups and glissade chutes. really just your tolerance for carrying over dirt and dealing with less than ideal snow--but less than ideal snow is still snow, and much better than just having dirt.

dabrus, when you say from the pamelia lake side.. can you elaborate. south ridge, sw, west rib? or up to ridge above JPG? great TR, love this mountain..

how long do you have? wallowas are...way out of the way compared to other 3 mnts. saca: long hike, nothing more really if coming up hurricane ck way. beautiful unique range. spend a night somewhere there. recommend going in west fk wallowa river up to ice lake. climb matterhorn then traverse ridge (mellow 3rd class at most)..to sacajawea. There is a cool hole/cave in the limestone about 1/3rd of the way from matte to saca. jeffy: you're either going whitewater or s ridge with your son. based on some of what I've heard about whitewater already and big longitudinal cracks.. South ridge is for you. hike to coyote or shale lakes and base camp. then long bouldery day up to red saddle, technical after that depending on conditions of traverse and degree of rime (if any) on summit pinnacle. adams: walk up..long slog. glissade down if there is any snow left to do so. baker: haven't been, no comment. nicely fractured by july this year I'm sure. sacajawea and matterhorn would be great time. jefferson i don't think so appropriate for young kid unless they are really something..rainier is long slog but in some respects you can turn parts of your brain off on that mountain with all the wanding and the boot path. Jefferson you will be alone and it is crappy rock and not well trodden. the height of a mnt or size of glaciers isn't the be all end all, jeffy is a scrappy mountain, no place to cut teeth or hone technique. my 2cents. adams would be great.

SethKL... nice tracks amigo thanks for the beta, plans didn't go off unfortunately and with schedules it looks like my west rib dreams push another year off...but it isn't going anywhere! [img:left]http://i.imgur.com/nu0GUzp.jpg[/img]

any pictures of the west face from up top of JPG? thinking about SW Rib. Realize the majority of skiing is long gone but wondering how melted out it is or not.. thanks

i think (weather aside--our weeks of high pressure has given way to a change in the jet stream to a more typical pattern for this time of year-with a low parked over the NW and various weaker energy systems coming through)..Adams will still be in great shape as far as skiing the chutes, and again dependent on weather getting that snow into nice corn form. on rainier it is doubtful you can match as impressive and safe of a line as SW chutes on adams. You will have to boot maybe 2 miles~ to get to snow on adams. Rainer less but the webcams show it is melted out fully at the paradise lot.

can field this..been up the last 3 weekends (and officially 'adams'ed out now). you are on dry ground for about 1 mile up to the wilderness boundary, from cold springs. It's melting fast but there is a little more base at treeline when it opens up more so probably about the same this weekend. There is also an option to cut left/east a bit higher than going down more and hitting the RTM trail, you skin up maybe 200ft and .75mi-1mi around a bowl and over a few minor ribs and pop out about half way down the west side of the crescent glacier 'bowl'..more on the ridge line than up in the upper bowl. From there a direct ski back to the snowline and trail to car. skinning to summit can be done with ski crampons (2x). ~5hr to pikers.