Water

trail from pamelia up to hunts cove and then up the short 'climbers trail' up towards mud lake is pretty straight forward. main points, when the trail from pamelia lake hits hunts creek, which is very flooded, just go straight across--then snow started up just short of hunts cove and was pretty continuous. Hunts lake is 85% melted out? Up above where the PCT is, is still all snow and the lakes up there are not melted at all. Camped there (shale or mudhole lake..). We were going to go up to scope the summit area for a future attempt but it was so foggy we didn't bother really. Looks like we could have had luck if we went up to 9k or so..might have been above the clouds but hard to tell that if you are in them. someone posted on here who is doing a fullon oregon peaks vacation this week and are planning on doing jeffers on friday. i am hoping to hear some info from them about conditions higher up.

http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/denacam/denalargerimage.cfm just up, will be for a few months before it shuts off for the long long winter.

on foot? a guess, but even with this warm weather i think there is probably a fair amount of snow covering. snowshoes or skis probably desirable. if you head up, please report back your findings, would also like to know of conditions.

maybe he did denali and rainier years ago, when he wasn't 81. Probably prefers to space things when he can being 81. even if the friend's dad was 45 and blazing fast there is no harm in asking info about a high camp, maybe he is not from around here.

I think most people would take a rest day but that all depends on your mental drive and physical conditioning prior to getting out here. I don't know if its exactly fair or accurate to compare, but since you're out east, ask if you'd do the presidential traverse (grafton notch/webster cliffs to madison and down the osgood trail to pinkham notch--the AT) twice in the same time frame as what you're thinking as for adams and hood? I know the miles would probably be a bit less to do Adams and Hood but physical demand could be called similar to me, having done both those here and that romp out east. one more easy alpine climb? as in lack of elevation gain or as in not technical.. south sister is an option, and st. helens if you can snag a permit for your timing-both have good elevation gain but are not technical (assuming you did the south side on s. sister).

any significant media personality, especially political in nature, cannot rail too specifically on a segment of the population that likely encompasses part of their supporters. How many fans of Moore drive an SUV? What if a discussion on healthcare by media personality comes down to them ripping on fat people and smokers - they probably have quite a few fans who are fat and/or smoke. Everythings got to be broad and general, much easier to speak in terms of "theys and thems" and corporations. The all pervasive 'they'... it could be anyone. but i hear you..and that statement about oil supplies, quite true..

Just getting into climbing - live over near beaverton. Not really near you but indoor climbing doesn't interest me from my experiences with it. I don't know what 5.X i can climb but would be willing to belay you if you had the patience for someone generally new to rock climbing. I am fit and pretty nimble, but only have a harness/atc, webbing, no pro. pm me if you want to figure out more, and I take no offense if I'm not the partner you're looking for.

any pro would probably slide out.. take it fully on the chin to give that one a shot!

I know on Tuesday morning even after the sun was hitting directly on the upper cliffs with rime, not much was coming down. The most I saw fall was from loose bits on the bootpath on the chute. Being new myself to climbing I was curious how the conditions would compare to two sundays ago when it had only been warm and sunny for a few days, and stuff was coming down pretty majorly well before the sun was hitting anything. Sounds like consistent weather has done it better, even if it has been warmer. I wouldn't let that take my guard/awareness down. See how it is when you get up to the hogsback, if you see anything, talk to anyone coming down. Maybe head up earlier just as well, summiting at sunrise.

green tunnel... yeah compared to out west. The reason I asked is because through the whites and mahoosucs (southern maine) there is a fair amount of above treeline..well heck, probably almost all of it out east without heading towards the torngat mountains in northern labrador. again, the pictures look great

stime, beautiful pictures - what kind of camera do you have? Wish we got up earlier on Tuesday but we had a beautiful sunrise summit last sunday with lonelysummit who is on here. The weak front pushing through on Tuesday dressed the sky up nicely. like your website too - do any northern appalachian hiking or mostly around NC?

Sorry we were a mess--there wasn't almost anyone up there, us being the only group and it seemed like what, perhaps 7 other folks solo or group of 2? Yes that was a mazamas group. My first, and last, mt. hood climb with them (though not the last hood climb, probably with a person or two from the group). We definitely went slow, not everyone was capable of going faster perhaps. The group started with 11, 3 turned back at various points along the way up (I didn't hear their reasons, but it was obviously their comfort with something or another cause the weather was fine)-so it could have been 3 rope teams instead of two.. messier I guess. i personally am not sure why we did the high traverse. A cloud came in actually as we were doing that last bit and I think we went on the high, came off it a bit, intersecting with the low around where it turns up ward (not my decision). I think part of a mazama climb doing that is for the sake of doing the route that was planned months earlier (ie the traverse) if it can be done. Our leader talked about not needing to rope up and possibly going over the fumeroles, if conditions warranted. Other than the very minor elevation loss of going down the hogsback and over the fumeroles is there any reasons not to do this to avoid the traverse when it is warmer

from reading their post it didn't sound like they stored their stuff at the hogsback, but possibly at the top of the palmer or somewhere lower, where a snowcat drove over them/someone took them/up for speculation.

sucks about the sleds! I can give a brief 'mazamas' take on this. I moved here from out east, had plenty of experience hiking in the Appalachians and even some backpacking trips at elevation in south american. serious snow/climbing experience, I did not have. Many things I will read a book/forum/fly by the seat of my pants (car repairs, gardening, plumbing, etc) and it is fine, I learn, and gain skill. Sure, doing some of the scrambles here (helens, s. sister, wallowa peaks) were just an extension of hiking.. However, climbing, even on a 'tame' one like Hood on a good day, wasn't one of those things I just wanted to jump into. Ideally, I would have a friend or friends who know what they are doing who are willing to mentor/supplement what I can read in freedom of the hills. However, without that resource, the basic mazama course was what made sense. And we spent a weekend on hood with snow skills, many separate days in our harness climbing/traversing/passing through pro in various settings throughout the class, going over things.. sounds like someone was asleep in class... Having now summited hood once with a group of mazamas people, but not an 'official' climb, I am signed up for an 'official' climb with a large group (11). While our first climb was still a 'big' group (6) compared to most trip reports I see here, we left very early, moved fast along the traverse, and didn't have any issues with anyone's hiking strength/gear/ability. While I am looking forward to this next climb, with more of my classmates, I am admittedly more hesitant that we may rope up for the sake of roping up, move slower along the traverse, and I will be exposed to more risk than being unroped. When our first group was up there last week, all roped groups were going extremely slow, and many had tons of slack line between people - which seemed somewhat besides the point. All the roping definitely seemed to be an impediment to other climbers and to increase the risk of falling ice hitting by spending more time along the traverse. With that in mind, I probably will not sign up for another hood ss mazama climb after this, though I will climb hood more. However, I would posit the experience of a group of 4 to 8 who have all climbed for a few years, doing jefferson or shuksan or olympus is probably a dramatically different attitude/experience. Mazamas do a lot of climbs on hood's south side, but they also do a ton outside of that on other peaks and I have my doubts they are viewed (or even recognized) in the same manner by other climbers at locations outside of hood. Hood bring out the newbies, heck, thats why I'm here. my obvious goal is to stick with the handful of people I've met through this class who I trust and enjoy being around to pursue climbs on our own.

was at the mazamas lodge on satuday evening before we headed up and heard from some folks there (don't think they were on that climb but maybe had been up that day). Not sure of the sequence of events for the saturday accident, but it was said that a crampon came off the climb leader's foot and then he lost his footing slipped down into her. So... she gets hit with ice, falls some distance, leader rushes (maybe?) towards and coincidentally the crampon comes off one foot and then he slides. i was an alternate on a mazamas friday night/saturday WCR hood climb.. glad i did not get onto it.

yeah summited with lonelysummit and some others this morning - lots of crap raining down, though yes much of it in the chute was just from climbers above. we left timberline at 10:30 and were right behind a big group who took a snow cat up. someone else took a baseball sized piece of ice to the face as we ascended the chute, but it was because they looked right up when ice was called. they flailed for a moment, but then turned around, hope they didn't bust a tooth or anything more than a scrape/bruise.

well thank you to everyone for your thorough two cents. I have landed on the Lowa Mountain Experts after trying on a lot lot lot lot of boots. I found the mountain experts for a really good price at a local store and even though zappos was awesome and let me try a bunch of other boots, I found the overall fit of the lowa boot matched my foot best. Now that the boots are done.. (and thank you again for your advice on it), I am curious about crampons choice. A few of you said you preferred fully auto due to the more secure fit - and a few things I've read about the lowa mountain expert toe welt was that some folks are okay with it and others don't exactly trust the size of it (it is noticeably smaller than a toe welt on la sportiva or scarpa boots, it seems). I am looking at the BD sabertooths and thinking newmatic would be better because there isn't any worry about it popping off the smaller toe welt/it would work on other boots that don't have a toe welt (leaves it open for a wider range of future boots..). 2cents? I'm ready to finish (at least for a season) my gear search for a while and be out using it!

hehe, thanks for the advice frikadeller. lighter boots are great but not as durable! yupp Well I tried on a few pairs and was surprised actually at scarpa freneys seeming to fit better in my exact street shoe size instead of sized up a half size. The La Sportiva Nepal EVOs.. the more I look the more they look like they would be suitable for me and beyond - but I think they may just be a bit overkill for me to begin with--including in the pocket book if a deal wasn't found. Right now I am looking at some Scarpa Summit GTX - looks fairly clean without an excess of different fabric and stitching, has a toe welt and looks like it would still keep the dogs warm if the temp got low. Probably placing an order for some soon, will update this as I get a fit/find a boot so future newbies can read and see a conclusion (hopefully).

Wow! thank you for the thorough responses detailing your recommendations and personal experiences with different boots. I didn't mean to convey I heard nothing positive about plastic boots - within the context of my class though they seem at the margin as the course is to prepare folks for A and B Mazama climbs. I'm taking the class because I'm comfortable on the A scrambles I've done but didn't want to do B category stuff (Hood, jefferson, etc) with trial and error/winging it (duh-okay to do that for backpacking..) Thus the climbs I'm applying for this year are Hood, Jefferson, and Sahale, and other than hood (May), they are late summer climbs. I get the impression the plastic boots are for a bit colder conditions/colder feet/multiple days on the snow? My current intention is that I would be sticking to B climbs, and probably wouldn't be doing any serious winter climbing and at present no plans on any waterfall climbing, to give context for boot usage. rhyang: when you say you feel better about the Lowa Mnt Experts vs the cristallos, for rock scrambling/easy climbing -- is that in that they have greater flex and sensitivity - ie the cristallos are overkill/less agile for when you can get by with less? secondary question: are mountaineering boots the same as backpacking when it comes to the insoles? ie: might as well throw them out and put in your own orthotics? I'm pretty flat footed and monster stiff arch support kills me (superfeet) - so I've got an insole that I'm pretty happy with - can I use it with these mountaineering boots? Now a few people have recommended the La Sportiva Nepal boots - I am heading to a shop tomorrow and will try things on. Thanks for the recommendations. I definitely agree that the more stitching and multiple patches of material increase the chances for problems - thats why I went with a lowa banff for backpacking (single piece of leather). Toe welt seems to be prudent for any boot I choose, thanks for high lighting that too. thanks again for your tips help.

Hello, I'm completing a Mazamas basic climbing course and wanted to get any advice about mountaineering boots from anyone more seasoned, here. I've done st. helens, south sister, peaks in the wallows, yada yada yada, but my intention with boots is Hood, and then any other PNW peaks that would come after that. Though like everything, everyone has their preferences and there is no end all single-solution, it seems like from what I've read that plastic boots for a lot of climbs in the PNW are overkill/people aren't hot on plastic boots. I have a pair of Lowa Banff boots now that I use for backpacking and I really like them a lot. I'm not a gore-tex fan if I don't have to be and treated regularly and cared for they stay pretty dry for 8 hours in the snow--though can get a little wet in the toe box (half of it sweat, i'm sure) after a long day. They are fairly stiff and it seems like I could do hood with them, but they're definitely on the margin for that. With that said, I'm inclined to look at the Lowa brand for mountaineering boots because I know they fit my feet well (after having tried asolo and a few other brands & models when getting a backpacking boot). Does anyone have any thoughts on these three over at Sierra Trading Post? Lowa Cevedale Lowa Cristallo X Pro Lowa Ice Expert The Cevedale looks good and seems to fit the bill - but I'm always a sucker to spend more for something I think might be better--I'll be honest about that, haha. The Cristallo-X-Pro seems a bit tall and maybe overkill, and while the Ice Expert looks a bit more robust than the Cevedale, I'm not sure how far towards ice (vertical) climbing it is suited, vs general mountaineering (what I can find says for rock and ice). thank you for any suggestions and advice!