The Cascade Kid

wow, those pictures are off the hook.

gorgeous photos, prussik looks fun.

funny tr, looks like good weather and a good time. there's something to be said for not hucking rocks downhill for fun though.

man oh man its nice to see some happy climbing buddies, especially on such a good route. prost!

hmmm, nothing like pressing on when you're not sure of you ability to manage the risk with which you're confronted. glad you pulled through, and the photos are great.

I'd want a $45/month max just-climbing pass, and the location would have to be accessible from SE. I'm a whore for the circuit, so you'd have to offer roped climbing at a price that beats the PRG and at least matches the circuit.

oh yes, see also: http://www.psychovertical.com/?increasingcontrol

I'd avoid the monster munter, since you're talking about supporting your weight. Using the munter will introduce a lot of twists to your rope. Instead, try taking the breaking strand and looping it once or twice through a krab off your leg loop- the turns should give you the friction needed. Also, you kight consider just using a 7mm perlon prussik backup, which would lend extra friction and security.

do you know if this route is typically busy over 4th of july weekend more so than any other time? also...perhaps this is the wrong forum for this question, but how do you manage the crevasse danger while skiing back down the route? -P

mmmm....like buttah

siiiiiick. are there rap bolts or were you just slinging things?

looked decent, though it's starting to yawn pretty big at the top. I wasn't really looking at it with a mind to climbing it, so thats all i've got for you, can't remember much else.

You'd probably be fine with your rig, there was one small tree down, but my guess is that someone has done something about it by now. if nothing else, you can make it that far. I dont think you need chains, it's mostly an issue of clearance now that they've plowed a path.

Trip: Mt. Adams - South Col Date: 6/14/2009 Trip Report: Set out from the road at about 12pm after sleeping a few hours in my car. The road is closed about 3.5 miles from the trailhead, ut most of the walking was on dirt, and I was only able to put on skins about 2 miles past the trailhead. The south climb trail is in goodish shape, but becomes pretty vague up above snowline, but it wasn't much bother. The snow was quite solid and made for skinning up through the lunch counter, where the overnighters still hadn't woken. I took the far climber's right of the snowfield to watch the sun come up over the glacier to the east. Here the snow was a little too solid and I had to make more switchbacks than I would have liked to keep the skins set. Weather was quite temperate and I climbed in a fleece vest and the good longjohn + shorts combo that makes you look like your grandpa, especially with ski boots. I reached Pikers peak about half hour after sunrise (? phone gave out, forgot the watch) and saw only a group of 3-4 coming up from below. Crossing the icecap was the easiest going of the day, but the steps up to th summit are in miserable condition. Think of someone glissading over someone else's postholes, and then that freezing solid, with a breakable crust. To that end, I set some better steps to the left of the main drag, perhaps they've yet to be ruined. I doubt it. Obligatory out of focus disposable camera summit photo, with Rainier sneaking into the background. The summit was clear with a good view of Rainier and St. Helens, but as I suited up to begin skiing there showed signs of weather coming out of the east and a fog/cloud deal started to blow around up top. I skied down the pretty icy surface to pikers, and waited impatiently for the snow to soften. Too impatient to actually wait it out, I skied all the way back down in a single push, encountering a strange spectrum from icy to slurpee, with about 1000' of good corn in the middle. I got a little off route below tree line and had to traverse east (skier's right) over several gullies to reach the trail. Stay left while skiing, you'll thank yourself. Descending the trail was very fast, descending the road was excruciatingly slow, as my boots decided to torture me finally with a feeling that I can only describe as the screamin barfies in my toes, and the only cure for which was to walk sideways. An eternity later, I reached the car a little bit before 10am, about 10 hours car-to-car. Not bad I think. I don't know enough about Adams snow to know if the snow is going to get better this year, but as it if you wait for it to get soft up nearer to the top, you'll be waterskiing by the time you get past the Lunch Counter. Also, the butt-slide is now fully set from pikers almost to the trail. Absurd. Probably fun. Gear Notes: Put your M&Ms in a plastic bag. Paper tears. Thankfully the coloring washes out of your clothes. Needed only skis, crampons were useful but not strictly necessary. 2 Litres of water wasn't really enough, 3 would have been perfect. Approach Notes: The road all the way up, or certainly much farther than it is now, should be open very soon. Slednecks in big trucks are making the trip already.

I'm thinking about heading up the south climb this weekend but this low pressure system is making the weather in trout lake look spotty. Anyone have the dirt on the conditions up there? I'd be interested in knowing what the snow's like, if crampons will be needed, what time it's been thawing out to skiiable, if rain's been wrecking the snow, etc should you know any of these things.

Talked to the rangers today, said the road to SS is impassable about 3 miles from the TH. Anyone have the dirt on whether crampons are needed on the snowfield, and if it's snowing/raining up there?

Makes me feel better about my choice.

I believe it was on Zigzag. Looking at the path once the sun came up, I believe it came from up in the crater.

Trip: Mt. Hood - Leuthold's Couloir Date: 5/28/2009 Trip Report: My team of two left timberline on skis at 12:10am on Thursday morning. We climbed up along the cat track in somewhat slushy conditions that turned crusty by the time that we reached the top of the track. We angled northwest up to the standard SS route along the rock band and then traversed West to Illumination saddle. Once the saddle was attained, a brief powow quickly determined to abort the mission. The reasons are these: 1. While traversing over to the saddle, we experienced a very close call with a massive falling rock. About as large as a lunch tray and 4-5 inches thick, it hauled ass down the snowslope in the dark missing us by about 20'. I was only alerted to its approach a few seconds before by a low hiss. Looking at its path on the way back down, it was only touching ground every 20' or so. 2. Our choice of the couloir route depended on conditions being cemented, but there was little evidence that the mountain had frozen up appreciably overnight. 3. Looking west from the saddle towards Yokum ridge there was plenty of evidence of lots of rockfall and snowmelt. 4. In a post-hoc ratification of our decision, while waiting for the sun to rise, we heard Lots of rockfall on either side (3am-5am) We traversed back across to the main route once there was enough light to see rocks coming from above and dodge them, and then just opted to return to the car and head off to work. I would strongly advise against travel on this or any nearby routes, as objective hazards are very high, and looking at the weather, ought to remain so or worsen. Gear Notes: Used: Skis + Skins Unused: 2 pickets 1 axe each 30m rope Wear a helmet! Approach Notes: Standard cat-track approach. It may have been safer to reach the saddle by first traversing west and then climbing, rather than traversing higher above.

In response to my previous post about difficulty with Mazamas, there was some dialogue about the incident with the leader of the group that we think would be valuable to make public. It is presented below for your edification and pleasure. M: Thanks for lending Andy your ice axe. He'd been climbing since '05, that was his sixth peak and second time up S Side. I'm still not sure how anyone could drop both a crampon AND THEN an ice axe. I was the climb leader on that climb that you passed. Although I agree with most things you stated in your TR, a couple things were just a little different. I told you we had a group of beginners, but there were four new beginners out of twelve - I chose to put two directly behind me, and was disappointed with the difficulties they had. One correction - I wouldn't call my reaction 'feisty' but near to apoplexy. The Mazamas spends a lot of time training to ensure SNAFUs like that don't happen and it's damned frustrating to everyone on the mountain when it does. However, my reaction probably did little other than get people more on edge. Gotta work on that. You're right there were four pickets in - but over four rope lengths of 800', not forty. I strongly support protecting beginners and have hauled enough broken legs and body bags off Hood, Alps and Himalaya to ever change that. But it's a royal PITA for other climbers, that's for sure. I, too avoid Mazama groups (and all beginner groups) when climbing for all the same reasons. As the climb leader of such a climb, it's a lot more frustrating to be involved in it than it was to watch, and that's the difficulty with taking beginners - sometimes it's a cluster. But what's the alternative - never teach people how to climb? Monty Smith P:Monty, It good to hear your end of it. At the time that we encountered you, I was rather frustrated to encounter such a group, but that was obviously not the time to express myself, but rather to help out and then get out of the way. I think the alternative method is not to never teach people to climb, but to instead try to instill in them the same mindfulness that you are using when leading them. It is not the skills that are ultimately important up there, but the ability to make decisions and to discern the proper way of behaving. I say this because there can be no way taught that works all the time; the conditions, the time, the group, these are all in flux, and to teach someone how to climb may be as nebulous a task as teaching someone to lead. Perhaps it is not everyone's inclination as a beginner to study the way that their teacher moves through the terrain around them, as the skills may seem more prescient to acquire what in th beginning are very foreign skills, but as a leader taking beginners into the mountains it must be remembered that at some point they have to set out on their own, and whom would you trust more to the mountains, one who is fully versed in the skills but has no sense of how to handle the flow of decisions that comes with climbing, or one who is conscious of their every move and does nothing without a reason? If I was hard on you in my post I apologize, it was more out of frustration with the situation and the institution than with you. You were in a position that I did not envy, and as long as everyone came down fine, the theory and philosophy is secondary. Might I suggest, given the uncountered stigma against Mazamas, that we make your reply, and mine, public? It has been helpful to me at least to have a voice come out of the crowd, as without a testimony like yours the soapbox chattering just gets out of hand in a sort of alpine climbers' circle jerk. Patrick Fink M:Hi Patrick - Making it public - sure. I typed it up anticipating there'd be some chance of that. A couple other thoughts regarding the Mazamas and some of the difficulties. We get overfilled every year with the beginner class. There's so much demand it's always overwhelming. Same thing with any beginner climb offered. 30-40 applicants is pretty common - if you take a full party of twelve (yuk!) you still have to turn away the majority. Having climbed Hood totally clueless and dangerous many years ago, the only thing I can think of that's worse than the Mazamas and their slow crowds is NOT having them there. Then you'd have additional hundreds of clueless untrained climbers just waiting to fall on you. Mazama groups definitely get in the way, but least we don't fall on people. As for me, I dislike taking people I don't know because of the risk that they're not prepared, despite their claimed training and expertise (witness last week's climb!). So I'm going to err on the side of caution, and if that means we're too slow, then we turn around. But in the meantime, I'll try to be aware that we're a big slug blocking the route and minimize the hassle factor to other climbers. Monty

do you call it outdated in the sense that the limit should in fact be lower, as those pack animals have been replaced with people traveling in large groups?

so I'm a little new to this forum. could one of you inform me as to how I can actually post in the trip reports section? Thanks P

My friend (a former NOLS instructor about to head back to China to be a bum and study) and I decided on very short notice to do some work on the South side of Mt. Hood in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. The night before as we tried to snag so Zs down in govy, I could hear it raining outside and was wondering to my internet-stranded self how the conditions were going to pan out. We left the T-Line lot at 1:30 am to ~15-20mph NW winds and new snow blowing sideways. Worrying slightly about visibility, we headed up anyways to reach clearing at about 7k' with no moon and a decent cat track to tramp along. [img:center]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3395/3552242451_c6c1c0958d.jpg[/img] We brought some red plastic sleds with us to speed the descent and stashed them in a pit just off of the end of the cat track before heading up to the rock band. The snow was alright, about 4 inches of windload on top of a hard and icy layer that I suspect was frozen rain of the night before. We made good time up to crater rock after noticing a group of 12 ragtag lights (Mazamas?) following up our steps about 20 minutes behind us. I wanted to put good space between us and them so as not to get tangled with them on the final pitches. [img:center]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2475/3553051004_371c2599a5.jpg[/img] The hog's back made for easy going and steps were already kicked west across the slope to the final pitch. Snow conditions here were of mild question, with a fairly loose layer predominating on top. [img:center]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2455/3553052858_8ee721d855.jpg[/img] Punching up through the rime as the pair ahead of us descended from above rained some down on top of us, we topped out at 7am to meet some Volkl sponsored skiers seemingly preparing to shoot a segment East of the summit. Enjoying the bluebird skies for ten minutes or so, we descended. Meeting a solo climber halfway down the pitch, he informed us that the ragtag bunch was roping up on the hogs back. As we turned the corner, we were greeted with a zoo. Two rope teams of four were tightly bunched on the upper reaches of the hog's back, while another was progessing out onto the traverse. The leader placed four pickets in the space of probably 40 ft while his team moved behind him at an agonizing crawl. It quickly became apparent that he had not explained to his apparently novice companions how to pass pro, and so each had to be shouted instructions as they reached the first of the pickets. My partner and I opted to move quickly and descended to them intending to pass. When we reached the leader he was crouched next to the second member of his team and when asked what was up, he said "His harness is literally falling off" (Mazamas.). This man, despite having placed four, was still wearing at least 6 other pickets like a suit of armor, along with several ice screws. We snuck past the circus and headed down the hogs back and had reached the second to last of them when he, looking nervous at my approach, prudently dropped his ice axe down the slope, where it came to rest next to a fumarole. Quickly becoming anxious while the man behind him asked loudly and repeatedly "Why did you do that? What are you going to do now?". A shouting match quickly ensued between the rear team and the leader above about how they weren't going to summit, which did nothing but make the man so nervous that he looked like he was about to legitimately panic. I decided to take matters into my own hands and whipped out my ski poles, handed the man my axe, and walked him through turning around and walking back down the hogs back to where they had left a pile of their backpacks. The whole team was a joke, and the man was actually in kinda bad shape. We got him set sitting on the hogs back to wait for his friends, and he informed us that this had only added to his bad day, as early his crampon had fallen off (what??). As soon as he was seated, he started to get stomach cramps and had to stand back up. Getting him seated again, my WFR self started asking the usual questions and found that he was actually pretty dehydrated. Noticing that the teams were headed back down, having made it no further than where we encountered them, we got ready to leave once he was secure. A few questions yielded very predictable answers. Yes, they were mazamas, and all "first timers" except for the man in lead. Taking leave of him and absolving ourselves of legal liability, my partner and I quickly descended to T-line to find that our sleds had been replaced by a cat track. Probing at length with my avy prove, I failed to recover them, and I suspect that they were in fact confiscated by whoever had decided to drive a cat in a circle right there. We were back at the car by 10:15 or so, having dallied to look for the sleds, drink a redbull, and talk to an old fellow at the top of t-line. All in all it was easy and solid, and a good start to our season (and my partner's 1-day season- she is at this moment back in Beijing). [img:center]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3625/3553052132_b76121e05f.jpg[/img] A few final thoughts on the group at the hog's back though: I am relatively new to this sport, but I've got some sense in me, as well as the skillset needed to tackle a fairly benign route like the S. side of Hood. Even though I've spent little time on the mountain and haven't really seen the range of who tackles these sorts of things, it was clear to me that the group in question was so radically out of place as to put themselves in danger. New to the forum as well, I don't know the going opinion of Mazamas, but I'd like to lodge a complaint with the cosmos: it is an extremely ridiculous situation when institutionalized risk actually makes things riskier. Opting to rope up, they wasted valuable time as the snow above warmed, and they moved out into the shooting gallery only to run into a problem that further decried their unpreparedness (how does a harness fall off?) which left them standing on that slope for easily 30-40 minutes. Their leader was also in no position to be leading 11 inexperienced people, as merely accepting such a charge decries foolishness. Furthermore, as the situation around him became more complicated and dangerous, he responded by becoming more agitated and feisty with his group, and failed to come up with a solution to any of the problems that he faced. I appreciate that the Mazamas respond to a desire in budding outdoorsmen to reach the high places in the world, but to assume responsibility for the unaware and unprepared is dangerous, and may lead either to decreased interest in mountain travel, or worse, tragedy.