bedellympian

I would advise checking different aspects and trying different volcanoes from Hood. Hood gets very wet/rimey storms and the South side gets side-blasted. Often the Sisters, Jefferson, or Adams will have much drier snow (as in it actually deposits snow and not ice blobs).

I figured I'd share this as its helped me a fair bit as someone who trains constantly. I've told several partners about it and they have started doing the same thing. I find it very helpful for mountain athletes, especially when the local weather is not consistent (i.e. winter in the PNW). Most endurance athletes keep a weekly total of their volume and start their weeks on either Sunday or Monday, but I've started beginning my weeks on Saturday (or whatever your first free day is if your schedule is not traditional). This allows you to have more flexibility on the weekends. I used to start my training weeks on Monday and I would spend hours watching the weekend forecast, trying to move around workouts and adjust aerobic session lengths in anticipation of what I would most want to do that weekend. Obviously you want to keep your training fairly consistent, but you also want to take advantage of those occasional winter weather windows. Too often I would see next weekend looking really good and slack off on my volume a bit in the hopes of going into the alpine, only to have the forecast slowly shift and I'd be left trying to do all my vert and my long effort for the week by lapping crap snow in terrible weather. Conversely, I'd see terrible weather coming and would front load my week so I could spend a little extra time with the wife on the weekend, but then a good weather window would appear and I'd be left wondering if I should go way over my volume to try something while tired, or just sit around and watch a great opportunity pass. Now that I start my weeks on Saturday I can make last minute plans and have way less stress. If the weekend is great, I can go do an alpine day or ski tour that fits within my weekly volume, and then do shorter strength and easy aerobic as needed to meet my weekly total by Friday. If the weekend is crap I still try get a longer effort but it can be on the lower end of that range and it could be out in the desert or just around town without pressure to hit a certain mark, then I can do some medium-long efforts before/after work during the work week to make sure that I still hit my volume by Friday. For those of you tracking weekly volume and still trying to enjoy some mountain adventures with your days off I highly recommend this strategy.

I found out what the units for the wind vane fletchings are... They are in knots (nautical mph) cause everyone knows knots! 1 knot = 1.15 mph A half line = 5 knots A full line = 10 knots A triangle = 50 knots So a wind vane arrow pointing from L to R at 700mbar with a triangle, a line, and a half line coming off its side means wind out of the West at 10,000ft with an average speed of 50+10+5=65 knots or ~75mph (so stay the F%$# home!)

In my experience, if the Time-Height is white at summit altitude, then it will be clear. There MIGHT be a summit cloud capping it, but it won't be anything major.

This past Friday on Hood was a perfect example of how Time-Heights are better... NOAA pt called for 80% chance of snow and high winds out of the W. The Time-Height showed that while there would be clouds and precip it would be clear above 6,000ft and the winds would actually be out of the NW at that elevation. We went for it and poked out of the clouds at the top of Palmer, while there were high winds in places we were mostly sheltered by the mountain. We were the ONLY climbers or skiers on the entire upper peak that day and climbed Reid Headwall in beautiful conditions under perfect blue sky. We encountered strong winds at Illumination Saddle and on the summit ridge but otherwise it was just a little breezy. We had to start and finish skiing in the cloud layer in what looked pretty terrible from the parking lot, but persistence and confidence in the forecast paid off.

Classic... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXzVNFrLzk0 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mXzVNFrLzk0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Totally, this experience has me rethinking when and what climbable conditions look like on this face.

Trip: Wy'east (Mt. Hood) - Fric-Amos Trip Date: 01/23/2021 Trip Report: I went up to the Black Spider last weekend with Lindsey and Riley. We found the Fric-Amos in very nice condition but were too late on a warm day and bailed up an easy mixed pitch to the L of the main pitch. Thankfully the weather granted me another opportunity and I came back this weekend with Kyle to get it done. Noah and Matt saw my Insta story from the first weekend and jumped on the send train. They acted as true gentlemen, coordinating with us and giving us a head start. The route is currently in good condition (but don't expect a straightforward WI4). We used an approach pitch to the R of the original both times that follows an easy ice slot (the original would probably go but is discontinuous ice blobs up a vertical cliff). The crux pitch is a full 60m or could be broken up, expect tricky and sustained climbing but with good ice. Above this snow slopes take you through one more short ice step and up to the summit ridge. This may be one of the more frequently formed ice routes on the Spider given that it is in a shaded cleft, unlike most of the other routes. Though you are basically going for one mega pitch, it is very good and I would recommend it! I talked to Bill Amos the next day and he believes ours was the 3rd (and Noah and Matt the 4th) ascent of the route (2nd was Marcus and Marsha, go figure). Awesome sunrise approaching on first attempt... Lindsey and Riley below the face, clearly too late... The face... Closer view of the Fric-Amos (original approach pitch is on the L, our approach pitch was on the far R of the hanging snow field)... Riley following the approach pitch, classic slot... Our escape pitch... The crux pitch (taken during from 1st attempt)... Kyle booting up to the face on attempt 2 (much earlier)... Kyle's pic, me below the face... Kyle's pics, me on the crux... Looking down from top of crux... Kyle leading above crux... Looking down from ropes off... Summit selfiez... Gear Notes: Screws: 2xstub, 4x13, 2x16, 1x22 (used for the belay but not any good) Rock gear: nuts, cams 0.4-0.75, pins (not used), 2 med hexes (not used) Plenty of slings if you're going to do the crux as one pitch. Approach Notes: Boots from Timberline, crossed White River ~8,800ft.

Green lines (I'm pretty sure) are relative humidity as a %, so yes cloud cover/precip in essence. I always use the 4km to be honest and don't understand the difference between the 12 and 4. The 4/3 looks like a shorter time frame than the 12 and 4, and the 12 looks like it has a little less detail than the 4km. I know TMG uses the 4km at Troutdale for all their guiding on Hood.

Every xx/00 to xx/12 is 12 hours, it covers 84 hrs.

x-axis starts on the R and goes back L (counter intuitive right?) and is in xx/yy format. xx is the date. yy is the hour in UTC (8 hours ahead of us in winter and 7 in summer so 00=4pm PST and 12=4am PST). basically you just look for the date and the 12 which is about when you'd be heading up with an alpine start most days. If its white (clear) above and to the L of that then its clear skies.

I've been aware of UW's time-height forecasting system for a while but really started using it this year. There have been several days where NOAA pt predicts clouds or high winds but the time-height shows its calm and clear above 5-6k' and its right on. Reading them takes some getting used to, they are definitely not the most user friendly, but once you've practiced a bit it's easy enough. Time goes from R-L on the x-axis in UTC (date/hour, 00=4pm PST day before and 12=4am day of), elevation is on the y-axis in mbar pressure (800 is aprox 6k', 700 = 10k'). Green = clouds/precip, arrows = wind (more fletchings = more wind, they point in the compass direction), temp is deg C shown in red lines ("0" line is the freezing level). Here is the link to a map of the time-heights. Click on the location down wind of where you want to go. Look for white above 800mbar with small wind arrows, there's your window. https://a.atmos.washington.edu/mm5rt/rt/timeheights_d3.cgi?GFS+current_gfs+

You are aware of the problems with this strategy, yes? https://www.amazon.com/review/R2JGNJ5ZPJT4YC

Agreed, SS of Hood is definitely a step up from Adams, South Sister, Helens. If that feels comfortable and easy for you then consider Wy'east. Also, worth finding some steep snow with a big flat area of soft snow beneath it and building some anchors in that and practicing your skills. Try different things and try to make your tool placements and pickets fail. Realize that snow is super variable, but despite that this will give you a great idea of what you can/can't get away with.

Here is a rough approximation of our route in caltopo for those interested... https://caltopo.com/m/B36T Also, for those without a sled, this would definitely be doable with a skinning approach. I've certainly done individual routes on BT in an ~8hr car-to-car this way and you can also camp out near the peak as I've done several times.