AlecE

I don't think that there's any rock climbing required to get to the top of the eggplant, though you could probably find some if you looked. Photo from the backside shows someone just walked up it. I don't have great photos of the steeper side, but it looks like you could find an adventurous scramble to the top. Post a TR!

Thanks for all the pics! Looks like a good time, glad to see some snow in our forecast... things are looking like spring up there.

It's getting colder. 11/20/21

This is still my favorite corner of the internet, I should get my act together and put some TRs together.... but please keep it up!

Trying to track this pack down, looks like they're not making any more this year. Normal (not tall) size. Located in PDX

Maybe I'm getting lazy with my weather game, but at this point I just check the Hood mountain forecast (PDX based) and if it looks gross I just assume all the volcanoes are out and pack the biking/rock climbing gear instead. We do get some regional variation, but the volcanoes always have the worst weather.

Any updates on the Enchaments zone?

Nah, I bailed in August. The biking/climbing was too good, hard to stay motivated for the turns.

There's a partner forum (you posted in the wrong sub). Probably more likely to find partners near the time you're doing the trip, a year is a long way to plan. Note: I moved the post. -Jon

A couple of weeks ago now, but the Eliot glacier had pretty good July turns!

I'm a big fan of the Cold Cold World packs, which you don't see a lot of out here. Relatively inexpensive, and you can get them customized however you like. I use the Valdez for all my day trips, works great. I have the larger one too, which I like. One nice thing about frameless packs is that you can make them much smaller if you're gonna hike in for a few days and then climb with the pack. Frameless doesn't carry a bunch of weight as well, but ideally you're not carrying a bunch of weight anyway, right?

Can't really answer your question, but my understanding is there's just that one area that's kosher for dry tooling. I haven't seen too many people out there in general, and haven't come across anyone dry tooling other routes yet.

Nice! Looks fun

Trip: Mt. Adams - North Face Northwest Ridge Ski Trip Date: 06/11/2019 Trip Report: There's a good amount of beta out there already on this line, so here's a short conditions report. Left Hood River around 4:00 PM on Monday, hiking around 6:30 PM. We hit patchy snow about halfway to the camp, but decided it would be faster to keep the skis on our back and just hike it. Made a nice camp just short of the typical high camp ridge and enjoyed a nice sunset. Got a leisurely start the next AM, moving around 6:45 AM. We could almost ski to the base of the north ridge, just one or two short carries before hitting the ridge proper. Looking towards the ridge. Looking up the North Ridge with another climber ahead of us. The goats tracks went almost all the way to the top! From this vantage point, the ridge seemed really straightforward. We booted our way up for a while, and then hit a section with two option: either up a short chimney/scramble or over the ridge (we were on the left side) into a really loose chute. I headed up the chimney, which didn't go anywhere, and had to come back down and around. This didn't seem to lead anywhere: We did a bit of downclimbing and some traversing on frightening rock to get onto the N. Face proper, and followed some snow patches to get back on the N. Ridge. Once back on the ridge we slogged up for what seemed like eternity. Sloggin As the photos show, the snow was pretty wet and sloppy, and we saw some good sized naturals come down the Lava Headwall on our way up. I was pretty skeptical that our line would be in condition, but we figured there was only one way to find out. We topped out on the ridge around 1:30, and melted some snow and ate snacks, and were treated to views of Rainier, Goat Rocks, Baker, Glacier Peak, and the Enchantments (we think). Both of us commented on how much of a slog the N ridge felt. We both climb Hood pretty consistently in good time, but were amazed at how painful this route felt. From here we put skins on and headed across the ridge to get to the top of the Pinnacle, where our line started. Trevor is smiling because there's skis on his feet. Rainier in the background. Skinning across the top. That black dot in the middle is Trevor. We skinned to the top of the Pinnacle and dropped into our line around 2:30. The snow was excellent. Slightly grabby up top, perfect corn for the majority, and a little wet on the bottom. The line is truly amazing, with thousands of feet of fall line skiing that only gets steeper and steeper the farther you go. Trevor cruising on the upper section: Getting steeper: The choke is pretty wide, and had the best snow of the day. It took a little scouting and traversing to piece together the exit onto the Adams glacier, but it was cool skiing next to the seracs and crevasses. The Line: Overall, amazing ski line. I don't know why you would choose to climb the N. Ridge unless you're going down another way. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably find a different way up. Gear Notes: Axe, Crampons, Skis (why would you walk down a volcano?) Approach Notes: Beautiful hike through the forest.

Ah damn, was looking to ski. Figured I was late. Thanks!