[TR] Mt. Hood - North Face Right Gully, Reid Headwall, Wy'East, Pearly Gates Enchainment 12/29/2019

[landoclimb]

Trip: Mt. Hood - North Face Right Gully, Reid Headwall, Wy'East, Pearly Gates Enchainment

Trip Date: 12/29/2019

Trip Report:

 

I'm back in Oregon after my first semester of college in Canada! Over the last few months I have spent too much time ice and mixed climbing, not enough time in the mountains. Since I'm back home I figured it would be fun to do a bigger objective on Hood. The coolest thing I could think of was doing a link up of all four faces of the mountain in a push. For the routes, I decided to do the North Face Right Gully, Reid, Wy'East, and the Pearly Gates. I chose the North Face gully because it was the most striking line on the face, Reid because Leuthold looked lame, Wy'East because I didn't want to solo the Black Spider, and Pearly Gates because it was the route that got me into climbing. Link ups are new too me so I thought the whole trip would take around 30 something hours. After watching the weather carefully, a window appeared and I knew it was go time.

 

At 4:00 am I started the hike up to the north face. Cool temps and no wind made the approach go by quickly and comfortably. There's a good trail all the way to the shelter and the snow on the glacier was pretty firm. Cooper 30 is in fat and some of the other drips on the glacier look good too. At around 7:30 I geared up and started up the bergshrund. To my surprise, the shrund was almost completely filled in. I just walked across some stable snow and the bergshrund was over. Climbing the first ice pitch was some of the best ice I've encountered on Hood. The sticks were solid and there wasn't much dinnerplating.

First ice pitch

Slogging up some more snow brought me to one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The second ice pitch was in interesting shape which made for such fun climbing! I'll let the picture of the pitch speak for itself.

.

 

More neve took me to the cloudy summit by 10:30. I was pretty surprised in how quickly the route took. In my head I had planned for it to take somewhere around 10 hours. Although it was exciting to finish the north face, I still had a long day ahead of me.

I had the choice of doing either the Reid or Wy'East next. Initally, I thought I would do Wy'East because I have never been on the route and it had more vert. I have been up the Reid a couple of times now, each one uneventful. As I was descending I asked a few people if they knew the condition of a few routes. The group said the Reid wasn't in which immediately piqued my interest. Now it was settled, Reid first, Wy'East second. I walked down to illumination saddle and got my first look at the west face in the winter. It was so beautiful. Yocum demanded a solemn respect and a thin veil of clouds gave the face a sense of wonder. 

Looking up at the West Face

I charged up the Reid with some mixture of apprehension and excitement. The first 1000 feet or so was simple snow climbing. As I got higher, I developed a rhythm where I would take 50 steps and then rest. Sometimes I would get gassed after 20, sometimes I would push and lose count. When the clouds broke, the Reid got interesting. Simple snow climbing turned into an exhausting swim as the snow turned warm. Quickly, my 50 step rhythm diminished into 5 or 6 steps of making little to no progress. It was no big deal though, I missed the simple joys of effort in the hills. Things got really fun when I reached some ice steps. Firstly, my feet were uncomfortable and my socks were approaching soggy from all the sweat I was making. Secondly, the "ice" was basically rock with some rime over it. I pulled some cool stemming moves and swung for the fences into the choss. My Grivel picks took it like a champ. After pulling a short but steep ice step, I climbed a mixture of alpine ice and snow to the ridge and then summit. By 3:00 I was on the summit for the second time. With the clouds now gone, I was rewarded with the typical Mt. Hood panorama. Now time for round 3.

Snow early on the Reid

Suns out guns out

On top for the second time that day

I was pretty stoked at this point. I felt like the hardest climbing was behind me and I knew I was well ahead of schedule. As a reward, I took another sip of my water supply and ate another GU. On the way down I ran into Walter Burkhardt who gave me some more stoke and energy to get the project done. Instead of walking to Palmer to get up to Wy'East, I traversed across the White River glacier. Traversing the glacier allowed me to save a some vert see a little more of the route in the last hour of sunlight. Walking up to the ridge on Wy'East was good snow climbing. When I gained the ridge, I encountered thin layers of snow and ice over rocks. Sometimes I would step on a seemingly normal spot of snow only to have the snow collapse and hit some rocks. Annoying but non-lethal. Climbing on the steel cliffs brought a whole new perspective to me. The sheer size and steepness of the cliffs is especially noticeable when you're on top. The traverse was easy and by around 7:45 I was back on top for the third time.

Cool rime formation on the White River

On the ridge

Last steps before the summit

I was feeling so great by now. All I had to do was run up the southside and the four faces of the mountain would be complete. Going up the Pearly Gates brought back the memories of climbing for the first time. So much had changed in the past few years except for the feeling I have in the mountains. Finishing the trip on the route that started it all just felt right. 

Ice step on Pearly Gates.

I reached the summit for the fourth and final time at 8:40. What a trip it had been. I called my mom and she came to pick me up at Timberline an hour and some change later. (I have the best mom ever). Car to car, the trip took 18 hours 10 minutes and 5 seconds. I still had a bunch of food left and about half a liter of water. Reflecting on the trip brought me mixed feelings. I wanted it to be longer. I had envisioned some feat of endurance that would bring me to the depths of my inner self. Instead, I got home in time for (late) dinner. I'm happy that I got it done and thankful the mountain was kind to me that day. All in all I would highly recommend this trip to anyone interested. I would love to see someone beat my time or do different routes. Happy new year everyone.

 

Gear Notes:
2 liters of water, 1200 calories, hardshell, synthetic jacket, and that's pretty much it

Approach Notes:
Approach to the North side is good and crevasses are easily manageable

Edited January 1, 2020 by landoclimb

[OlegV]

A machine!

[mrice1225]

Sick. Makes me want to drive down and check out Mt Hood. 

[JasonG]

  I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around that much climbing in 18 hours.  Well done!

[ivan]

i couldn't drink the amount of coffee necessary to do all this in a day...  

[DPS]

I am impressed by the sheer ambition of the project and the clean execution.  Well done, way to squeeze out a giant enchainment from an already big mountain.

Many years ago Sean Courage and I were discussing Colin Haley and Bart Paul.  We agreed that if they both made it to 30 then they would probably live into old age.  The gist of the story is I've seen too many talented, young climbers die by the age of 35 and some much younger.  Boldness and ambition must be tempered by good judgement.  Please, for your mother's sake, be careful out there. 

[Jim]

Can you drag me up the first route and call it a day?

[ScaredSilly]

With all that extra time ya should have done a lap on Sandy Glacier Headwall. I mean after all it is really a face in to itself. But then you would have had to call yer mom around midnight. She might have complained but you had an easy out - better than calling at midnight to pick you up from Timberline than the pokey.

That said nice job. I am guess around 11k vertical for the day which is a good day's outing. Now get back to those books.

Edited December 31, 2019 by ScaredSilly

[landoclimb]

3 hours ago, DPS said:

I am impressed by the sheer ambition of the project and the clean execution.  Well done, way to squeeze out a giant enchainment from an already big mountain.

Many years ago Sean Courage and I were discussing Colin Haley and Bart Paul.  We agreed that if they both made it to 30 then they would probably live into old age.  The gist of the story is I've seen too many talented, young climbers die by the age of 35 and some much younger.  Boldness and ambition must be tempered by good judgement.  Please, for your mother's sake, be careful out there. 

Thank you. I try to keep things safe. I’ve still got a long journey ahead of me and am learning as much as I can. Some lessons come cheaper than others. 

[landoclimb]

1 hour ago, ScaredSilly said:

With all that extra time ya should have done a lap on Sandy Glacier Headwall. I mean after all it is really a face in to itself. But then you would have had to call yer mom around midnight. She might have complained but you had an easy out - better than calling at midnight to pick you up from Timberline than the pokey.

That said nice job. I am guess around 11k vertical for the day which is a good day's outing. Now get back to those books.

Never even thought of that. That’s a really good idea! I think it would also be sick to do a variation which goes up the Black Spider too. However, soloing the Black Spider is above my pay grade for the near future. If things got too late on the Sandy I could bivy in the Timberline climbers room. 

[JasonG]

I with @Jim.  We'll just tie in and yell "Hit it!"

[Rad]

Wow! Nice work!

As you prepare for bigger objectives, consider watching the Alpine Mentors videos from Steve House to up your mental game. Really good stuff.

They are on the page here: https://www.alpinementors.org/

Happy New Year y'all!

 

[landoclimb]

4 hours ago, JasonG said:

I with @Jim.  We'll just tie in and yell "Hit it!"

I’m starting a new guide service on the mountain. I’ll carry you on my back for the following rates: $100 per 1000 feet of elevation and an additional $50 per pitch of technical climbing. Complimentary food and drink will be provided. 

[landoclimb]

1 hour ago, Rad said:

Wow! Nice work!

As you prepare for bigger objectives, consider watching the Alpine Mentors videos from Steve House to up your mental game. Really good stuff.

They are on the page here: https://www.alpinementors.org/

Happy New Year y'all!

 

Thank you! I have seen the Alpine Mentors videos and they are very useful. The one that particularly stood out to me was Pay Attention. I find it helpful to tell myself to focus every now and then to stay with it. 

[JasonG]

3 hours ago, landoclimb said:

I’ll carry you on my back for the following rates: $100 per 1000 feet of elevation and an additional $50 per pitch of technical climbing. Complimentary food and drink will be provided. 

What about if you just provide about #30 of upward pull for the duration?  I'm not quite to full carry ineptitude yet.

[DPS]

7 hours ago, JasonG said:

 I'm not quite to full carry ineptitude yet.

I am.