[TR] Mt. Hood- Sandy Glacier Headwall 3/13/2004

[ivan]

Climb: Mt. Hood-Sandy Glacier Headwall

 

Date of Climb: 3/13/2004

 

Trip Report:

The Big Hurt on the Lonely Sandy

 

Knew the weather was gonna be good for Saturday, but was late in trying to arrange a partner. After trying to talk a few folks into climbing something on the Sandy, I reckoned if I wanted to do it so damn much, I might as well do it meself and stfu.

Dickloads of folks in the t-line lot by 130 Saturday morning, but almost all seemed bound for the dog route. Saw a few folks w/ climbing forms for the Reid and Luetholds in the hut, but didn't see anybody going for Yocums or the Sandy, so I relished the prospect of finding a little solitude in the midst of the masses.

 

Headed uphill be 2. Fantastic footing...no postholing the whole day. Made much better time up to Illumination then last month's abortive Yocum attempt, no doubt due to the 4 safety breaks; at the first by Silcox, a guy named Josh from the tri-cities stumbled into me in the dark and caught a buzz as a result. His amigos had ditched his ass, and he ended up changing his route to Luetholds, which I pointed out before parting his company down on the Reid.

 

Was at Illumination gap at 5 and a little surprised not to encounter anyway else hanging out there. Saw no signs of anybody down on the glacier in the first light, so figured Josh and I were just the first there. Shooting stars above Illumination and the roar of a jet passing just over the mountain.

 

Good firm snow on the backside of the gap, and down on level ground the headlamps could be turned off. Josh, who was on the mountain for only his second time, seemed a bit apprehensive looking uphill as I explained where he should go; I thought momentarily about playing tour guide, but the conditions seemed so good, and my opportunities for escaping the tyranny of fatherhood so rare, that I wanted to do what I’d set out for. 8-ball asked several times if the Sandy wouldn't go for him w/ just an axe. I told him I was sure it had been climbed in blue-jeans w/ a bowie knife at some point in history, but since I hadn't seen it for myself before, I didn't feel responsible in encouraging him to do it w/ as little experience as he had (though I must have felt it responsible to cut a novice loose and alone on a relatively untrafficked side of the hill). He headed up the couloir ably enough and I’m sure he made it as I didn't encounter his mangled corpse at the bottom when I made my miserable way back across the Reid a few hours later.

 

Don't know why there's so much hub-bub about crossing Yocums. The ramp seems quite obvious as it's the first opportunity to get off the Reid and staying level is pretty easy. The weirdo rime peeked through in a few locations and was bullet-proof. Tempted for a few seconds to solo Yocums, as the ridge appeared in far better shape then it had the month before and I felt strong. Still, I could see my 6 month old daughter hating me for it in a few years if I fucked up, so I kept on traversing. I’ll be back someday soon enough.

 

getting off the ridge onto the sandy side was a little more interesting then I expected. several crevasses were already opened and a long bergschrund was expanding up against the ridge. After a bit of steepish downclimbing I found a slender snowbridge. My testicles ascended into my tonsils when a block I stepped on settled a foot into the still shallow crack. occasionally I saw evidence of a single set of foot-prints, I assume they'd been made in the last week. Maybe they accounted for the huge turd sitting on the surface that was slowly inching its crusty brown way downhill.

 

At this point my feet were hurting a bit. I’d been breaking my new boots in all week but apparently that wasn't long enough. Still, by 730 I was heading up hill once again, experimenting w/ different ways of arranging my feet so as to relieve the pressure on the blisters on my heels. I think I was a little disappointed w/ this side of the mountain, remembering the amazement I’d had for the Reid and Elliot sides when I’d first beheld them. Certainly this side of Yocums ridge is more savage and elegant, and I must imagine there's a lot here that has never been climbed. I wasn't entirely certain of the route, but I went pretty far towards Cathedral ridge before turning up, as every earlier start appeared to end up near the gap at the top of Yocum, just under that huge upper wall. I’d been hoping the route here would have more of the same exquistily narrow and enticing gullies as the Reid route does, but instead it was a fairly broad, unfeatured, unvarying moderate slope.

 

I’d been noticing a fair amount of icefall prior to 7, and had already crossed a number of runnels gouged out by falling debris, but as I headed towards the obvious merging of the headwall and Cathedral ridge, the intensity and quality of the barrage changed. Small ice crystals mixed more and more with large chunks, some as big as cannonballs that went whizzing by with the same ferocity. I could see the origin of most of the shot, Cathedral ridge on the left, and the larger wall just right of my aiming point. I was a little concerned, as alone and unroped I’d likely ruin my Gore-Tex and all that expensive climbing equipment if I got beaned and knocked down the long, long slope. Keeping an eye uphill wasn't too helpful either. The ice materialized imperceptivily from the white, bouncing and ricocheting wildly. Nonetheless, I figured I was only a few hundred feet from the ridge, and I knew the last 1000 feet to the summit was a cakewalk, so if I could just motor quickly through this part all would be well. Christ, there was no way I wanted to retrace that endless traverse from the Palmer!

 

The first solid shot I took was to the head, but my helmet took the blow and didn't complain and my feet remained steady. 500 feet to go. Then a stinging jab on the forearm, which tingled unpleasently before going numb. Hmmmmm. Well, just keep going, good feet, good axe placement. I was annoyed that there was nowhere to hide, even the slight walls to either side seemed to be getting hit and shedding their own projectiles.

 

Wack! the big baseball hit my right calf as I zigzagged up towards the gap. now that hurt! Wavered for a second. Maybe I should think a bit more about this...I reached a point where most of my body was sheltered from the worst of the rain, clipped into my tool and took a long look upwards, surveying the barrage. Man, I can be up there in 20 minutes! I’ll drink some Gatorade, eat a snickers, then do my best Saving Private Ryan hero charge...shit, I’m bulletproof, with any luck most everything will miss and I can laugh my ass off up by the Queen's Chair. Off I went, and all of 15 feet from where I’d had that lovely conversation with myself the big one nailed me.

 

I didn't see it. I was trying to dodge across the narrowest portion of the route, about 40 feet from my previous refuge. Runnels marked the whole way, some 2 feet deep. I heard it though…after it hit me. WHAM! My first thought was terror. My whole left leg buzzed crazily, my femur felt snapped like a dry twig. What if I couldn't put any weight on it? Suddenly I felt glad I hadn't bothered to see old Joe Simpson's grim tale put to awful celluloid reality. Whatever it was that had my name on it had cratered into my thigh, just inches from the knee-cap. The impact hammered the bone just as my leg was planted, and I swayed momentarily as it throbbed and ringed. Still exposed, I lurched insanely across the last runnel and ducked as best as I could under a overhang of frost feathers, watching the incessant pattern of mortar rounds all across the divide. The time had come I though, for a drastic reappraisal of the whole goddamn situation. Across the way the summits of Adams and Rainier disappeared beneath a grey carpet. Touching the big thigh muscle I could detect immediate swelling, and good old fashioned pain was plentiful, but there was none of the shooting, awful pain that I knew would mean the skeleton below was mortally injured. I took an experimental step uphill, then knew I had no choice. I figured my pace had been halved at best, and the firing squad still appeared to be collecting checks. That last 400 feet looked miles away and all my confidence was gone, the consequences of fucking up very real now indeed. Going back down was against every willful thought in my mind: I could be hit just as easily in the back and that fucking trek across the sandy, up & over Yocum, then finally up to the wretched illumination gap on a busted leg with aching heels, all still exposed to endless shit plummeting off every cliff and crag along the way. But there was no choice, really, and as we all must do when turning around, I promised myself a beer and a smoke at the earliest possible convenience.

 

I found the pain manageable on the downhill. My light pack took several strong ice-strikes, but provided just enough cushion to keep me on my way. Even now I choose not to revisit the trek back to Illumination too much. It took 4 hours of limping and grunting, but eventually I was at Illumination gap. Towards the end of the Yocum traverse I noticed 3 folks w/ skiis traversing towards Luetholds. Still low down, one of them slipped, couldn't arrest and slid 100 feet out of sight. Nonplussed, I finished the last bit and emerged onto the Reid to see he was okay and reversing his misfortune. I didn't know if the rain of debris down Luetholds or the headwall was as bad as the Sandy and I didn't give a fuck. They could figure it out on their own and I was going home....I’d made a promise to myself after all, and I’m a man of my word.

 

3 folks were at the gap basking in the noontime sun. 2 were in those fashionably red PMR jackets, and I asked if they knew the infamous Iain. Apparently he was off on a trip to the north side. I never had seen rob or pat on Yocums, much to my surprise. Seems like that would have been the best place to have been that day. Knew Jeff and some folks were going to be doing Luetholds too, but didn't see them up high and I was pretty certain that wasn't them in the falling crew. Made small talk for awhile and rested the leg. cursing is an essential part of the healing process. Bummed some sunscreen as I’d been neglectful. The mountains are at their most fantastic when it’s warm and sunny and you feel no need to hurry anywhere. After awhile the trio skied off. I had a much needed, and woefully belated, safety break, then finished the odyssey back to the Palmer, enjoying the cool breeze and the heady feeling of having gotten away w/ something. The mountain had taken a big swing at me, and I had reeled, but the piss and vinegar was still bubbling, and I would be back. To show my hearty indifference to the awesome power of nature, I spent the last 1000 feet downhill chatting w/ the wife on a cell-phone, feeling somehow not out of place as a screaming yuppie-asshole, surrounded as I was by diesel-reeking snowcats, McLitter, and the waifs of the ski-slopes. Down in the car I marveled at a violent, basketball sized, purple streaked bruise radiating from my knee to the back of my thigh and half way to my groin, with a raised angry white welt in the middle resembling a softball. Nice! It feels cool when I press on the center, like I’m alive. Also a great excuse for not doing shit around the house all Sunday except typing a bunch of crap that no one could care less about.

 

In the final analysis of a much overdone TR, I’d say the Sandy is a fine outing for those wanting to do a lot of walking, but not much fun when the mountain is shedding. For my 2 cents, I think the Reid headwall delivers the most bang for the buck on that side of the hill, with the north face route still being the most enjoyable route I’ve yet done.

[skyclimb]

I feel your pain brother! Those runnels were a bitch, especially at the hour glass. Those chunks were viscious. And that big old shit you saw, that was Mike's , I could smell that thing from 50 feet You got ballz for goin out there solo, glad you made it back

[catbirdseat]

What were the temperatures when you set out and when you were on route?

[iain]

could you also provide wind speed/direction in 1/2 hourly increments, or at least for each station at which you calculated snowpack density? thank you.

p.s. please provide temperatures in degrees Kelvin.

[NYC007]

The headwall wasnt any better I got beamed with several softball sized chunks, We to headed back to the saddle. And amungst the hords on the slopes..

[ivan]

could you also provide wind speed/direction in 1/2 hourly increments, or at least for each station at which you calculated snowpack density? thank you.

p.s. please provide temperatures in degrees Kelvin.

so, to answer the spirit of the question, it was below freezing most of the night (frozen gatorade) and pretty calm...i was pretty surprised at the icefall, as i'd been on the mountain many times in those conditions (on the reid headwall, for example, which is essentially the same in aspect, altitude, angle, etc.) and not seen that volume of shit coming down. the folks i encountered at the gap said another crew had bailed on the reid for similiar reasons. i think this is a prime example of the fuk-you nature of mountains; incalculable, inarguable, immaterial. there's no understanding mountains (or women/bosses/shoe-sizes,etc) and little reason to: if they want you, they let you do watcha want; if they don't, they stab you in the back when you least expect it. i'll get that bitch back though...you sweet talk anyone for long enough and they give it up, and then you make 'em pay.

 

jesus, maybe my highschool guidance counselor was right?

[rbw1966]

After a bit of steepish downclimbing I found a slender snowbridge. My testicles ascended into my tonsils when a block I stepped on settled a foot into the still shallow crack. occasionally I saw evidence of a single set of foot-prints, I assume they'd been made in the last week. Maybe they accounted for the huge turd sitting on the surface that was slowly inching its crusty brown way downhill.

 

Those tracks were probably ours. The brown bird was most likely the shredsters.

 

I'm surprised you didn't see us. We saw two headlamps come over the saddle as we were bailing from the first gendarme. Surprisingly, although the snow was pretty solid, it wasn't sticking to the rock for shit making the first gendarme a pants-filling endeavor.

 

We bailed for the Sandy and endured hours of small icefall until we made a wrong turn and ended up at the Yocum headwall. Losing time (I had to be back in town by noon) we bailed down Leutholds to the saddle where shred basked in the sunshine and I trudged to my skis at the Palmer. Was back in Portland by 1215. Thank god--it was my wifes birthday.

 

Glad your ok Eric. Nice TR. We must have just missed each other.

[Terminal_Gravity]

Nice TR, man.... I'm very glad your okay.

 

Was it way windy at the top of cathedral do you supose? and was that the source of the barage?

[b-rock]

almost all of the ice coming down leutholds was from the wind. you'd first hear a good gust then all hell would break loose.

[iain]

it could have been some punks coming up the north side trundling icicles down on you hahaha

[b-rock]

ya perhaps. think i saw you iain or your partner maybe? someone with skis just as they were downclimbing the old chute.

[iain]

yeah we camped out there waiting for a group to clear the way for some sweet rime skiing.

[texplorer]

aaahhhhh mountaineering!

[nonanon]

ahhhhhhh great writing!

 

Thx, Ivan. Worth every word.

[ivan]

naw, tg, it didn't seem too windy...

 

rob n pat, how damn early were you up there on saturday morning? i was heading up the wall around 730...guess i know where you turned up, i was afraid all that stuff topped at that headwall.

 

keep feeling pissed at meself but telling meself to stfu...maybe i shoulda turned around earlier, or just perserved up...seems unwise that i had to wait until after i was hurt to make a decision...i just felt so close to cathedral that being in danger for just a few minutes seemed okay. ahh, fukit...

[ivan]

and that was your brown bomber down low? man, you looked to be getting a lot of fiber in your diet

 

wierd how the timing worked...i was hitting ill gap when you were starting the sgh, then i was over the y ridge by the time you were crossing back to luetholds...

 

0-2 on yocums for you now pat and a little worse for you rob, eh?...you boys heading back anytime soon? what's it gonna take? would skipping the first gendarme been helpful?

[skyclimb]

Yeah, that big pile of shit was probably Mike's. There was also a big pile of spegetti that looked like a bloody fucking massacre. What were you thinking when you saw the lump of shit, and then the blood stains

I stabbed that mother fucker so hard, he started running, shit all over the glacier, and then fucking bled to death...bitch

[iain]

dudes, the blue bags are free in the climber's register. I don't go up there to earn my associate's degree in scatology

[ivan]

sometimes you just don't ask questions...after denali i think i've become a bit numb to seeing all manner of gross shit encased in ice

 

but wait, does shred not want to claim the turd? seems like there's some controversy here...who had the fwa big brownie on the sandy?

[ivan]

dudes, the blue bags are free in the climber's register. I don't go up there to earn my associate's degree in scatology

more of an amateur interest then, eh?

[iain]

a hobby, if you will.

[skyclimb]

If i can tell where i lost it, and its color, can i claim it please

[ivan]

in that case, iain, i'd put you on the trail of a particularly rewarding brown steamer i unleashed last winter, about 300 feet uphill and towards illum gap from the palmer lift top. i had every green-hearted intention of making it down to t-line, but amidst the howling wind and blowing snow there was simply no reasoning w/ the devil...archealogical evidence likely remains...i suspect it was frozen solid and covered within 5 minutes of my paper-less deproach

Edited March 15, 2004 by ivan

[skyclimb]

sometimes i eat my shit for fun

Stuff it up my nose

And rub it through my finers

And try to imagine myself building castle made of shit

 

tasty

Edited March 15, 2004 by skyclimb

[iain]

you should have just waited the 5 min and played kick the can back to the lodge.

 

blue bags or pinch'n'bear it