[TR] Hood- Sandy Headwall 1937 Variation 3/21/2004

[bulldog]

Climb: Hood-Sandy Headwall 1937 Variation

 

Date of Climb: 3/21/2004

 

Trip Report:

In fear of being smacked around by fellow CCers for an incomplete TR, here it is.

We (My self, another staff guy and 4 South Eugene Mountaineering students) were planning to climb the Cathedral ridge and a few other routes on the mountain. We headed up prepared for 4 days (that’s what our “little form” said anyway) as we slogged up to Illumination Saddle with our 60 lb. packs. It was warm Saturday night with the temperatures hovering around freezing. We woke at 12:01 not knowing how long the ridge would take us from this point. One of the kids caught a case of wussitise and decided to stay in the tent. That left 5 to rope up. We did a group of 3 while me and a physically strong student roped together and stayed close behind the three group. Crossing the Reed and the Yocum was fun. The Yocum was steeper and wider than I thought. It was very dark making it hard to see the Sandy side of Yocum and a way down. We searched for about 40 minutes before I had a student put me on belay with a few pickets and lower me over the edge to see the shrund. I saw a way down, so I told another student that will climb anything, to go first. He backed down the 50 deg. Slope dropping a leg in a fissure. “Hay, a fissure!!” Looks up with a worried face and continues to crank down at breakneck speed. Just as I started to head down, I saw that terrible sight of a headlamp flying down the Sandy glacier. Only this one was hooked to my student. He had been walking on great packed snow and hit some unexpected ice. The other leader in the group and the anchor man arrested the fall before to long. I looked at my rope partner and said, “Don’t fall. . .okay”. We crossed okay, stopped at the “edge” of the Sandy and unroped, ate food, took a grumper, took off the jacket and talked about what was next. We thought we had reached the ridge only to find ourselves behind a long rock band. You can see it on Page 34 in Oregon High. It looks like a butt crack right at the base of the Sandy. As we got to the top of the “butt-crack couloir “ we realized that we were not on the ridge so we decided to do the early season variation that we could barely see from out point. We trudged up knee deep powder which was weird because there was no powder anywhere else. We met a shrund that we worked through and started our traverse. We started to get more light from the headlamps on the route. We were able to see very thin ice, exposed rock and a lot of exposure with little protection available (The early season variation is now closed). As “the boys” talked that over, I traversed over to the Sandy to see what that looked like. I stood there getting showered with small ice chips. I went back frustrated at our mornings route finding but encouraged by the dropping temperature and beautiful night. I said, “How ‘bout the Sandy?” “It’s really big but I think you guys can do it. Give it a shot?” I think these guys would walk 50 miles with a 50 pound pack if I told them they could do it, so up we went. As soon as I went out on the face I get nailed with a baseball sized ice chunk right on top of the kneecap, dropping me to the snow in temporal pain. (Climb far to the right of an obvious debris shoot) The first 900 feet were pretty lame (see picture) as it was just a 45 degree climb on great snow (I guess it wasn’t that lame, just a calf burner) We finally got to the hourglass rock band. I got excited as I saw thick ice flowing through the rocks, “MIXED!!” The boys stopped there as I passed by like a kid on Christmas morning. The rock was solid and the ice was okay. The rest of the group looked for another way around as the guy I was previously roped to, climbed up hard right behind me. It makes a teacher proud to see all the boys power up with semi-confidence. I was energized for the rest of the wall. It increased in steepness and technical difficulty as the ice became thin and formed that chicken head ice formation type of ground. I was doing the best I could to not knock of those heads down on the guys. I laughed to myself as I thought “This is a good lesson on the importance of a helmet” as the ice bounced off their heads. I decided (not ever climbing the route before or having any beta. . .Should have read Ivan’s TR) to stay way right up against the Yocum. The ice seemed to be better over there and it was way steeper. We also got to climb through some little ice shoots that wielded the hard stuff. I topped out on the chair and talked to a strong attractive gal that had come up the Leut. I headed over to the ridge to eat in the sun and wait for the rest of the gang. We cranked up to the FS and across the always beautiful summit ridge. (see picture). We headed down the pig to see a guy take a HUGE fall off the hogs-back about 50’ below the Shrund. I bet the guy was doing 40mph before hitting the bottom. Rag-dolled the whole way down. The guy was a stud, he got up after “fixing” himself and hiked back up to the ridge. I talked to him at the saddle and he said, “I don’t know how to self arrest” There’s a topic for discussion, WOW. The Climb was great and I recommend it. . .to do once. It was very physically hard, with almost know places to take a rest without hanging from a tool or Ice axe or kicking hard for a shelf. The 1937 variation was great. It took us 7 ½ hours from Illumination Rock. You could do it faster if you weren’t lost. . .twice. Although the Reed and the Sandy were very fast for us walking over all the crevasses. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

Approach Notes:

The Shrund is hard to see comming off the Yocum. Carefull

[bulldog]

Sorry, I am having problems putting the pictures on. Any suggestions??

[b-rock]

Try shrinking the pic before attaching, it's at a pretty high resolution.

[cluck]

Nice work! Sounds like you guys had a nice climb.

 

That's pretty funny (OK, scary) that some dude decided to sprint up uproped without knowing how to self arrest. When people like that get hurt, it gives all climbers a bad rap.

[bulldog]

Ya, I remember the big controversy after the heli crash on Hood a few years ago, "should climbers have to pass a state mandated liscensing before they are allowed to climb?. . .how could we put this in place?" I 'bout busted. I think a few signs at trail heads that say, "You are going to die if you go any further, don't be stupied !!!" That should cover it and make us feel really tough. Ha

[bulldog]

Hay B-rock? I tried shrinking but it still is to big (over the 100000 limit) I am scanning the picture. should I scan it a different way? I have never had problems putting on other pictures.

[cluck]

Try opening the picture up in Microsoft Photo Editor or something. When you view it at 100% scale, is it larger than the screen? If so, resize it until it all fits on the screen. That should keep the file size smaller.

 

Also, check to see what resolution you're scanning. 300 DPI or less ought to keep your file size more reasonable....I think. Lower DPI = lower image quality = smaller filesize.

 

[bulldog]

Thanks

[bulldog]

Here one is. . .

[bulldog]

And the other. . .