Mt.Hood In March

[mhb3939]

Hello;

I am doing Mt.Hood in mid March, any beta on where to stay (base), gear, high camp?, and any other beta that you may have.. Remeber, I am a climber so am cheap...

We'll be doing the hogsback, but may look for a more of a class III route.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Climb safe

 

Mike

 

mhb3939@comcast.net

Edited November 10, 2004 by mhb3939

[John Frieh]

Almost all climbers park their car at Timberline lodge and climb it car to car in a day.

 

Gear: Knowledge and judgment will serve you well in all your backcountry endeavors.

[Chriznitch]

yes--the hogsback is basically a class I/II route, but there are a dozen more variations that also begin from Timberline lodge depending on your skill and how many people you would like to meet on the mountain.

[texplorer]

Occacionally NOLSe has some very good things to say.

 

I'll add that you start your climb early enough to summit around sunrise. Most start from 11:00pm to 3:00am and it takes 3-6 hours. Also an earlier start will help get you off before the crowds.

[ryland_moore]

A good alternative route is in the Castle Crags area or Leuthold's Couloir. Both can be done from Timberline parking lot and are fairly straightforward climbs. Avalanche conditions should always be considered, and have fun!

[jaee]

Any routes on the west, south, or east aspects are doable in a day from Timberline. Sandy Headwall makes for a long day, but the rest are pretty reasonable. Leutholds is probably the easiest interesting route. Reid Headwall is a good route with a bit more interesting climbing. The Devil's Kitchen Headwall offers a couple of exciting pitches near the summit. Steel cliffs is a great moderate climb with a lot of interesting variation.

 

It really all comes down to avy conditions and weather. There are no safe routes to the top in bad avy conditions. March can bring 3 feet of fresh snow or boilerplate at any time. Keep an eye on the chestbeating here and ask for updates when the time is getting close. Pay attention to the Timberline and Meadows snow reports to see how it's stacking up.

 

As for lodging, there are a few low cost places in Government Camp, such as the Mazama Lodge, for around $25 a night. There are probably cheaper places to stay in Portland, but it's 1+ hr to the mountain. Check the Oregon Cascades section of this board for more beta on routes and winter conditions.

[mhb3939]

Thanks for the beta....

Ill check out the Mazama Lodge...

Any other route info is greatly appreciated, again thanx

Mike

[layton]

just remember if your climb is planned on SPECIFIC dates, bring rock gear if the weather is bad and go to smith instead of forcing the route.

[Chad_A]

just remember if your climb is planned on SPECIFIC dates, bring rock gear if the weather is bad and go to smith instead of forcing the route.

 

I can't second that one enough. Especially if you're coming from far away, which it sounds like you are. Bring rock shoes and gear; if the weather's bad, grab breakfast at the Huckleberry Inn in Gov't Camp, and head to Smith. It's about 1.5 hours from Hood.

[mhb3939]

Thanx, Yeah am coming from Detroit,Mi.. Trying to get as much beta as possible before flying out there. I know the weather will be a big factor so I plan on staying there for 4 days...

Thanx again

Mike

[Chad_A]

Ah, yes. I'm from Michigan as well. I know what it's like to plan from across the states. Most times it involved expensive plane tickets, big plans, crappy weather, that turned to drinking, moping, returning on a plane frustrated and broke, and one time, 2200 bucks worth of gear stolen from an airplane terminal.

 

Hope you have better luck than I did!

[cluck]

4 days in March might yeild a reasonable weather window, however it is quite likely that it won't. As per everyone's suggestions, it can't help to have a back up plan... even if that plan only includes skiing, beer drinking or other non climbing activities. 4 days couped up in a cheap motel in crappy weather doesn't sound like much fun.

[skyclimb]

There are many options to "beat" the weather in March.

The cascades stretch from northern cali to northern washington....often times there is a weather window somewhere...furthermore, mountains like shasta have cool ridges that often times can have low avy danger. Depending on your skill look into casaval(comparable to southside on hood, but longer and a little steeper), and Sargents ridge which is comparable to sandy headwall..steep ice, knife edged ridges, and rock....but not as much objective danger.

To the north you have baker and rainier....gib. ledges can be a great climb, as can the ingrahm direct.

Sisters in central oregon can sometimes be a good escape, with callenging routes that usually only form in the right conditions...pretty remote feeling...

And then of course if you can't get your alpine fix, bring your BIG WALL rack for smith rock....listen to sounds of the carribean, drink mia-tai's, sit in a lounge chair and soak up the sun in one of America's premier climbing destinations

There aren't many times in the Cascades when you can't climb..but be flexible, and renew your sense of adventure

[pete_a]

although you can certainly climb the mountain in a half day, if you are travelling from across the US and you get a forecast that has more than one day of good weather, a great spot to haul your camping gear up to is Illumination Saddle, above and to the west of the top of the Palmer chair. Nice view of Portland city lights.

 

In case you didn't know, emergency beacons can be rented at a hotel (forget the name of which one) in Government Camp, and Oregon Mtn. Community in Portland, I think...probably don't need one if you have a cell phone...and you may not want to bother with picking one up anyways, just an fyi.

 

In addition to checking the weather forecast, you might want to also check the current NW Avy Center avalanche forecast to see what the avy danger is.

[Ursa_Eagle]

I'll add that you start your climb early enough to summit around sunrise. Most start from 11:00pm to 3:00am and it takes 3-6 hours. Also an earlier start will help get you off before the crowds.

 

In May or June this makes sense, but in March you generally don't have to start that early, especially if freezing level is low. I typically start somewhere between 7:00 and 9:00 am in the winter/early spring. I've left Timberline just after noon and still been fine. The reason for leaving early in the late spring/summer is the parts of the mountain that are held on by the ice tend to fall off once they've had some sun on them (not to mention the snow conditions get crappy.) In the winter/early spring this isn't a problem.