[TR] Mt Hood- Leuthold's Couloir 2/26/2005

[goatboy]

The photos in this TR seem rather small, please go to the photo gallery if you want to see larger ones. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY

 

Climb: Mt Hood-Leuthold's Couloir

 

Date of Climb: 2/26/2005

 

Trip Report:

Friday afternoon (Feb 25th) my wife Tamara and I skinned up to Illumination Saddle to make camp for the night. Here's Tamara:

 

 

And here's our campsite:

 

 

Saturday morning we were awoken from the sleep of the dead around 3 AM as some parties starting funneling through the saddle en route to various objectives. Fortunately (?) for us, we fell asleep again - for awhile - before waking at 6 to make coffee. It was 22 degrees inside the tent when we awoke.

 

At about 7:30 we departed, heading for Leuthold's Couloir alongside two other parties of two who had arrived on the scene.

 

Despite recent reports of heinous post-holing on the West Slopes of Mt Hood, we found hard-frozen snow and excellent neve for the great majority of the day, very pleasant conditions, and little wind.

 

Conditions in the couloir ranged from firm snow, to short sections of alpine ice, to styrofoam neve, with a steady "rain" of spindrift and occasional fusillades of ice and rock and snow chunks, ranging from minor to heavy at times.

 

Here's a shot of the party ahead of us (Tod and Aaron) in the couloir, below "the hourglass" but entering into some 45 degree alpine ice, scoured by small avalanches. The climber is seeking shelter as best he can from a rain of ice.

 

 

After climbing the couloir, we side-stepped up the upper slopes, gaining views of other volcanoes as we rose, eventually popping out of the ice-shelves and into the sun:

 

 

Here we looked back at a compelling image of Yocum Ridge:

 

 

Soon, the Hogsback ("Dog") route with its usual entourage came into view:

 

 

True to form , there was a dog on the summit!

 

We dropped down the Pearly Gates and hung a hard right to get away from the crowds and to investigate an alternate desecent, with the hopes of dropping down closer to our campsite. Here's a shot of Tamara descending through the sulfurous mists of the West Crater Rim route:

 

 

Arriving back at camp, we made some hot drinks and ate the remaining food, packed up, shouldered our loads and headed out on skis, vibraciously fumbling our way through the crud until we reached the groomed slopes below . . . arrived back at the car in about 35 minutes.

 

There, we found a cold Pilsner Urquell.

 

All in all, a very enjoyable trip and I highly recommend the conditions right now! Go get it!

 

Gear Notes:

One ice ax per person

Aluminum Crampons

Two pickets

30-m rope

 

Approach Notes:

Good snow for skinning all the way to Illumination Saddle

[OlegV]

great TR, nice pics! now i feel bad i didn't go out this weekend - sounds like superb condition. what were snow conditions like on downclimb to reid glacier?

[goatboy]

The downclimb to the glacier felt more like a descending traverse, on very firm snow with good pre-existing steps.

 

There was one short, exposed traverse across which crossed very hard snow for about 20 feet, but not so steep that it warranted much concern. I was able to french technique across that while daggering in with my single tool.

 

Note: We were roped from the time we left Illum Saddle to the summit, but some folks were soloing the couloir, and I believe that it would be very reasonable to do so -- we stayed roped due to the constant rain of falling objects from above, and the fact that we were below other parties who couldn not help but dislodge some chunks from time to time.

[rbw1966]

Were you putting in pro while you were roped up?

[goatboy]

No, never needed to, really -- the pickets were nice to have along, but I really didn't want to stop in the midst of all the falling ice to place gear that didn't seem necessary, given the relatively moderate angle of the slope.

 

Perhaps ONE ice screw may have been reasonable to bring along, for quick placement . . .

[gosolo]

Kewl, while you were out enjoying a great time I was slaving away all weekend......wish i were there. Any concern with crevasses with getting (ie Soloing) to Leutholds?

thanks,

G

[texplorer]

If you do Leutholds right you don't have to worry about crevasses.