[TR] Mt Hood- North face var. 5B in oregon high 7/23/2005

[letsroll]

Climb: Mt Hood-North face var. 5B in oregon high

 

Date of Climb: 7/23/2005

 

Trip Report:

Left Cloud cap thinking I would hike past the North Face for a look see and keep on going on to Sunshine. I stopped and looked and the route and said what the heck. Gained the route left of the usual start and worked my way over to the reg route. The Snow was perfect for tooling on front pointing. Hard snow over ice. The Rock bands were spicy. That is the most alpine rock for me todate as well as ice. What a great route. Just had a couple of rocks come down, and only one hit. Thank god for shoulder straps Topped out via last little bit of cooper spur. & hours up, I know that is slow, but will get better as I get more of these type routes in. Had an absoulute blast!!!!!!! Thought I would through in a twist (really thought it would be easier) buy decending via sunshine. Big mistake, next time it would be much quicker to do cooper spur. I am sold, loved this type of climbing, stying focused for 7 hours and almost crapping my pants a couple of times was amazing. Only really scary spot was traversing rotton ice on the north ridge traverse to get to Queens Chair. Both feet fell though to nothing but air and tool barely held. Would have been a long fall down WyEast Can't wait to do some more north faces and ice climbing later this year on the glacier. Pics in a couple of days when I get them developed.

 

Gear Notes:

Tools, poons, and balls

 

Approach Notes:

via Cloud Cap

[retired]

You are a sick man...seek help before it's too late...but actually well done lad, but you do have to realize you're tossing the dice this time of year.

[sweatinoutliquor]

Ummm... Yeah. I don't really know how to reply to this one. 1st, yeah, that's sick. 2nd, yup that's crazy. 3rd, ahhh... "tool barely held" yeah... Did you see that movie Vertical Limit? Was it like that sort of? Did you remember that your cans of nitro explode if they get into the sun? Glad to hear that you had fun, and are stoked to do more of this kind of climbing (hopefully in December?). Can't wait to see pics (of your balls).

[sweatinoutliquor]

I know this trip went down a week or so ago, but if you got any pics dude, I would be stoked to see them. I am sure others as well. Not that I would ever do it, but I think it's pretty gnarly that you went up here this time of year. Okay, time for the afternoon

[letsroll]

Ya just got the pics. Sorry, been very lazy . I am going to try and get them up this afternoon. First time doing this so we will see.

[Norman_Clyde]

I was up there on that day, my first visit to that side of the peak, late in the afternoon: no doubt hours after you had passed. Which line is variation 5B anyway? Not either one of the two steepest couloirs, I hope. They had the look of bowling alleys, with obvious channels for the gutter balls. BUT, in response to all naysayers, I'll say that several lines to the summit looked intact and straightforward on that day. I had the excuse of too little time and the wrong gear (skis), else I would have been sorely tempted myself--though I would probably have taken the easiest line climber's right.

[Chriznitch]

Which line is variation 5B anyway? Not either one of the two steepest couloirs, I hope. They had the look of bowling alleys, with obvious channels for the gutter balls

I don't have my book here, but I'm pretty sure North Face variation 5B IS one of the major gullies...left one I'm guessing.

Also, Wyeast is nowhere near Queen's Chair. Maybe this was Sandy Headwall you tinkered over??

Anyways, glad you stayed alive

[Gaper_Jeffy]

5b is looker's left gully.

 

3 weeks ago it looked like a deathtrap...

[OlegV]

Yes, it does look like Russian roulette. Here is a pic taken 3 weeks ago:

[Terminal_Gravity]

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/208882/an/0/page/17#208882

 

A bit more discussion (verbage) on the NF in summer. That photo looks pretty close to what I climbed...right or wrong.

[sweatinoutliquor]

Hey TG, that thread is awesome! It's a great discussion about stuff that has kept me up at night before... I will be the first to admit that my acceptable risk level hasn't brought me into situations that sound as "spicy" as yours, but despite this I think most people who push their limits as climbers will at some point be faced with situations that push their acceptable risk limits. Anyway, thanks again for sharing! and thanks for the

[sweatinoutliquor]

Also, Wyeast is nowhere near Queen's Chair. Maybe this was Sandy Headwall you tinkered over??

 

Maybe over Sandy... Wy'east doesn't seem to fit unless letsroll is refering to the original name of the mountain. Punching through something between the summit and queens chair all I could think of would be the Elliot headwall, and I can imagine that being a relativly unplesant feeling for sure.

[OlegV]

I don't mind pushing my limits on a technical scale - why pushing objective danger?

[letsroll]

Norman Clyde were you leaving the trail around 5 pm or so? I saw only one guy with skiis that day. We talked. You had the atomics with the dynafits.

[John Frieh]

I don't mind pushing my limits on a technical scale - why pushing objective danger?

 

word.

[letsroll]

 

Ok so the photo did not pop up so

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/show...=500&page=1

 

Does the photo need to be in GIF format? I used JPEG.

 

Thanks OlegV, I ran out of pics on camera and did not get photo of route ;(

 

I started very early. You can see my route taken. The regular start was a huge moat so I climbed the rock on the climbers left to gain the snow and traversed right to get back on route. Feel like I need to defend myself a bit. The snow that morning was solid, I was there very early and the sun did not start to rise till I was about half way up the route. After taking a break at the base of the route I felt like the objective danger was low (i.e. rock fall) and did not see any other than three small rocks from above and that did not start till well after the sun was up. Now the amount of rock I sent down is another story. My original intent was to check out the route and keep going to cooper spur or Sunshine (depending on how I felt and how things looked at that point). If it was any later or earlier in the morning depending on how you look at it I would not have gone up that route in fear of rock fall. The rock fall did not start till later and I was on my way down the queens chair on my way to sunshine. That afternoon there was constant rock fall and I was glad to be on my way out of there and out of danger. Yes I will not be doing this route or any other like it till winter when there is a lot of ice, besides there are too many alpine rock routes to be doing now. But with that said I had a blast!!! Now lets see if the photo will pop up

Edited August 5, 2005 by letsroll

[letsroll]

Also, Wyeast is nowhere near Queen's Chair. Maybe this was Sandy Headwall you tinkered over??

 

When traversing the north ridge (that is what I thought everybody called it), the ridge you take to the summit from Wyeast, Reid headwall, Leuthold, Sand, elliot, and Sunshine. You can drop down to Queens Chair to Sunshine. It was a nice look to make, long, very long loop

To make this clear this is on the way out.

Edited August 5, 2005 by letsroll

[texplorer]

Good job on getting out there but for god sakes you were nowhere near the queen's Chair dude. That is on the other side of the mountain!!! Change your pics to gif or whatever so we can see the sickness.

[Norman_Clyde]

Norman Clyde were you leaving the trail around 5 pm or so? I saw only one guy with skiis that day. We talked. You had the atomics with the dynafits.

 

Yeah, that was me. If you noticed my gear, you must have been the one who said "Nice setup!" I appreciated the positive word, since most other parties were doubting that I would hit the snow before dark. I got about 2/3 up the snowdome before it got too shady. The NF gullies were actually pretty quiet at that hour.

Edited August 7, 2005 by Norman_Clyde

[letsroll]

Clyde great job getting up there and getting some turns in!!!! Was not sure how far you would get to make hoofin all that gear worth it, but sounds like you got some nice turns in . The snow at that time I think would have been real nice, just starting to firm up. Way to git-r-done.

[cluck]

Also, Wyeast is nowhere near Queen's Chair. Maybe this was Sandy Headwall you tinkered over??

 

When traversing the north ridge (that is what I thought everybody called it), the ridge you take to the summit from Wyeast, Reid headwall, Leuthold, Sand, elliot, and Sunshine. You can drop down to Queens Chair to Sunshine. It was a nice look to make, long, very long loop

To make this clear this is on the way out.

 

Dude - Wy'east comes up from the Southeast side (like from Meadows ski resort). Sunshine, Sandy HW, Leuthold's, Reid HW, Castle Crags, and West Crater Rim all finish up via the North Ridge.

 

I don't think "ballsy" is the right word to describe this climb. Glad you made it down safe and all, but what the hell were you thinking???