[TR] Mt. Hood- Hogs Back 4/24/2006

[alpinerack]

Climb: Mt. Hood-Hogs Back

 

Date of Climb: 4/24/2006

 

Trip Report:

The forcast was calling for great weather this week so I made the trip back down to Portland to pick up my friend Travis for another attempt on Mt. Hood. We planned on doing it two weeks ago but were driven further East by bad weather. I talked him into doing a one day ascent since I have school on Tuesday night.

The hike up the palmer was long and boring, my iPod was very handy here. We had great weather and great snow conditions. It took us about 4 hours to make the summit and another 2 hours to get back down (plus a nap in the crater).

I actually got alltitude sickness while in the crater. Kind of odd considering I have been on Rainier 8X and never been sick. Guess I'm getting old.

After a 20 minute break and lots of food and water I finally got enough evergy to push on. Once on the summit some clouds came in and we were in a complete white out. We spent little time there cause of the wind and cold. The moment we climbed back to the crater the sun came out again. Just our luck!

 

Me climbing the hogs back.

 

Going through the gate.

 

The summit in a windy and cold white out.

 

Travis descending the summit slopes.

 

and on the way back to the car.

 

Gear Notes:

ice axe, crampons

 

Approach Notes:

straight up from the parking lot!

Edited April 26, 2006 by alpinerack

[Frikadeller]

Mm more googley fun for me. Just helping me get psyched for next weekend... I'll be up there... Hopefully the good weather will keep on coming!!

 

 

(now that I said that, it will be a shitty white out all the way from the Timberline Parking lot....Go ahead and blame me if you like you know what my response will be!!)

[fettster]

Thanks for the report. Neat pics, some great looking snow up there. How was the wind on the lower stretches like the Hogs Back? Any glissading?

[cluck]

Nice work speedy. Is the bergie still closed up? Looks like conditions are pristine at the moment.

[alpinerack]

The bergie is still closed, however, i did notice a hole starting to punch through right off of the climbers boot pack and it looked deep! We had no wind until we reached the summit and the snow conditions were almost perfect.

[Ptown_Climber1]

I can attest to Alpinerack's route surmisal....I just got off the summit yesterday -no 4 hours here though, jeez!! -but we were first on the summit that morning.

 

The bergshrund is certainly becoming more recognizable, although still definitely bridged. I also saw that deep post hole he refers to; that was creepy. I took a bigger than normal step over it!! One thing not mentioned though is the different personality the hogsback and pearly gates have this year. They've definitely shifted from years past; in fact climbers are now using a chute to the left of the traditional one used in past. We were up there early, and it was very icy and steeper than most years. Hogsback also seemed a little steeper this year. I set a few pickets above the 'schrund and around the corner up into the gates. Summit was windier than hell and I think we were all nervously anticipating our decent back through the gates....all went smoothly.