[TR] Mt Hood- Leuthold's Couloir 5/11/2006

[RogerJ]

Climb: Mt Hood-Leuthold's Couloir

 

Date of Climb: 5/11/2006

 

Trip Report:

On 2006-05-11 ClimbingPilot, Esugi, l0930 and myself climbed Leuthold's Couloir.

 

The plan was to leave Portland around midnight to 12:30, and the forecast originally said clear and a decent freeze, so this seemed like a sane plan. We started a bit later, meeting Esugi around 1AM at a Shari’s in Gresham, but were off to Mt. Hood relatively on time. The high clouds had not cleared, which kept temps warmer than expected.

 

We left T-Line around 2:45 with various gravity assist devices to get us back. I skinned and was going to do my first climb in my AT boots. Others carried skis and snowboards.

 

We roped up for the Reid crossing and my nicely coiled 8MMx60 glacier rope magically became the worst knotted mess I’ve been able to produce in some time. 20-30 minutes later it was a rope again and we headed off. The Reid is still pretty closed up and we made exceptionally good time as a 4 person team.

 

We unroped and climbed the remainder of the climb with no need for protection.

 

Leuthold’s climbing conditions were great and the only real downside was that due to the warmer night and our later than expected arrival, it was raining down ice chunks pretty consistently. We managed to pick lines of minimal bombing, but some was unavoidable. Mostly it was a nuisance until I got nailed in my crotch.

 

Past the hour glass, climbing conditions remained great. We had good snow, a light haze to minimize the jiffy bake oven factor, and lighter winds.

 

We descended down the standard S. Side route.

 

The snow never warmed much so the downhill skiing\boarding aspect of our trip was less than stellar, but that changed below the Palmer. The last 2500 feet were corn then mashed potatoes.

 

Back in PDX early afternoon.

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Standard glacier travel gear (harness, rope etc). Helmet mandatoty

 

Gear we needed:

Nut Cup

[John Frieh]

We managed to pick lines of minimal bombing, but some was unavoidable. Mostly it was a nuisance until I got nailed in my crotch.

 

Gear we needed:Nut Cup

 

 

Good TR!

[Chad_A]

Absoulutely awesome, Rog! Very cool. Good to see you finally got it done.

 

I swear those ice chunks are guided missiles sometimes. Ouch!

[kioti]

Sorry I wasn't with you guys, glad you made it up though!

 

-Alan

[whidbey]

Good job Roger!! Sorry about the boys though:)

[corvallisclimb]

Mostly it was a nuisance until I got nailed in my crotch.

 

same thing happend to me on that route it hurt so bad i almost fell off!

[OlegV]

Great TR Roger! Glad you had good time.

[esugi]

Roger, great climbing with you, Bill, and Laura. We will have to climb together again soon. Something in Washington this time. Possibly Rainier first weekend in June?

 

Hope your "boys" are doing good.

 

I ended up going up to Baker (instead of Rainier). We tried one day ascent (+2 extra miles just to get to the summer TH) of Northridge but due to time and route finding problems, we bailed at about 10K. Oh well, it was still fun....especially 1 day after doing Leuthold with you guys. Tired today.....

 

Later

[climbinpilot]

Great trip guys, we'll definitely do it again. About time the weather cooperated, hey Roger?

 

Mmm...sleep...my elusive pal.