Mt. Hood conditions

[Alpine_Tom]

Anyone have any information on conditions on Mt. Hood? I'm specificially interested in the Leuthold Couloir.

Apparently the National Forest (http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood/climb_up.htm)

has decided that the climbing season is limited to the period from Mid-April to mid-June, and doesn't provide ANY conditions information outside that two-month window.

[snowleopard_x]

Tom - Due to the severe drought, you should have no problem getting up Hood, even Leuthold, unless you wait and climb after a big storm. It has been so warm and dry, the conditions on the peak are akin to November. I was up on the Reid Glacier (below Leuthold) 3 weeks ago and we did not need snowshoes, or skis to hike all the way up there. Pickets did fine, and the ice wasn't even hard enough for screws, with a few exceptions (glacial ice, of course). There is very little snow, and the crevasses are still not fullly covered. Something stunning, if you know what a normal year would be like at this time.

That said, be careful about climbing on the west face of the peak after a storm, as the entire area is an avalanche trap. And as bad as this winter has been (bad as in dry), it's still winter and you could get hit with a killer storm.