Mt. Hood Conditions - 5/14/01

[snowleopard_x]

For those interested, I got a great look at most of the major routes on the peak this past weekend.

Starting on the South Side, and going around the mountain:

The South Side is fine, but the bergschrund has scissored,, I have never seen it like this. It's also opening fast. West Crater/Zig Zag Glacier route, and the Old Crater variation are still in, but won't last much longer. All of the routes on the East Crater rim are out. Very dangerous looking.

Leuthold Couloir and the Reid Headwall are just about done for the year, this is where I was last weekend and we were pelted with lots of ice, and bits of rock. Soon this will be lots of rock. Yocum Ridge was probably never in this year, and is quite bare now. The Sandy Headwall looked excellent looking down it, with some scattered ice fall avalanches off the northern part of the glacier where it meets Cathedral Ridge. Crossing the Reid and around Yocum to get there looked fine. The upper half of Cathedral Ridge looked superb, the lower half is starting to melt out on the SW face, but good on the NE. The dramatic and rarely visited Ladd and Coe glaciers were still quite covered in snow. The Sunshine route looked very good, though the schrund near Horseshoe rock was opening from my viewpoints (up above). The Eliot Headwall and North Face I looked down on, and both looked sketchy, more rock exposed each day, and more snow than ice (too hard for me to climb anyway). Cooper Spur looked good, with the snow chute leading towards the Black Spider well covered. I could not see the top of Wy East, or Newton Clark Headwall at all. I imagine the former is close to done for the year, and the latter probably in.