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[TR] Mt Hood - Castle Crags 12/19/2006


OlegV

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Trip: Mt Hood - Castle Crags

 

Date: 12/19/2006

 

Trip Report:

Just before the climb, my dear wife gave me a disturbing look. Are you going to climb Hood?! - No, we are going to hike a ridge, I said. - Safe place, with no avi danger. Clearly not satisfied with my simple answer, she lets me go, play my strange games of Russian roulette. Eric (Ivan) and I are in the mood for Yocum today. Lets skip the next few hours of slow actions and imaginarily land at the base of the I-rock just around 6 am. The wind is strong and we feel sleepy. We nap for twenty minutes on the tope of our packs realizing the IR is an ultimate escape place from the loving family members and pets. Joyfully, we meet the dawn. Isnt it weird to sit on the slope of Hood and see Hood at the horizon? Is the world actually smaller than we know it?

 

S-reflection.jpg

 

The IR is beautiful. The thought crosses our minds (actually Erics mind) to climb the IR and not to worry about the descent. I am not in the mood for the extreme alpinism.

 

S-IR.jpg

 

We start down towards the Reid and step on the long fracture line. Immediately, my mood is destroyed. Eric finds nothing better but jump, but the slope doesnt go. We wish we had some dynamite. We scream, but the strength of our vocal is not strong enough to trigger an avalanche. We weigh out our options and decide not to take our chances today. We need to climb two gullies, one for going up, the other (escape gully), for going down the Yocum. They have fracture lines too! Good bye Yocum. Experienced alpinists often retreat.

 

We are still greedy for the real adventures. I never climbed the Castle Crags, but heard some people got hurt there.

S-Castle-crag1.jpg

 

We like the rim ice on it (creates amazing rope stop). While climbing rim ice, a followers job is to continuously move down few steps and break the icicles, he then should climbs back up. I am not sure why we used the rope at all.

 

Finally, we reach the first crux of our trip a narrow passage of 60-80 degree of ice and frozen mud. Here is Eric showing the wonders of his stretchiness. As usual, the follower receives the full benefits of flying rimcicles.

 

S-tube.jpg

 

Our traverse around the cliff ends on the steep headwall. Right above us a few pitches of melting Castle rock, already in the process of spitting out frozen freezbees. We dont want them. I am not sure if I would agree with my partner that this thing is climbable, especially at +5C.

S-eric-slope.jpg

 

Our short day ends at the Illumination saddle again. We have time, and the energy is not wasted. I reluctantly agree to practice cave digging, so dont be surprised if you find one just below the IR.

S-cave.jpg

 

What does it take for two healthy men with no shovel to dig a shelter in a moderately soft snow? The answer is 1 h. What does it take for two healthy men with no shovel to dig a shelter in a hard snow? 3 hours at least, if possible at all.

 

Thats the end of our day, and we know it. People stare at us as we go down, and it makes us proud. The end.

 

 

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nice write-up there moi tovarisch - i am everyday training to be able to write like greatest russian climbers :)

 

wierd day - when the hell will i ever climb yocum? seemed like a great forecast - crazy cold at night w/ day time temp supposed to be freezing - it was 40 by the time we were heaidng down and all the cliffs were crumbling like mad

 

healthy avi danger all aroudn the reid bowl - luetholds still hadn't slid out yet and appeared a stupid place to be

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Way to pay attention and listen to your guts. I remember one time doing WyEast in similar conditions, and thinking that the Avy danger was way off the hook up there, but wanting to climb so bad I did it anyway and convinced the dude I was with to follow me up the damn thing.

 

I'm high on the route thinking "this is stupid", and wondering how far the slide would take us (it's a long friggan way down from up there), but really, really enjoying the climbing and the day at the same time.

 

We summit. I get down and bump into my old buddy John Petrosky and his dad in the lodge. The father was one of the most experienced mountain folks out there at the time. John quietly says that they'd bailed on doing Leuthods cause his Dad thought the avy danger was too high.

 

I felt shame. Really felt stupid. I knew better and just got lucky.

 

Love your pics! Oleg, you and Ivan tell a good story.

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Nice Story..love the screaming part to release the slabe. For those less informed, please remember screaming or other loud noises do not release avalanches. Airplanes passing overhead do not cause avalanches. Cowboys in movies shooting bullets into the snowpack do not release slides....(anyone remember 7 brides for 7 cowboys or somthing like that ha ha). A really recommended read is "Snowstruck" by Jill Fredston, a big avalanche forcaster in Alaska. Also remember Whomping is not a sign of weakness in a snowpack, IT IS weakness, its collasping of a layer. When that happenes you have to ask the question, "how heavy is gravity today"

 

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castle crags is the formation immediately above illumination rock

 

we didn't do the route proper, but went off right at the base of the lower wall - think we shoulda gone left but by then we were too amotivated to care

 

the gully was great fun - volcanic mud is actually fun to climb when frozen solid

 

oleg, how could you leave out the best part? attempting to talk both our families and recalcitrant, pissed off wives into a half-assed planned dinner while fumbling around like drunken losers from sleep deprivation

 

how was the take-home chicken by the way? spaced on given you the herbed butter for it all...

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i love it when wives make out!...kinda reminds me of the annual xmas party at the old frat - mmmm, liquer and stupid chicks w/ limited inhibitions...

 

edited to add a picture that comes right before a particularily lovely memory

2_B-yatches_Dahl2.JPG

Edited by ivan
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I'm happy to see a TR from that particular area... I've always wondered exactly where the "route" is intended to go. Oregon High and the Summit Guide give it absurdly contrasting difficulty ratings, but standing below it you can't help the gut feeling of spicyness. Thanks again Oleg and Ivan. Any other pictures from your trip?

 

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i love it when wives make out!...kinda reminds me of the annual xmas party at the old frat - mmmm, liquer and stupid chicks w/ limited inhibitions...

 

edited to add a picture that comes right before a particularily lovely memory

2_B-yatches_Dahl2.JPG

 

OMG :blush:

 

Ivan: Don't make us pay for the video damnit!

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oleg, how could you leave out the best part? attempting to talk both our families and recalcitrant, pissed off wives into a half-assed planned dinner while fumbling around like drunken losers from sleep deprivation

 

how was the take-home chicken by the way? spaced on given you the herbed butter for it all...

Have to say, Eric is not just a bad-uss climber, he is also a cookng maestro. Bravo, we loved your chicken so much, Stephen swollowed a peice right in the car - in a russian style with no fork or napkins. I swear. I felt somewhat zombified this night - kinda just wanted sit in the corner and sleep.

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Haven't seen you post in a while, OlegV.

Great story and GREAT pics, guys! Way to come back whole too. Yocum Ridge will always be there, though a little less each day, eh? You'll get it. Bravo.

Thanks! I was around - the board takes too much time, you know. My wife spends hours on the ultra-running blog, it kinda drives her from the other tasks.

 

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I'm happy to see a TR from that particular area... I've always wondered exactly where the "route" is intended to go. Oregon High and the Summit Guide give it absurdly contrasting difficulty ratings, but standing below it you can't help the gut feeling of spicyness. Thanks again Oleg and Ivan. Any other pictures from your trip?

 

I'll post some tonight!

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