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[TR] Mt. Hood - Cathedral Ridge (Early Season Var)


lazyclimber

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Trip: Mt. Hood - Cathedral Ridge (Early Season Variation)

 

Date: 2/2/2007

 

Trip Report:

Drove up to T-line late Thursday night with a full moon and high winds. We (Geoff, Lee, Dane, Sophie, Thad and myself [Nick]) slept till 1am.

 

Caught a snowcat @ 2am and rode up to the top of the Palmer. As of 2:15, we were crampin' up getting ready to hike to Illumination Saddle.

 

Descended to and then hiked across the Reed glacier without problem. Traversed up and then around Yocum ridge. We couldn't find an easy way to descend down to the Sandy Glacier so we built an anchor and belayed Dane as he downclimbed a steeper pitch. He placed 2 screws on the descent. We fixed the line so the rest of us could descend faster and began the process of getting the other 5 of us down. As I downclimbed (with a prusik backup), my crampon popped off and flew down to the Sandy (sweet). I switched over to rappel at that point and descended the rest of the way to the glacier. Sophie, Thad and Lee then rap'd without incident. Geoff cleaned the anchor and then down-lead the pitch and cleaned the screws. Luckily Dane had been watching me when my crampy popped and watched as it slid down the face and bounced a ways down the Sandy. Lee hiked down to where Dane thought he saw the crampon come to a rest and snatched it up for me (very lucky). We crossed the Sandy without any further issues.

 

We approached Cathedral Ridge via the early season variation. Due to the lack of snow, we encountered some easy'ish water ice (not sure on the difficulty, but the concensus was WI1). Dane once again led this section and fixed a line. The rest of us followed up with prusik backups. Having an ice axe and a spare tool was VERY helpful. I cleaned the gear as the others started heading up the gullies to the ridge.

 

The ridge was not as I expected - due to the lack of snow, there was a lot of exposed rock which made it feel more like mixed climbing to me as I used my axe on the ice and grabbed rocks and pulled myself up with the other free hand. We continued up the ridge climbing various ice/snow pitches without too much problem (encountered 45-55deg faces).

 

Upon reaching the summit ridge, the sun was high in the sky. We all crossed to the true summit nary a problem. Summit @ 2:00pm; time from the top of the Palmer to summit - 11 hrs 45 min. We had many breaks along the way.

 

We descened the South Side via the Old Chute back to Timberline (man I hate that slog), and returned to the parking lot @ 5:00pm.

 

I have tons of pics, but haven't read how or where to add them - so those will follow shortly, along with some vid.

 

Video link of one of the steeper ramps that we encountered - Steeper pitch on Cathedral Ridge - via myspace

 

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Gear Notes:

Ice axe, spare ice tool, crampies, a few pickets, and a handful of ice screws

 

Approach Notes:

Snowcats rule! I now feel completly spoiled and fully recommend it to anyone who wants to save a couple hours of slog time.

 

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Great TR! I love TR's with pic's...

 

 

But your video made me laugh!!!

 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1880132055

 

The shit we say when hypoxia sets in.... My favorite is the finger pointing down the hill... 'Shhhhh, sheeeee sheeee and then some more sheee,,,, Yeah..."

 

Not that I have ever made comments like that myself...

 

One time on the summit ridge of Hood, I got all pissed off that there was not a bar up there... I dunno why, I just was a bit ticked....

 

 

Hypoxia!! Good times!

Edited by Frikadeller
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