Rumor has it...

[hefeweizen]

 

I heard that Coombs skied this line some time ago. Something about taking a couple 2x4's to rap the icefall sections. Can anyone confirm/deny?

[skykilo]

I think Coombs did the other one. Koch did that one?

 

Notes on alpenglow.org:

http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/period/couloir/couloir-1990-99.html#couloir-1998-jan-p18

 

I vaguely recall hearing from some source that an Oregon local did one of those gullies before Koch or Coombs.

 

 

 

[sweatinoutliquor]

Quote:

 

Jan 1998, p. 18, Coombs, Doug, "Hood: Commitment on the NE Face"

In late spring, 1997, the author skied the southerly of two couloirs on the NE face of Mt Hood. These couloirs are just north of the Cooper Spur route. The northerly chute was descended on snowboard five years earlier by Steve Koch. The author climbed to the summit from Timberline and kept in touch with a friend on the Cloud Cap side by radio. After a few hundred feet of turns at the top of the couloir, he encountered a sun crust and exchanged his ski poles for an ice axe. He sidestepped narrow ramps to pass two rock bands, then switched back to ski poles to ski the central portion of the couloir to a final rock step with 40-foot ice gully. Here he placed a rappel anchor to inspect the gully. Concluding that he could straight-run the gully, he climbed back up and pulled the anchor. While sidestepping back down with ice axe in hand, his skis scaped through to ice. He let go of his ice axe, schussed the ice gully, and made a high speed turn lower to stop. He switched to crampons to climb up and retrieve his ice axe, then completed the descent on skis, which required a ten-foot jump over the bergshrund. He called the route a "ski descent not a ski run."

[snoboy]

I like the bit where he climbed back up to grab his axe before he finished it...

[hefeweizen]

Quote:

 

Jan 1998, p. 18, Coombs, Doug, "Hood: Commitment on the NE Face"

In late spring, 1997, the author skied the southerly of two couloirs on the NE face of Mt Hood. These couloirs are just north of the Cooper Spur route. The northerly chute was descended on snowboard five years earlier by Steve Koch. The author climbed to the summit from Timberline and kept in touch with a friend on the Cloud Cap side by radio. After a few hundred feet of turns at the top of the couloir, he encountered a sun crust and exchanged his ski poles for an ice axe. He sidestepped narrow ramps to pass two rock bands, then switched back to ski poles to ski the central portion of the couloir to a final rock step with 40-foot ice gully. Here he placed a rappel anchor to inspect the gully. Concluding that he could straight-run the gully, he climbed back up and pulled the anchor. While sidestepping back down with ice axe in hand, his skis scaped through to ice. He let go of his ice axe, schussed the ice gully, and made a high speed turn lower to stop. He switched to crampons to climb up and retrieve his ice axe, then completed the descent on skis, which required a ten-foot jump over the bergshrund. He called the route a "ski descent not a ski run."

 

That is a classic bit of history, I'm glad I asked!

[Couloir]

Nuckin' futs.