Leuthold Route Question

[billbob]

Met up w/ Mr Clam Fri nite at TLine to attempt the Hood/Leuthold route. A past partner on Rainier and Colchuck, Mr Clam is a talented and strong 19 y.o. who never slows down. At 50, I'm happy to (almost) keep up with the kid. Made it to I-Rock in 3 hrs and talked w/ a threesome as they roped up for the same route and we all waited for light in the sky. Found a foot or so of soft stuff traversing over to the route. Bergschrunds and small crevasses were easily crossed but with the fast melting going on... it would seem they are opening up quickly. Starting up Leuthold after passing the threesome we found a hidden 'schrund that required care to cross. Climbed to 10,700 in whiteout and wind to discover we were off route, had gone too far to the left. Downclimbed to 10,200' and traversed maybe 50 yards right, then went up maybe 100' when we met climbers on the Reid HW route. Ooops! Traversed back left a bit, dropped down into the same couloir as before only kept to the right as we ascended into a narrow gulley. Seems it was at about 10,500' - 10,600' when we hit the first of two 10-12' vertical ice/rock steps. Clam led the whole way with just an ice axe, no second tool. Actually he led the whole climb and prolly would have been up and back a lot faster without me. After getting above the vertical steps we noticed the main and obviously much easier route was just to the left. OK, fine, it would have been easier if we had stuck to the middle of the route but after clearing the steps it seemed like a pretty cool variation. From there we just stuck to the route for another 600' or so until finally reaching the summit ridge. Total time car-car 13 hrs since we wasted about an hour at I-Rock and another hour looking for the route. Definitely another couple weeks left to climb this route in good form.

Our question is about the ice steps in the narrow couloir on the right side of the main route at about 10,600'. Are the steps indeed off-route and do other climbers play there too?

[ivan]

you are now part of a large and growing fraternity of folks who've climbed the reid by mistake

[billbob]

Gabe (Mr Clam) drew this up to show our route compared to Leuthold and the Reid. We started off on the Leuthold but went too far right so we descended and traversed right, then back left a bit until we locked on to this central couloir all the way up. The climb was big fun (except for the downclimbing) and others must have done it before. Leuthold on the left, Reid on the right, our route in Red.. Comments on this please?! What's the name of this route ?

 

 

[ivan]

name the route yourself - more fun that way - the alternative is some gay oregon high option like reid headwall option 2a or some such shit

 

i like "mr clams clusterfuck meself"

[MrClam]

You give yourself too little credit Bill, you were a good partner!

 

I would post some pictures of the climb but all attempts to upload them have resulted in error messages, I'll email them and let Bill do it.

 

Despite the weather this was a very enjoyable climb, I'm glad we got off route. I can't wait to see what we end up climbing when we try the north side!

 

 

 

[Sunnyside_up]

Billbob Couloir.

[billbob]

I'm sure we weren't the first to take the scenic route to the top. There must already be a name but how do you find out?

 

Did we pass our exit yet?

 

Perfect conditions for .....

 

Top out, but what route?

[jport]

Another discussion of the Reid Headwall can be found here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Main/58271/Number/782697#Post782697

[Kevin_Matlock]

Wow, congrats on topping.

Looks like a fun alt route if not a little misguided.

Regardless, good job.

[billbob]

Ha! Funny that, looks like we went fairly well along the same mutant route. Similar double step. It was still a blast and as of last weekend conditions appeared to be holding up well. Thanks for the post, jport.

[Joe_Poulton]

According to Nicholas A. Dodge: A Climbing Guide to Oregon this area is just 9V... described as "many steep snow chutes and ice blocks that provide interesting technical climbing." Can't find specific names for that area...