Mt Hood end of July- <- bad idea?

[Ondamuve]

Hey guys,

 

New to this site. I'm liking it :-)

I have tentatively scheduled a Hood climb with friends the last weekend of July.

I climbed it solo back in April and it was a blast!

 

Reason for the post, I've done a little bit of research in regards to optimum time of climbing Hood and it seems that late July is pushing the comfort barrier due to rockfall.

I was wondering if you guys might have an opinion of how safe/dangerous this is climbing in the end of July?

 

I'm giving this more concern than i normally would because I'm the unofficial leader of this trip, so i want to make sure i'm taking efforts to look into everyone's safety.

 

Also- in April, i went up with no ropes, and honestly saw no need for them. But, now later, i know about the crevasse pulling back, so- with that in the area- does it just go without saying that everyone should be roped up this late in the season?

 

any feedback would be much appreciated.

and thanks again for making the site what it is!

 

ben

[dinomyte]

We're gonna be up there tomorrow night. I'll let you know how bad an idea it is.

 

Typically, I'd say "horrible" but this year...who knows.

 

It's gonna be hot and humid tomorrow, and a chance of thunderstorms. We'll play it safe though, as you should. Easier to turn back once you've been up top.

[Ondamuve]

I appreciate it Dino!

 

Good luck and climb safe

 

[godskid5]

hey dinomyte, did you make it? how did it go? conditions?

thanks

[dinomyte]

Kevin_Matlock and I took off from T-line at about 12:45am on 7/4 - right after a bit of thunder and lightning made things interesting. It sprinkled a tad, but was pretty damn warm; I would guess 55 or better. Light breeze. Thunder seemed to move off, so we thought we'd give it a go.

 

Snow was obviously a bit soft after so much warm weather, but we weren't plunging through at all - seemed to be just a couple slushy inches on top.

 

We made our way up at a pretty slow pace, not really wanting to reach the Hogs in the dark.

 

When we got up to about 9300 feet or so, some weather moved in and moved in FAST! Summit was socked in, thunder, and lightning flashing within a few miles. We had seen some fires earlier as there was no moon at all.

 

We met up with a couple fellas who had skinned up, and chatted with them for awhile. After a brief discussion, the consensus was, "Let's get the hell outta here!!" Not too tough a decision when you've been up top before. We saw quite a few folks who decided to turn back, though there was almost no one on the mountain.

 

We met a trio headed up as we got about halfway down Palmer, and a solo guy from CA that we chatted with on the way down was visible making his way up after we hit the parking lot. The lightning had moved away by then, but the summit was still socked most of the time.

 

I dunno, we just thought that the high point of Oregon prolly was not the place to be in a lightning storm.

[stoudema]

We were up there yesterday (7/6) and turned around at the Hogsback due to rockfall and an injured climber who took a 100 foot fall and needed rescue via helicopter. Another climber got tagged in the arm by a rock. The Mazama chute is getting pretty runneled out........