rocky_joe Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 A climber fell today off the Hogsback and broke both legs. I am not sure of details, other than he was medivac'd off the mountain. My climbing partners and I overheard the SAR personnel discussing the incident just as we reached the lodge. By our estimates it happened about 15-20 mins after we began to descend from the hogsback, probably close to 9:30. If you have heard anything please post a link. I am very curious to see how the climber is doing and what was believed to cause the accident. I am hoping for the best, both for climber and all those involved in this accident. Quote
scaredofheights Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 What were the conditions like when you came down? It appears he got hit by ice fall. Did you witness any of this. I was on north side yesterday and the snow/ice was "in". But the south side is a different animal. Quote
pink_chalk Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Blackhawk chopper assists in rescue of injured climber on Mt. Hood  06:28 PM PST on Saturday, January 17, 2009  By ADRIANE HORNER, kgw.com Staff  Portland Mountain Rescue crews were able to get to and assist an injured male climber near the Devil's Kitchen area of Mt. Hood on Saturday.   AP photo   The climber, who was identified as a 45 year old man, was reported to have sustained leg injuries near the 10,900 foot level of the mountain.   Jim Strovink with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said the climber is a member of Portland Mountain Rescue.   He was ascending the mountain around 10:30 a.m when warm and sunny temperatures caused a large chunk of ice to come sweeping down nearby.   The force carried the man 200 feet down the mountain.   A group of fellow Portland Mountain Rescue members were training nearby and were able to assist the injured climber.   Strovink said the man was suffering from two injured ankles and was unable to walk.   Crews were able to move him to the Devil's Kitchen area of the mountain where an Oregon Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter was brought in to pick him up.   The man was taken to OHSU Hospital in Portland to be treated for his injuries.  http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_011709_news_climber_rescue.3239954.html  Quote
Ken_p Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Here is a oregonian link to the Oregonian article on the incident Quote
jeremyl Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Conditions were not too bad, except the icefall. Which really wasnt that bad but it turned away ~2/3 climbers that got to the Hogsback. But everyone else did the old chute (or northside routes). These 3 did the Pearly Gates. I met them right as I was descending and they were heading over to the right. I was surprised when he (dont know if it was the injured guy or one of the others) said they were doing the Pearly Gates route. But he said he did it almost every weekend last year and seemed to know what he was getting into (In fact I asked for a TR as I would like to do the route if its in good shape. A little Ice wall makes for some fun).  We heard and saw a ton of icefall all day from further right (Steel clifs and such) but I didnt see anything really come down the gates. They were still in the shadows. When I was down below Crater Rock I looked back and saw the team on the wall.  For the rest of us climbers, the runells that you can see in some posted (elsewhere) picks had some occasional icefall. People were dropping down below these and making way to the old chute. There is a really nice boot path up the steaper 1/2 of this if you head more left (more towards WCR than the old chute proper - which seemed more exposed to icefall to me). The ridgeline from there to the summit is not too bad.  I doubt much more than a dozen summited although much more headed up. I got to the Hogsback at 7:30 because I wanted to be there before the sun warmed things up. A friend went up Friday and didnt get there until 10am and bailed because too much was coming down. If you plan to climb I would say get there early. It is crazy warm up there. Fortunatly dispite what you would think from being in town, there was no wind to speak of, and with the groomers running up Palmer in the AM, I had a spectacular 23min ride down to the car  Hope the injured climber heals well. Only talked to the one guy for a couple minutes, but they seemed like very nice guys and great climbers. Frankly I am glad that there was not more bad news from the day. While a lot of people (wisely) baled on the route, a lot did not and crap was coming down. I got hit in the hand by ~1" ice when traversing under the fall line, but a big piece came a little closer than I liked. Quote
WageSlave Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 I was wondering why that Blackhawk was coming up over the mountain when I was near the top of what should have been the Reid Headwall. The ice fall was super nasty yesterday, especially down all the gullies that go to the Reid Glacier. Some really big stuff was coming down. The wind picked up last night as soon as the sun went down and it was bringing down even more icefall. Quote
rocky_joe Posted January 18, 2009 Author Posted January 18, 2009 Ice fall was pretty bad (a lot was human triggered) when my partner and I made our push for the summit around 8; two other from our party were climbing well ahead of us. I was hit by one decent sized chunk while traversing just beyond the schrund, as well as a bunch of small chit. I believe we were the first four on the summit, and I saw a few other teams summit via N. Side routes, and I would hope there weren't too many parties after us, as conditions were quickly deteriorating with the super warm temps. Â Quote
Winter Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Wage Slave did we meet you I Saddle? You said you were headed to the Sandy? We started up the Reid but bailed due to ice and rock fall. Quote
WageSlave Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Yeah, that was me. The traverse over to Sandy was kinda spare on the snow, so we gave a variation of the Reid a shot. Got to some bigass buttress at about 10400 and the rime falling off made us bail down towards Leutholds and into a very long epic day. I'm just glad that there wasn't a second helicopter picking us up at the end of the day. Quote
Winter Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Good to meet you - glad you got up and down ok. Quote
rocky_joe Posted January 18, 2009 Author Posted January 18, 2009 Winter, what time did you descend? I ran into two climbers about half way between palmer and hogsback who said they bailed off reid hw and then decided not to go up the chute after checking it out from the hogsback. Quote
Pitts Posted January 18, 2009 Posted January 18, 2009 Dude. I bivied up in Ill. Saddle last night with my friend Votos with the intention of hitting Sandy the next day (today). We heard some people come by at about 8:30 pm, was that either of you guys? Anyway we decided not to push the headwall do to the nasy winds. (and the fact that all our pro was keeping the tent attached to the mountain) Quote
Guest Anonymous Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Yeah, that was the two of us. It was a shitty, long descent. Good call on the winds. We thought the ice fall would calm down after dark, but the winds just brought bigger stuff down onto us. Quote
shortstow Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 anybody going up tonight or tomorrow morning? Quote
ivan Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 winds were insane on the n side too - pat and i climbed the first step of the right gully of the n face, but we bailed after a tv sized rock missed pat by a foot Quote
shortstow Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Thats what I was looking at. Think i am going to sit tight and check the winds around 12 or 1 and see whats up Quote
sweatinoutliquor Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 (edited) Wage, that was me and my buddy Aaron you guys were parked next to in the AM (I think... we were the fools with skis). Glad you guys made it off okay cause I was thinking sandy was going to be a long day for sure. We had great conditions on Wy'east, and rolled up on the rescue just as it was getting started. After all of the carnage we got back to our car pretty late, looked at your rig, and then back up at the mountain and couldn't see anyone coming down. Crazy day in the hillz for sure. Edited January 19, 2009 by sweatinoutliquor Quote
Winter Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 rocky joe - not me. we bailed from the Reid HWon sat morning, descended from I saddle and didn't head up to the hogsback from there. We didn't see anyone else on that side of the mountain except for wageslave and his partner. Quote
WageSlave Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 sweatin-that was me and cycling_mike at the car. We ditched the idea of the Sandy shortly after getting on the Reid. Looks like you guys had more fun than we did, though the ice conditions on the Reid HW were superb. Continuous 40-60 degree ice for 1200 ft. Quote
jport Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Sweatinoutliquor- Thanks for the steps up the top of Wy'East! We linked into that route, this morning, after climbing one of the gullies on Devil's Kitchen Headwall. We were wondering who had put them in... now we know. Indeed the wind was nasty! However we found great front-pointing snow in the gullies, the Wy'East traverse, and the summit ridge. Cheers! Â Quote
sweatinoutliquor Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Nice to meet you guys Wage and Mike! Sounds like a cool way up jport... The view down those gullies was pretty cool from up on the east crater rim. In the event that anyone was wondering, the second to last shot above is from the old chute. Quote
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