WageSlave Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 (edited) Trip: Mt. Hood - Reid Headwall (left-hand gully) Date: 1/17/2009 Trip Report: Early in the morning, cycling_mike and I headed up and over Illumination Saddle going towards the Sandy Glacier/Headwall. The one snow crossing over looked super unstable, so we headed up the Reid Headwall instead. Soloed up the ice for the first 900-1000 ft. We got hit by a pretty large pile of ice when the sun first hit the top of the gullies. Roped up when we were at about 10k and simulclimbed and pitched out a few rope lengths more. Got about 200 ft below the ridge/buttress before overhanging, super unstable rime made us back down. Michael led one horrifying pitch up and over to a rap station and we started our retreat down. We didn't want to downclimb/rappel our way up because the rain of ice was going down our path up. We rapped off what we could find and some gear of ours, mixed with a lot of downclimbing. We could just barely see the bottom of Leuthold's Couloir when the sun went away. The wind picked up and brought down bigger and bigger chunks of ice. We started getting beaten up and a big hunk scrapped a piece of my helmet off. We had an endless treadmill of 40 degree ice to downclimb to the Reid. We From there it was a long, happy walk back to the car. The Reid Headwall before we started climbing. Climbing through the avy debris chute. At 9800 or so we tied in and started simulclimbing. Me leading up one of the gullies. Retreating as the sun fell. In retrospect, climbing in the high temps this weekend was a bad idea. We only had one pile of ice fall come down onto us while climbing up, so it was easy to not notice conditions nearby. The retreat was long and arduous. I'm happy to be alive and not staining a glacier. Better analysis of the conditions would have had us either turning around or not starting the climb at all. Live and learn, and thankfully we lived. Gear Notes: two tools, 2 pickets, 5 screws, a rope Approach Notes: Go up the ski hill. Edited January 19, 2009 by WageSlave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pc313 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 The 3rd picture is kickass,to bad you had to turn around! :tup:nice TR! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jclements Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 cheers to living! nice scary pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billcoe Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I remember doing wyeast once and thinking:"this is marginal, we should go down" and expecting to ride the avy down all the way up the upper part where it gets steep. But I was young and had to climb and didn't want to let my partner down etc etc. however, I kept thinking "This is dumb, this is stupid, I know better, but it was so sweet to be climbing and as we were finally on the steep part I WANTED TO CLIMB...damit! We finally get down, and ran into a buddy of mine who was in the lodge with his climber father. His dad was one of the more experienced climbers of Mts in the Pac NW. They asked what we had done and I told them then asked: "..and you?.." Friend glances at his dad and says " Oh, we were heading to Leutholds but thought it was too dangerous so we bagged it".....(long embarrassing silence ensued while I reconsidered my stupidity...). The fact that we got lucky didn't change the facts. They were right to bag it, and so were you. The climbing looks good from your pictures though, too bad about the ice, Mike seems like a pretty good partner too. Glad you made it down, you see the accident thread Mt rescue fella got beaned by ice and took the slide. Looks OK now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnieK Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Got any photos of the shady side of I-rock? I can kinda see it in the background of one of your photos. Wondering what conditions are like. Thanks! Donnie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
votostey Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Glad you guys made it down ok. I think I heard you guys coming back over the saddle. We were in the green Walrus hoping it wouldn't blow away. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WageSlave Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 For DonnieK: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycling_mike Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Ah yes, cheers to living. I'd done the reid a couple years ago and thought it would be a nice consolation prize since we weren't able to get over to the sandy. The route very different than the last time I was up there; a lot more ice and a bit steeper in sections. We sort of wandered our way up, climbing whatever seemed cool until a couple hundred feet below the top of the ridge where it all turned to loose and melting rime. Climbing though this, the "horrifying pitch," was one of the most challenging leads I've done anywhere. At one point, under a bulge of hanging icicles, I stopped using my tools cause everything I swung at was collapsing. Fortunately my liner gloves stuck to the ice pretty well. By underclinging my way up the icicles I was able to pull over the bulge and mantle/squirm like a beached whale as my feet cut loose. I whimpered and whined a lot. Colin (WageSlave) and I both kept our shit together, figured out how to descend safely and made a good team overall. I learned a lot from the experience. ...and I will never climb melting rime again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WageSlave Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 votostey, yup that was us you heard tromping around outside your tent at some ungodly hour of night. We were just really happy to put away the ice tools and not think about falling off anything or getting pegged by more ice. Bet you guys had one hell of a night in those winds. billcoe, the catch for the climb was that it was in beautiful shape and that kept luring us higher. Oh, the folly of youth. As my mother put it, "When you survive, its called a learning experience." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Yo Donnie, here's a pic a little closer up. Ice didn't really look that great, but it was kind of hard to tell. Might be worth a look. Nice work getting your asses off the mountain. Beautiful morning though huh? Here's a couple more pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweatinoutliquor Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Again, it was nice to meet you guys up there. Awesome photos and writeup. Way to keep your shit together getting up to where you got and then off in one piece. I can imagine trying to get from the reid hw down into Leutholds was spicy to say the least. Good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra_Commander Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 "it was a pleasure to meet all your acquaintances" "was that YOU at 8:30 at the saddle?!" "me: beefcake in shorts/polypro with a come-hither air. you: dead-sexy bitch at the berkschard. let's talk." "hey hotstuff in the scholler, I scoped your sculpted ass on the hogsback!!! call me" I love how the hood threads always have a willy-week chance meeting feel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnieK Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Thanks guys for the photos. Yeah - conditions don't look great in those photos, but really its dependent on having decent ice in the cracks. May head up there soon for some winter-mixed action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobo Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 "me: beefcake in shorts/polypro with a come-hither air. you: dead-sexy bitch at the berkschard. let's talk." iaxx, It's buckschard. Jeebus, get it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billbob Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Good job getting yer butts back when the shit hits. Brilliant pics, too. See you boys in church on Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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