ptownclimber Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 (edited) Trip: Hood - Devil's Kitchen Headwall Date: 1/18/2009 Trip Report: With stable avy conditions and warm sunshine in the forecast, Jport and I hatched a plan to try something on Hood Sunday - assuming we'd just bail and ski down if the ice fall proved too ugly. We left town around 3am in puffy coat weather. We found warmer temps at Timberline, but colder/harder snow conditions than we expected. We left the parking lot around 4:40 in pretty warm air temps but with firm, icy snow underfoot and some wind. We had a half moon (waning) and a star full of skies - enough light to travel without headlamps. We found the skinning difficult outside of the groomed tracks and impossible above the top of the palmer. We (stupidly) strapped skis to our packs there and headed up just as the sun was starting to paint the eastern skies orange, over the sea of clouds lapping at the base of the Sisters, Jefferson and the foothills around Hood. sunrise shadow and illumination rock After stumbling through basketball sized chunks of rime ice and getting tossed around by the wind, we elected to ditch the skis a couple hundred feet above the top of the palmer. As it got lighter it was becoming obvious that no amount of warming could not be enough to make for good skiing on the rime. At this point we had to decide if we were going left to West Crater rim or right to Devil's Kitchen/pearly gates. After some indecision we flipped a coin (a piece of ice), which came up 'west crater rim'. Not liking this answer - having thus tested our intuition - we opted to go right, leaning towards Devil's Kitchen. Upon arriving at the basin we took a break and soon decided on Devil's Kitchen, as it looked to have the least exposed rock and best shade. There was a lot of ice and rock debris from the previous day, and stuff was starting to come down as the sun was warming the crater rim. We hurried over to our intended short gully. Climbing the gully went pretty quickly, mostly walking up, only using tools in a few spots. We did avoid one small volley of ice fall, much smaller than the loose chunks we had seen in the basin. Cresting the ridge brought us to a great position with sunshine and a lot more wind - pushing 30mph in places along the ridge. From here we followed tracks traversing up along the top of the W'yeast route. In spots this was still quite icy and hard, kinda precarious two tooling in these conditions. Other spots were soft snow with deep steps that we could walk pretty quickly. We topped out at 10am and descended via Old Chute, then down and east around crater rock. Old chute was much icier and more precarious than I've seen in the past. jport near the top of the gully looking back down coming up the ridge Upon reaching our skis we strapped them back to the packs and walked down - realizing that trying to ski this glassy, hard, crazy-ninja-rime-ice-from-hell was pointless. From the top of the palmer the skiing on groomers was fast - snow was still pretty firm in spite of the sun beating down. We were back at the car by noon, and after some obligatory parking lot hacky sack, back in town around 2. crazy rime on the way down All in all a really fun day. The views were amazing. I've never really made out Portland from Hood before but yesterday it was clear as a bell. Thanks, jport, for another good one. Gear Notes: Left rope and pro in the car Edited January 20, 2009 by ptownclimber Quote
letsroll Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 nice work boys. I am toast from my hike to tie in rock on saturday and meadows on sunday. Next time a weather window opens up for some toolin I will be ready. missed the party friday, cause I was sleeping for my hike. Heard it was a great time and ran in to the wee hours. Quote
Frikadeller Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 (edited) We found the skinning difficult outside of the groomed tracks and impossible above the top of the palmer. Not to worry, the sun did not change this demographic of snow. I tired and tried to gain an edge on that mess last Sunday... Freeze/thaw/freeze snow sux.... On the other hand, I dug a pit on saturday, on the clark canyon headwall, and it was smooth, with only a unstable layer near the top which was cemented in... Smooth turns coming down. Got harassed three different times on the up track by the ski patrol nazi's from Meadows.. Eff them. And they all where on AT gear.. Like you don't understand why we do this? Edited January 20, 2009 by Frikadeller Quote
jport Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 (edited) Nice climb and TR P-Town! Another memorable outing... "livin' good days", indeed! When I get a chance, I'll have to resize my photos and post a few more shots. Edited January 20, 2009 by jport Quote
gabrielle Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 way to go boys...nice pix. this is what life is about. climb on, and on, and on...Gabrielle. Quote
fheimerd Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 great to see and folks getting some. Frikadellar-whats the deal with the ski patrol. What area of the mountain where you on and why were the hassling you. I think we need to start hassling them for a change. Lots of BC users are getting pissed becasue of their new "nazi" approach. Forest Service land should be for all not just paying costumers. Quote
fheimerd Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 (edited) Frikadellar sounds like he went up towards the east side of the mountain, meadows seems to be under the impression that the entire east sector of hood is their domain and all who trod upon it are subject to their authority or else they will call the sheriff or possibly use their howitzer on you...meadows ski patrol has truned into a mindless tool of corporate interest. Timberline on the other hand has a great policy towards bc users. From my experience they don't have a problem as long as your not being an asswipe. Edited January 20, 2009 by fheimerd Quote
letsroll Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 BC users use palmer all the time. heck I have skinned through timberline to top of the mile for good turns back to govie. Met several patrollers over several of these trips and just like fheimerd said, as long as you are not an asswipe Frikadeller could you write up something about your encounter with the meadows patrolers and PM it to fheimerd or me. We will forward it on. There are some people trying to get a handle on what meadows is doing to BC users. they are trying to establish a pattern of behavior. Quote
jport Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 (edited) More photos- First light on Illumination Rock: Cloudscape: The gully we climbed (notice all the icefall debris): Preston climbs through the slot: Looking up to the Wy'East traverse: Walking back to our skis (after descending West Crater Rim): Finally some turns: See more photos at my Flickr site: Edited January 21, 2009 by jport Quote
WageSlave Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Looks like you guys had a lot of fun on that route. How many vertical ft of climbing are on that gully? Quote
snodger Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Not that I want to encourage anyone to head up that way right now, but I'm curious if you saw and/or have pics of the other gully over to the left of your line: I think that's the one (or it's just out of the pic to the left) I've climbed and has a bit more ice and is longer. It should be in fine form right now, though you'd have no where to hide from the icefall... Quote
jport Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Snodge, We scoped out that gully. It would definitely be much longer and perhaps more interesting to climb. I'd love to go back sometime and go for it. We opted not to hit it because there appeared to be a thinly-covered section midway up (notice the brown section in the photo). With no ropes or pro. we didn't want to get over our heads. Additionally, the ice above was already exposed to the sun. We felt more comfortable about our decision when a shower of icefall came down that gully when we were halfway up our chosen route. Sure glad we weren't caught in the barrage! As it turned out, there was only about 250' of climbing in the gully we ascended (once you enter the gully... not counting the fan, below). Short, but fun, nonetheless Quote
jport Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Here's the only shot I got looking towards the other gullies. It's hard to make-out the conditions inside them. As recent events can confirm, there's lots of icefall up there right now. Beware! Quote
ptownclimber Posted January 22, 2009 Author Posted January 22, 2009 Maybe one rope length, if that, not counting the fan below. Low angle, mostly hiking up snow. We gained a lot more elevation once on the ridge. Quote
snodger Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 ...there appeared to be a thinly-covered section midway up (notice the brown section in the photo). With no ropes or pro... yup, without rope or pro it'd be a bit dicey for mortal climbers. The time I was there that brown section was one of a couple ice steps we had to negotiate. the ice was about 1-2" thick and spotty but made for a fun bit of climbing. what I remember most was the surreal sculpted ice and rime along the sides of the route and the posted pix of ice in all the Hood TR's is what me think about the conditions in the gully. be careful out there!! I'm skiing in bounds this W/E. Quote
Frikadeller Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 Timberline on the other hand has a great policy towards bc users. From my experience they don't have a problem as long as your not being an asswipe. I have never had an issue with the patrollers at either Timberline nor Ski bowl. Usually, they are stoked to see someone on BC gear, and are helpful with directions and condition information. This was my first experience at Meadows, and I am not sure I want to go back if this is what it is like normally. I'll just stick to snowdome or St. Helens for my BC turns... Quote
Cobra_Commander Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 Meadows in general is convinced you are going to die if you touch any snow outside their permit area. Quote
Winter Posted January 29, 2009 Posted January 29, 2009 If you guys want to talk to Meadows about their policies, come to the Feb 5th Madrone Film night. We've invited them to talk about avy control, BC access and uphill travel. Even details Quote
Frikadeller Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Well, are they going to talk about why they restrict access to BC users? Other than that, your event looks like a rock-nerd deal, which is not my focus in life... Maybe I can scrounge up the $10 to show up and ask the "important" questions. Quote
rbw1966 Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Rock-nerd? Did you miss the main feature of the event which is a screening of Via Bearzi? Alpinism in Tibet? The rock-nerd portion of this event is rather small from the flyer I saw. This is for a good cause and I hope to be there. Quote
MtnHigh Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Hey Chris, Is Meadows management going to discuss the merits of using a howitzer to control slides at the event? Quote
rbw1966 Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Good point, Pete. What's the latest word on that anyway? Quote
Winter Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Yes they will be there and will be talking about the howitzer and where and when they blast. Quote
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