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[TR] Mt. Hood - Devil's Kitchen Headwall 4/26/2009


WageSlave

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Trip: Mt. Hood - Devil's Kitchen Headwall

 

Date: 4/26/2009

 

Trip Report:

Last minute, my buddy Joel and I decided that we wanted to get up on Hood again. A week of freeze-thaw cycles could only help things up high. Joel had never climbed a route other than the South Side and wanted an excuse to use his shiny new alpine tools.

 

At Timberline you could see the clouds below and the stars above. Got hiking at 2 am and kept a good clip. The wind was nuking on and off so we were kept on our toes. I remembered that I never packed any food. Oops. We watched a SnowCat deposit some well-monied climbers at the top of the lift and snuck up on them in the dark. Some well-timed monkey screeches confused the hell out of them.

 

Got to Devil's Kitchen and geared up but kept the rope in the pack where it stayed for the day. We took the right-most gully on the Headwall cause it was the only one that was completely filled with ice. Super easy and fun low-angle ice (45+ degrees at the top, but mostly around 40 degrees). Best part was flopping yourself up onto the ridge in the blasting sunlight.

 

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Joel learning the ropes without one.

 

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Sunshine in Oregon! It really exists!

 

Some nice person had climbed the Wy'east earlier in the week and gave us a path to follow. The traverse around the gendarme was long and exposed but it was on solid sn'ice. Once around it, steeper and less-consolidated snow (55/60 degrees) lead up to the summit ridge.

 

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Trying to look like we're climbing in the Alps.

 

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Time for a sunny stroll in the park.

 

We reached the summit at 7:45 and quickly headed down the South Side. This is a super fun route though the difficulty is more in the exposed traversing than anything technical. Getting out onto the E Face of Hood was awesome and the terrain is so much more gnarly-looking.

 

Gear Notes:

Two tools & 'pons. Brain bucket. Bitchin' shades.

 

Brought a 30 m rope, 2 screws, and 4 pickets but didn't need them.

 

Approach Notes:

Huff it. No Cypress Hill this time.

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