Hood SS this weekend. Is OK?

[Brewer]

So, I'm hoping to take the south side of Hood this weekend (old chute). The plan is that a co-worker (climber for many years, done the PG version of this route a few times) and I will drive down from Seattle on Friday afternoon, sleep a couple hours at Timberline, wake up at midnight for the alpine start and a desired summit at sunrise. (FWIW, my experience level is long-time backpacker, very confident on steep snow, 6 day AAI Baker class last June (easton), and Shuksan (fisher) last September with very poor visibility, turned us back at the summit pyramid).

 

Down to the issue at hand: the weather. At the moment, it looks like it will be decent on Friday, with minor chance of showers Friday night and increasing into Saturday. ~10 inches of new snow at Timberline over the last 2 days. Overnight lows around 30F.

 

Not having that much familiarity with Hood and it's weather (other than the web scouring I've been doing the past few weeks), would it be a bad idea to do this with this forecast? What would it take for you to reconsider the climb? It would be unfortunate for us to make the 5 hour trip only to be turned back at the parking lot, or even part way up Palmer.

 

I value any input you can provide. This will also be posed over at SP.org for more exposure.

 

Thanks,

Ian

[ivan]

if rain's forecast you're always taking a chance - sometimes the weatehr will be crap below 7k and beautiful above though - if you climb rock, bring some shit for smith, and if hood works, great, if not, press on into the desert!

[Brewer]

Snow level is forecasted to be about 6000-6500, so I assume there won't be much rain higher up on the hill.

 

I've been watching the Timberline webcam and the radar animations for the mountain today and it looks like there isn't much precipitation on the upper mountain. The radar returns are creating a donut around the summit, so I guess there isn't much falling on the summit right now?

[ivan]

it doesn't really matter - the bottom line is you're contemplating a gigantic goddamn drive and wanna know if it'll be worth your time - the point is you wont' know till you're there, so unless the forecast really declines, go, but have a backup plan (if you've never practiced digging a snowcave (then crawled inside it and gotten good n' crunked), that's a fun thing to do on the mountain, for example, or like i said, go do something to the east where you know it'll be dry)

 

regardless, if you're near the summit in the early mornign and don't have you head up your ass, you won't have much reason to be worried about avy's on the south side - your main concern is visibility - generally, if you've reached 10k and it hasn't cleared up, it's time to sit on your ass and wait for shit to get better, or go to plan b

[Brewer]

Thanks for the input, ivan. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a backup plan in place, other than hitting a strip joint in PDX on the way back. We're dealing with a pretty small window we can work with; our families want us back ASAP.

 

I like the idea of getting canned in a snow cave, though. Reminds me of the college days...

 

On the bright side, some of the forecasts for Fri/Sat are cleaning up a bit over the last few hours, so all I can do is sit here and bite my nails, anxiously waiting.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[WageSlave]

Sounds like you're already minimizing the problems by starting at midnight. At worst, it looks like its gonna be cloudy for you folks. The 'shrund at the top of the Hogsback is opening up (as of last Sun), so if its low-visibility don't fall in. Other than that, have fun and take some pictures of the conditions.

[cluck]

I've been closely eyeing the forecast this weekend as well in the hopes of dragging up some newbie friends who will be in town. My take is that an early Saturday morning climb would be reasonable but you damn well better know what you're doing and how to get back down in a whiteout in case that storm comes in earlier than expected.

[Brewer]

Yeah, that's kinda what I've been thinking. NOAA says that Friday night is now mostly cloudy with no mention of precip, so it's looking pretty good so far.

 

We've got a good GPS with the route pre-loaded, and we've got 3 compasses (2 digital, 1 analog), so finding our way around won't be a problem, even in a whiteout.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Good luck, cluck. Maybe we'll see you up there (along with 150 others?).

[ivan]

fwiw, i think altimeters are much more useful navigation instruments on hood's s side then gps or compasses - take note of the top of the ski lift, then don't let yourself go more than a hundred feet below it on the descent in a whiteout before starting to traverse around (usually you'll need to traverse left to pick up the ski lift line - but be sure to stop if you come up on a giant canyon )

[Wesley Laws]

Good luck man. Take some picture while your up there. I'll be going up there with a group of 3 on the 17th.

[billbob]

Check out the Timberline webcam for currents, looks great now, am on the way to jump in a cessna and shoot aerials of Hood at ca. 11:30 am today. Them hope to drive up tonite to reach 11,239' the hard way tomorrow am. See ya.

[ivan]

fuck yeah bill! man, wish i could be on that flight...

[cluck]

Ivan is right on. The secret to getting off Hood in a white out is to use the different 'catch' features like the Palmer cat track, chair lift, or even White River Canyon or tree line. Use your compass and altimeter to estimate where you are and which way to go, and plan a route that bumps you into a catch feature and then follow that home. Ivan's idea to intentionally descend to the west of the Palmer chair and then traverse left until you find the chairlift would certainly work. Just use your altimeter to make sure you descend far enough that your travese won't go over the top of chairlift and take you into White River canyon. This happened to group of folks a couple years back and turned into a big SAR event.

 

Also, make sure you understand the effects that weather have on air pressure and by extention your altimeter.

 

Maybe I'll see you up there!

[ivan]

Ivan is right on. The secret to getting off Hood in a white out is to use the different 'catch' features like the Palmer cat track, chair lift, or even White River Canyon or tree line. Use your compass and altimeter to estimate where you are and which way to go, and plan a route that bumps you into a catch feature and then follow that home. Ivan's idea to intentionally descend to the west of the Palmer chair and then traverse left until you find the chairlift would certainly work. Just use your altimeter to make sure you descend far enough that your travese won't go over the top of chairlift and take you into White River canyon. This happened to group of folks a couple years back and turned into a big SAR event.

 

Also, make sure you understand the effects that weather have on air pressure and by extention your altimeter.

 

Maybe I'll see you up there!

it has the added virtue of being easier to execute in a fierce environment - i've never found using a compass or a gps easy on a slope in a blowing, snowy, shitty whiteout w/ my goggles all fogged up and my hands buried in mitts - w/ the altimeter you just stumble along as best you can, periodically stopping to check your wrist

[Brewer]

Check out the Timberline webcam for currents, looks great now,

 

 

Yeah, I've been all over that shit for the last week or so. Webcams, weather.com, noaa.gov, avy forecasts, weatherunderground, iphone weather apps, I can't get enough info. Not to mention trip reports for all south side routes....

 

We've got a couple altimeters too, so that will be a useful tool.

 

Damn I'm getting anxious to go.

 

Thanks again!

[billbob]

We made a couple circles at about 12K, Cooper Spur was clouded up from about 9,500' and below but otherwise no probs. Will post a pic or two soon. Used a 10 meg Canon owned by pilot extraordinaire Doug Cox.. Outside air temp was 10F :-(

A bit windy up there this morning but still a nice one. Someone said it was "brutal" on the summit, I turned back at Crater Rock because I'm a grumpy old man.

[cluck]

Looks like the forecast took a turn for the worse today. Calling for the front to split up and the first chunk to come through Saturday morning about summit time. Think I'm going to bail and opt for something a little less exposed to the elements. Maybe go play in the Tatoosh or something.

 

Brewer - if you go, stay safe!

[Frikadeller]

I turned back at Crater Rock because I'm a grumpy old man.

 

 

Did you bring your sled?

[Maine-iac]

It is easy to get faceshots on a sled, just as an FYI

How are the gates forming up this year?

[Frikadeller]

How are the gates forming up this year?

 

I have not seen any reports, but if you wanna come along, I am thinking of taking a look in the next couple of weeks.

 

And, you do not have to bring the sled, I splitboard, so we can harvest the goodies on the downhill side of things..

[billbob]

Shoulda used a filter and not shot thru the tinted window.

 

Alpine, anyone?

 

 

[rocky_joe]

there were tracks to the summit from the gates yesterday morning. y'all shoulda been out there yesterday, clouds rolled away just as we needed them too...fantastic summit views.

[Maine-iac]

Billbob, I am glad that I am wearing dirty pants and not clean ones, because I now need to change them!

 

Frik, lets chat about it. My only open weekend is next week though, But I am thinking about going up doing a mid week climb (before June), it would be a tuesday night/wed morning type of thing.

[ivan]

hey, i can see where i almost died on the sandy!

 

cool view of upper cathedral ridge

[Frikadeller]

Holy crap!!! That Sandy Headwall looks tasty, yet Ivan-ish dangerous.

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/medium/West_Side_2.jpg

 

 

Nice shot though of the Queens chair, and the summit ridge along the Mazama chutes...