FUCK... THIS... SHIT

[sweatinoutliquor]

It's a goddamn miracle nobody got hurt up there today.

 

 

At one point I counted 5 rope teams climbing directly above each other, none of which were placing pro. I'm sorry, usually I'm not rude about things, but this kinda crap has got to stop and people need to learn from the mistakes of others in the past. There is a lot of terratory there on either side of that line that was perfectly acceptable, or even other gullies that aren't really any harder (WCR). Cheers to the people (guided groups too!) who were climbing something other than the two main gullies in order to relieve the cluster.

Disclaimer: Information contained in this post is considered public information (unless otherwise noted) and may be copied or distributed. The views expressed in this post are not intended to suggest that any climbing or guiding organization acts, behaves, or climbs in a mannar that is unsafe or distasteful to other climbers. Additionally, this post in no way suggests any regulation or limits imposed by an already out of control federal, state, and local governament, its agents, or, their extremist environmental anti-social minions. The opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster sweatinoutliquor, or other suscribers of cascadeclimbers.com. Additionally note that the user sweatinoutliquor may or may not have been intoxicated during or around the time of this post, and that the views expressed would likely have been repressed in person to person conversation. Sweatinoutliquor does not provide any warranty as to the completeness or accuracy of the information and, subject to applicable laws, does not accept any liability for damages of any kind resulting from the access or use of this post or its contents.

 

Edited June 29, 2009 by sweatinoutliquor

[rocky_joe]

I totally agree. That shit is fucked and if I got to the Hogsback and saw that I'd have lunch and turn my ass around. No fucking reason people can't climb the gullies climber's right of the main chute. Fucking Mazamas and their goddam rope teams of 80.

[letsroll]

I totally agree. That shit is fucked and if I got to the Hogsback and saw that I'd have lunch and turn my ass around. No fucking reason people can't climb the gullies climber's right of the main chute. Fucking Mazamas and their goddam rope teams of 80.

 

Right cause ALL those people up there are Mazamas. Not one person up there is on thier own. They ALL are on a Mazama climb. Go sit on a dick.

[pu]

Did the sunshine route on 06/26. Only one other party. Tilly Jane approach adds about 1.5 hours.

[bonathanjarrett]

Sorry, but this rediculous and baseless bad mouthing of mountaineering groups is just plain stupid. Not a single Mazama group was on the South Side. All one has to do is check their online climb schedule to know that.

 

 

Look here.

[gslater]

And even if there WERE a Mazamas group up there, the numbers would be very limited, since the club has a "no more than one team per route per day" rule.

[Stime]

Yeah, it was a zoo up there this morning. I was glad my group (myself and two buddies) made the summit around 4:30 AM and we were down and out of the way before the major traffic hit. I was also amazed there were no accidents with all the random roping up and inexperience up there.

[Frikadeller]

That photo reminds me about how I am done with that hill for the year (at least summit trips) until some new snow comes back.

 

 

[JoshK]

if folks only started tauntaun-pooling!

[dinomyte]

I think the Mazama-bashing was covered in another thread.

 

I am not a member, but I think they do a good job of doing what they do.

 

Nobody wants to be behind a group of 12 - or two groups of 6, or three groups of 4, or whatever. I just check the site for the schedule, or get to the Hogs at 4:30 like the other sharp folks!

[Fairweather]

Of course YOU were up there too, right? Funny how it's always everyone else's shit that stinks. I see lot's of people having fun on a route they didn't seek for solitude. Check your Mount Hood history--it's always been like this. Chill out.

[pindude]

I totally agree. That shit is fucked and if I got to the Hogsback and saw that I'd have lunch and turn my ass around. No fucking reason people can't climb the gullies climber's right of the main chute. Fucking Mazamas and their goddam rope teams of 80.

And even if there WERE a Mazamas group up there, the numbers would be very limited, since the club has a "no more than one team per route per day" rule.

Of course YOU were up there too, right? Funny how it's always everyone else's shit that stinks. I see lot's of people having fun on a route they didn't seek for solitude. Check your Mount Hood history--it's always been like this. Chill out.

 

Rocky Joe, judging by your post, I'm sure you'd learn a lot from the Mazamas. Most people who call themselves climbers know well that Mt. Hood is the most popular mountain to climb in the US, and the south side route can be a zoo during the main climbing season--all this ain't because of the Mazamas. It's been said on this site before that the May 31, 2002 Hood tragedy will be repeated due to the popularity of the Hogsback route by your average joe climber. My hat's off to the Mazamas for their education, and trips where they get folks out to other routes and places to climb we have in the NW.

 

[billcoe]

Did the sunshine route on 06/26. Only one other party. Tilly Jane approach adds about 1.5 hours.

 

I do not believe others know of these routes you speak of. There must be but a single route up the mountain, as indicated by the posts (other than yours) and the pictures here.

 

One time, I took a buddy of mine up Cooper Spur as his first Mt climb. We had done the usual prep of practicing self-arrest and boot-axe belays off those gullies previously over by Timberline and hadn't seen a soul over there. Anyway, we had the route totally and completely to ourselves and it was perfect weather. To help him capture the wilderness flavor, we took 2 days and camped at tie-in rock that evening....alone. The next day we topped out and that entire South Side group you show in the picture was on top. We had not seen a single person in the 2 days until that point of the climb. Pretty shocking and surprising actually to go from pure wilderness feeling to being in the mall at rush hour feeling, but that's just the way it is I guess.

 

Glad no one got hurt.

[sweatinoutliquor]

Of course YOU were up there too, right? Funny how it's always everyone else's shit that stinks. I see lot's of people having fun on a route they didn't seek for solitude. Check your Mount Hood history--it's always been like this. Chill out.

 

Yep, I was up there too so without a doubt contributing to the crowd (although summited before the mayhem began and at no point contributed to the cluster because we used gullies away from where others were). I had no expectation of solitude either, and actually enjoyed the somewhat social nature of the climb. Despite the crowd, everyone was real friendly and curtious. The point of my post was not to imply that folks shouldn't climb that route (and NOT to bash mazamas either), and yes, I've seen pictures of it worse. The reason for my post was to express concern over the number of teams roped together without any protection who were directly in the fall line of teams above and below. At one point we counted 35 people who could have been taken out (like dominos) had the highest rope team fallen. There was no reason to line up like that... It wasn't like there was a line of steps people were following. The ground to the left or right of that ant-line was no steeper or more challanging.

[Fairweather]

Each team below the next makes the decision to proceed absent any real knowledge of the competence that hangs above them. It's still their choice. I just hope your post was not suggesting any regulation or limits imposed by an already out of control government bureaucracy or their extremist environmental anti-social minions be enacted or enforced.

[billcoe]

He was only giving folks a heads up FW, good on him for caring. Sometimes, even just mentioning something like this will have folks preconditioning their minds....it's a good thing.

______________________________________________________________

 

 

Sometimes your options are limited, sometimes not.

 

[gslater]

 

One time, I took a buddy of mine up Cooper Spur as his first Mt climb. We had done the usual prep of practicing self-arrest and boot-axe belays off those gullies previously over by Timberline and hadn't seen a soul over there.

 

 

I don't know if I've got ANY friends that I'd be comfy taking up Cooper Spur for their first mtn. climb. Yikes!

[sweatinoutliquor]

I just hope your post was not suggesting any regulation or limits imposed by an already out of control government bureaucracy or their extremist environmental anti-social minions be enacted or enforced.

 

disclaimer added

[Lucky Larry]

stop the bitching, go somewhere else to climb.

[rocky_joe]

I've seen, more than once, Mazama rope teams of 5-10 on the chute, not placing pro. Hence my distaste. I didn't mean to suggest that Mazamas cause all the congestion problems. But to say they don't play a role in it is also wrong. You are also right in saying that they do a lot of good teaching new folks the ins and outs. I would rather see newer climbers up there with Mazamas (or Obsidians or Chemeketans) than on their own. Sorry I spoke to generally.

 

I'm aware of the fact that mount hood is the 2nd most climbed glaciated peak in the world...which is why I try to avoid going up the chute most days I'm up on the hill.

Edited June 29, 2009 by rocky_joe

[billcoe]

I don't know if I've got ANY friends that I'd be comfy taking up Cooper Spur for their first mtn. climb. Yikes!

 

 

It's definitely a user specific choice. At that time, I'd been climbing a hell of a lot and had done the South Side over 30 times as a guide. Frankly, I was just dead on sick of it and couldn't stomach another slog up that low-angle hill even if they were going to pay me again. As this one was a freebee for an old family friend who had asked nicely - I had to do something steeper to keep my interest. (I'm not saying I'm not a selfish bastard) I had taken Jimmy out previously and worked his ass on some steeper stuff down low with non-committing good runouts and he did well. (this is also how I earlier learned that my mutt Tasha could get up 80 degree snow slopes) Doing the Spur as a 2 day climb in addition to enriching the experience for Jimmy, gave me the ability to assess the slope and snow, and contrast it with what I knew of my skill and Jimmies the day before. The Spur was one of my favorite routes to take beginners for that reason. By beginner, don't misunderstand as I don't mean some yoink who just learned to put on some rental crampons and has not yet learned how to self-arrest and boot axe belay.

 

If you choose to do this yourself, make sure that you can belay people down the hill safely regardless of conditions and keep your groups small, because they can freak looking down the steepness and length of the hill when they start to come down. In this case, Jimmy was fine and once we crested the top and were below the point where if you screw the pooch and trip you'd tumble off the North Face, we glissaded all the way to Tie-in. If they have learned to trust a belay at some earlier point, they will be fine with your belaying them, even if they start out experiencing severe shrinkage at first sight coming off the top.

 

Sh*t, that must have been 25 years some odd years ago, I'd totally forgotten all about it until a while ago I bumped into Jimmy at a old friend barbeque Pig roast and he reminded me by replaying every detail of the whole thing: and after hugging me, gratefully thanked me again in front of my family. .......sometimes I feel older than Old Larry looks....

[ivan]

 

One time, I took a buddy of mine up Cooper Spur as his first Mt climb. We had done the usual prep of practicing self-arrest and boot-axe belays off those gullies previously over by Timberline and hadn't seen a soul over there.

 

 

I don't know if I've got ANY friends that I'd be comfy taking up Cooper Spur for their first mtn. climb. Yikes!

nonsense - perfect route for cherries - goddamit this is what climbing a mountain is! little old ladies did it in woolen knickers w/ alpenstaves in the by-gone-days-of-filth so shut the fuck and get up there!

 

best route for all the reaosn listed - wilderness feel, solitutude, views, etc.

[gslater]

 

One time, I took a buddy of mine up Cooper Spur as his first Mt climb. We had done the usual prep of practicing self-arrest and boot-axe belays off those gullies previously over by Timberline and hadn't seen a soul over there.

 

 

I don't know if I've got ANY friends that I'd be comfy taking up Cooper Spur for their first mtn. climb. Yikes!

nonsense - perfect route for cherries - goddamit this is what climbing a mountain is! little old ladies did it in woolen knickers w/ alpenstaves in the by-gone-days-of-filth so shut the fuck and get up there!

 

All of those little old ladies of yore were WAY more hardmannish than any of my friends are.