[TR] Mt. Hood - Reid Glacier Headwall 11/26/2009

[rocky_joe]

Trip: Mt. Hood - Reid Glacier Headwall

 

Date: 11/26/2009

 

Trip Report:

With knee surgery lined up for the 14th of December I have been on pins and needles waiting for the goddamn snow to let up and get a decent weather window for a shot at the North Face. So, when this window came around I was soo stoked to get one last alpine fix(with hopefully one more to come) before 3 months of dreaming. As soon as I saw the forecast I knew Wendesday would be the day to get it done, however I was wary of jumping on such a committing route first time out for the year so my buddy, Neal, and I decided on giving the Reid a go.

 

Us both being the most studious of students (reeks of sarcasm) we took off from Eugene around 6:30 on Tuesday night after having fulfilled out school commitments. Along the way we stopped for some BBQ off the 12 exit on 205. Goddamn does that town smell awful; the parking lot held an aroma of some amalgamation of baby pooh and vomit, boy were we glad to be out of there with stomachs full and minds set on the hill.

 

The parking lot was empty; I was amazed. We both had some trouble imagining why no one else was up on the hill for the weather window (albeit nice to have the summit to ourselves.) We managed to bag about 3hrs of sleep before taking off from the cave at 2:30ish. I had forgotten, but have now recalled, how much i absolutely hate slogging. I swear to God, that walk to I-saddle is the hardest part of the climb; it feels like the 4th kilometer of a 5k: "why the hell am i doing this?...it hurts, i'm not the best...there is nothing to win...it's not fun!"

 

Once to I-saddle we took a wee break for both food and gear. With our meager rations of pb&j, pop-tarts and granola consumed we lugged our cramponned selves down the west side of the saddle (I swear I cannot stand sidehilling in knee deep snow...best way to need a new pair of gaiters.) i failed to print a topo of the reid hw so we made the decision to take the first gulley, not know what would be around the buttress. Heading up the gulley we crossed the schrund easily as it is nearly entirely closed.

 

Both below and above the schrund the clamboring sucked eggs. If there is one thing I can't stand more than slogging and sidehilling it is wallowing. Yuck. Well thank god that only lasted 2-300 vertical before we found ourselves in a nice little runnel with great cramponing and decently steep slope. Moving up steep terrain is sooo much more fun!

 

the first steep step in the gully

 

Neal coming through it

 

Mountain Shadow

 

Neal heading up some cruiser snow

 

The 2nd steep step...probably about 65 degrees.

 

We took a straight line up the gulley. This sent us over a couple fun 65-70 degree steps. God that stuff was fun. We moved with relatively good pace gaining the west crater rim about 3.5 hrs after entering the gulley. We did have an interesting little bit right at the end when the two options did not originally appear to be feasible. Climber's left was a steep mixed section that had been in the sun for a while, so when the slope got significantly steep and slushy I bailed off it without even getting to see what was beyond the crest. Neal then made his way towards the right side of the gulley to what had appeared to be a knife edge. In the moments between him gaining the top of the ridge and him shouting back that it was all good I was not enjoying the thoughts of retreating a mere 600' from the top. Luckily we turned out to be on course and gained the west crater rim at 10,700. From there we summited via the gullies to climber's right of the old chute.

 

Summit shots

 

After having no issues with wind the entire climb, the summit decided to blow like a cheap hooker. We took a few photos and got the hell out of there. Heading down skier's right of Crater rock we parted ways, briefly, so that I could go and fetch my sled at I-rock for the descent. This trip would end up being momentous in that not only was in Neal's 2nd and my 5th summit of the mountain, but it was also my 3rd (partial) sled descent of the hill (walking downhill destroys my knees). I took one major spill immediately below I-rock and then one more brief run before deciding to walk the remaining distance to the chair lift. From there I sledded the cat track and got face shots the whole way (and it wasn't even a pow day!) I made it to the lodge about 30 mins before neal and signed us out. As soon as he was down we peaced and had victory meal at the Ice Axe...great burgers!

 

All in all a fun route, but I really want to get back and do the standard Reid route as what we did wasn't necessarily the true Reid HW. Oh well, I had a blast and got a little fix before the knife. A Winter well began.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Used:

2 Tools

 

Not Used:

Rope

Pickets (3)

Screws (5)

 

Approach Notes:

Slog to I-Rock and the drop down and climb up.

 

Edited November 27, 2009 by rocky_joe

[justinp]

Nice Joe Hope u have a speedy recovery.

[pdk]

Got any photos of the north side of I rock? Much appreciated....

[LostCamKenny]

i'm so glad that i'm not the only one with mismatched tools

 

nice job guys! happy thanksgiving!

 

~LCK

[OldManRock]

Joe - While you were screwing around on that wimpy route, I was going up Baldy in the Coburg Hills - What a super day, and you the right one - Sorry about the knee, if you need to read some old mountain climbing books while recovering - Just Yell.

[LostCamKenny]

 

love those pics of the mountain's shadow

[rocky_joe]

well of the two of us, Neal has his set of vipers, just chose to go with the viper vemon set up.

 

my poor ass on the other hand only has the one aztarex. the aztar is a buddy's.

[rocky_joe]

Here is the only photo I have of the N. Side of I-Rock...sorry about the finger in the top corner.

 

 

There was still a fair bit of bare rock and most of the rime (in other places) was quite thin and awful.

[Ryan Canfield]

man im jealous! looks fun

[ColinB]

Nice job up there! Good luck on the recovery. How long till you get to go out climbing again?

[rocky_joe]

thanks for the well wishes. I'll probably won't be climbing again til the end of march. so i'm really stoked for the spring season.

[climbzemountains]

Looks like fun! Someday, I hope to be climbing routes like that

 

Good luck with the surgery and recovery!

[Maine-iac]

I was up on the Reid yesterday morning. We tried to do the entire thing topping out near the Queens Chair, but we managed to top out around the middle of the West Crater Rim (right before it turns to rime cliffs). There is now an amazing boot pack up the entire thing as 5 people were on it that day. Yesterday it was in skiing condition with only one thin/icy section. I would have skied it but lugging all that ski and climbing stuff up there tired me out.

Super clear night walking up under the almost full moon. We saw many shooting stars and a brilliant sunrise. A little windy up top, but fantastic conditions for skiing down!!

 

Since somebody asked earlier about I-Rock; it was looking thiner than in Joe's picture.

[pdk]

Thanks for the I-rock photo and recent update. Much appreciated