cfire Posted March 29, 2010 Posted March 29, 2010 Trip: Mt Hood - Devils Kitchen headwall - Direct finish Date: 3/23/2010 Trip Report: Joe and I decided to climb Mt Hood last week. Weather was great. I'd never been to the summit, so I thought it was about time. Joe has a couple hundred ascents, so something fresh for him was in order. We decided on the Devils Kitchens headwall after seeing Mitochondria's excellent pictures of a trip report in Feb. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/938011/TR_Mt_Hood_Devils_Kitchen_Head#Post938011 We got a casual start of 3:30am from the parking lot and skinned up to the Devils Kitchen. Only one other group was in the area going for the Hogsback. Nice to have the place to ourselves. Mitochondria's beautiful picture of the route. I drew in our top out in blue. The lower part of the route was very enjoyable ice steps. Easy soloing through the slots on alpine ice led to the base of the tower in the picture. Looking down the lower slopes. I forgot my camera, so we had only a iPhone so the pictures are not high def. This is where most break left or right. I looked up at the tower and eyed the slot that went up the middle. I mentioned something about we should do the proud line as the going was pretty easy up to here. Not the first time I have mentioned the proud line, and not the first time it has gotten me into trouble. Joe was game, so I geared up with a couple of pins, snargs, screws and a picket. Gear looked doable down low at least. I started up and it was difficult mixed climbing on rotten rock and a bit of ice, but not too bad. I managed to get 2 pins in low, and looking up I could see daylight through the rime ice to the tower summit. Me in the slot About half way up it started getting tougher. A snarg driven in was fair, picket in just to get it off my back as it had no value as pro. More rime ice and no water ice. The slot to the top that I saw from below was way smaller that I thought it would be. Slow progress got me to a choke point on vertical rime. Too high to bail as there was no gear. So I started tunneling. I had about 15 feet to daylight. I rained ice/snow on Joe as I swung the tools over my head and tried to clear a tunnel. Going up consisted of both arms buried in rime up to my pits, flail the feet until I could get some kind of purchase and go up a couple of inches. Repeat. Finally I broke through the top and struggle to the top of the slot completely knackered. One of the longest leads of my life, appx 2 hours! Then I dropped down 30 ft on the other side to a gulley while Joe simuled up. We climbed to the summit ridge.You can see the top of the slot over my left shoulder off of the peak behind me. We had the summit to ourselves and enjoyed the views. A quick downclimb to the Kitchen got us to our skis for the slide down to the car. Thanks be to Allah for skis!! Beer at the car tasted oh so sweet. Gear Notes: Skis, funky Scottish ice gear to make it authentic. Approach Notes: Dodge the snowcat on skis Quote
YocumRidge Posted March 30, 2010 Posted March 30, 2010 Way too cool - guys! Thanks for posting a nice take on the route. Excellent job on digging the rime tunnels too! I was contemplating the right variations (shown in yellow) at the time but was not as lucky to bring all your fancy scottish ice gear. Screws were worthless and whacking pickets did not inspire me either but I was tempted to run it out. Quote
cfire Posted March 30, 2010 Author Posted March 30, 2010 The right side was mellow with steep snow and just a couple of small ice steps. The traverse around the corner looked a bit exciting, but fun. Thanks for the inspiration with the photos. My shoulders are still recovering from the tunneling abuse. Getting old sucks. And snargs rule mainly because they look cool Quote
YocumRidge Posted March 30, 2010 Posted March 30, 2010 Next time a C-4 would be a way to deal with rime ice at my advanced age Quote
sean_beanntan Posted March 31, 2010 Posted March 31, 2010 (edited) Hey Chris , you forgot to mention the old DMM bulldog that you placed. Also, that I in my lazy haze, I did not take out the pins so they are there for the next climber visit. For the Scottish climbers on Cascade, the warthog stayed at home. Sure was nICE climbing with you as always, Edited April 13, 2010 by sean_beanntan Quote
JBC Posted April 13, 2010 Posted April 13, 2010 (edited) What the hell is a snarg? Edited April 13, 2010 by JBC Quote
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