Mt. Hood Conditions

[iceaxe23]

I saw a large group going up as I was going down late tuesday. I wonder if it was them. They had HUGE packs so it looked like they were staying up there for a few days. Friendly bunch though. Hope all is well

[Amymac703]

Was up on the South Side yesterday. Had a decent freeze Thursday night; snow seemed relatively stable. Some of the snow near the top of the Old Chute seemed pretty rotten, but then again I'm a Colorado kid so I dunno if that's "normal" for Hood.

[scaredofheights]

Went up to the top of WCR Friday am. Good conditions until about 10am and then it went south in a hurry. Impressive gouge out where the ice chunk launched and went looking for that young climber. Still wondering how she fell 300' by herself if she was roped (per media fucks).

[mattropolis]

It's the noob from last week - I'm still alive. We went up on Saturday morning and had a great climb.

 

I think I got a good shot of the slide that might have been the one that the lady got hurt in. This is a picture of the old chute route with what looks like the slide outlined in red:

I have a higher rez version if folks are really interested.

 

We had fantastic conditions on Saturday morning. Temps were well below freezing all night, and a high cloud cover kept the sun off us until about 10am. You could see lots of debris on the chute though - which was disconcerting for a new guy like me. We were a little later than we'd hoped, and most people were on their way down. We got to the top of the chute and then decided to head back down right away to be safe. We didn't see any ice/snow coming down at all, but there really did feel like a lot of ice on those walls...

Edited June 13, 2011 by mattropolis

[OffTheSteppe]

Very nice photo! Looks like you were standing on the hogsback to take the photo? I have been watching the conditions as I hope to go up late in the week. Were most people taking the old chute? Was the snow soft or firm?

 

The last two days timberline had .6" of rain and I see the freezing level has been at about 8000'..... so I am thinking there are about 6-8" of fresh snow up there now.

[mattropolis]

Yes, I was on my way down and took this photo from the hogsback. Most people ended up taking the old chute the day I went. A few people took the pearly gates up, but it was apparently quite icy and those people crossed over and then went down old chute. Snow was quite hard in the morning until the sun hit it. Even after an hour or so, it was still quite firm. On the way down, starting about halfway to the top of Palmer, we got lots of slush - as you might expect.

 

I would urge you caution on your attempt. Temps appear to be bouncing a lot above the freezing point more and more - and I think most of the winter snow/ice appears to still be up there. However, it seems as if things are poised to start (and as we saw on Wed, are in fact starting to) coming down. On the way down, we took a short nap around the crater rim and both of us heard a slide somewhere but didn't see where. Be aware, and almost certainly get up there as early as you can to avoid the sun. Even then, apparently, the Wednesday slide happened around 7am - so one never knows.

[stonefree]

Went up the Old chute yesterday, lots of stuff coming down from both the mountain and everyone else. Lots of loose snow and ice on the slope up to the chute. Nothing too big but a couple of the pieces would have hurt. It is also pretty icy in the old chute itself right now. I would say get up there as early as you can, ie summiting by 6 or 7. I got there by 8 and that seemed too late with too much danger for stuff collapsing. I did both traverses, the upper one from the hogsback is pretty steep, with the added danger of stuff coming off between the pearly gates and the old chute. Coming back I went down to Hot Rocks and that seemed much safer, albeit pretty fumaroley.

[duckfeet]

Anyone know about or seen the north face recently? Looking at maybe running over this weekend. I rock could be fun too. Any word on those routes?

[YocumRidge]

Check your PMs.