Mt Hood

[dawuda]

North side conditions:

 

I'll post a TR tomorrow probably, but went up for a North Face attempt Christmas day. Crazy warm temps. Tshirts on the elliot at 3am. Tilly Jane Trail felt like WI200 without any type of traction on the boots. At least the first mile of it is solid water ice and the rest is icy mixed with 2 inches of packed snow. Consolidated snow above with great cramponing, but very warm temps. We got to about 8500 and water was flowing down the icy cliffs of the spur. This was at 5am. Given the melt conditions, we opted to bail.

 

The cooper spur looked thin at the top, but had a continuous line through the rock bands.

 

I'll post pics of coopers spur and the north side soon.

[automated_build]

Anyone know what's open for the approach to Cooper Spur?

 

roads, parking?

[automated_build]

Anyone know what's open for the approach to Cooper Spur?

 

roads, parking?

[Water]

http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18049

for pictures down lower.

 

whats always open this time of year, and years prior, is the road to cooper spur sno park (at 3800ft) then take trail up to TJ. from there keep going up.

 

[offroadfanatic]

Anyone been up beyond Palmer this week?

 

Planning on taking advantage of the forecasted temp drop and head up this weekend and trying to decide whether to skin up or leave the skis at home.

[Bosterson]

As of 3/22/14: snow above Palmer is shot through with ice up to below Crater Rock. From there on, snow is a mixture of harder and consolidated (good for daggering) and 4-6 in of dry sugar that wants to slide. Everyone ended up downclimbing about 1/3 of the Old Chute before you could turn around and heel plunge back down to the Hogsback. The sunny weather is releasing some layered slabs around the Old Chute and West Crater Rim area. Super cold before sunrise, in the teens.

 

[Katherine]

Hey! Great shot!

I'm heading up tomorrow night and your pic was the most recent I could find, thanks!

[spadden]

Thinking about climbing the S. Side on monday morning. Any updates on current conditions would be greatly appreciated. Crevases? Blue ice on Pearly Gates?

THanks

[Bronco]

Good snow for climbing this morning and skiing to the bottom of Crater rock. Below that, not so good until you hit the groomers. No sign of the bergschrund yet.

 

Ascent via the Old Chute as parties who had ascended the Pearly Gates warned of blue ice. Old Chute pretty straight forward, little icy the last 30' to the ridge which is spectacularly rimed up. Pretty darn windy on the summit ridge. Some small ice chunks falling, up to the size of a brick.

 

Of course the storm forecast for tonight will probably change conditions dramatically so YMMV. Hopefully it dumps for riding lifts tomorow.

[Joshua k]

Thx for posting the report. Climbing next weekend and this was the most recent TR I've seen. How were the crowds?

[Ptown_Climber1]

Yeah, I went up last weekend, and it was pretty crowded up there. The Pearly Gates were attempted by some groups, but then aborted, far as I could tell. A couple Mazama groups tied up in there in big numbers; never understand that. When I went through the gates in January they were, in my opinion, pretty gnarly....but fun.

 

I went up the Mazama Chute, just to right of Old Chute....a fun way to change it up slightly. Conditions made for easy, albeit steep and firm, conditions.

 

Next weekend or best weather window, gonna head up Cooper Spur and go up and over.

[Joshua k]

Thx for the beta. I'm planning on climbing Sunday morn as long as weather holds

[fdct]

Planning to head to Hood this weekend, but looks like its gonna be pretty nasty weather. Ugh. Maybe there will be a good window. Anyone have any info on the trail lately?

[Water]

the "trail" has some blowdown around mile 16.. and the bridge is out over the steel cliff river, so you have to ford it or set up a tyrolean traverse. Also kinda muddy between miles 4-7.

 

so.. at my cursory glance the weather looks quite nice on sunday...am i missing something? Though I'd be wary of fresh snow up high as it relates to avy hazard. The link below is from a recent report:

 

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1123797/TR_Mt_Hood_South_Side_Route_5_#Post1123797

 

 

[fdct]

Yeah we were hoping to climb Friday night but it might be ok if we go up Saturday night instead. Will have to see how much snow that Thursday storm that ends up dumping, some of the forecasts are calling for a pretty decent amount on the summit.

[Water]

if you're climbing to get out then maybe fri-sat but frankly looking at the weather it isn't much of a question--if you're from the area at least. I understand when things are set in stone due to travel, unfortunate as that is. If you work during the day one benefit of going sat night is it isn't after a long day of work and barely getting any sleep. You can sleep in saturday and get try to nap in the afternoon/be all prepped.

 

Yes, looks like up to 2ft~+ of snow could fall the higher you go.. keep an eye out for any alerts from NWAC. If anything Sunday will allow more time to stabilize but sun could cause wet slides--dont want to be going up the old chute while it's baking at 10am. sunrise summit.

[fdct]

Yeah, coming from out of town, so it's now or never - or at least, now or not-for-awhile. We're around until Monday though, so Saturday might be a better bet. Although I guess it's not the end of the world if we just have to stick to the slopes and go skiing instead...

[Ben Beckerich]

Anyone up this weekend? Going tomorrow... I figure it's going to be pretty slush, wondering if I should take the split and skin or just hoof it.....?

[catstack]

I'm recovering from some knee problems but i'm ready to get climbing again. I wanted to do a shorter climb and Hood seems like a good candidate.

 

What would be a good route this time of the year?

 

I was thinking Sunshine but unsure if it would be best to descend via south side?

 

Maybe West Crater Rim?

[ivan]

pretty shitty time of year to climb hood - take a helmet fo'shizzle!

 

if you can get up the sunshine then take it back down - sunshine, if hte upper 'shrund isn't blocking access to cathedral ridge, is probably you're best bet - the southside likely can still be done, but it'll be a shooting gallery

[catstack]

good advice, i'll probably check out sunshine and just see how it goes.

[Hal1]

Hi, I was looking at climbing the hogback pearly gates route solo sometime in the next week. Has anyone got any advice on climbing in August or info on current conditions?

 

Thanks

[Water]

the pearly gates would better be called the fecal chutes about this time of year--i was showing a friend the lodge and took a look with binocs--it looked pretty nasty and dirty up there--and melted. Though there were signs of ski tracks.. this is not the ideal time of year to climb, to be clear--most hood climbers would say it is done with right now. most. not all.

[Ben Beckerich]

Hi, I was looking at climbing the hogback pearly gates route solo sometime in the next week. Has anyone got any advice on climbing in August or info on current conditions?

 

Thanks

 

I've never heard of anyone doing Pearly Gates this time of year. It melts out fast, and every time I've been up in August it's been nothing more than 40-50 degree crumbling unclimbable shit. Old Chute generally melts out for a couple hundred feet at the top, but it's all boulders and bowling balls that don't roll around too bad under foot. Although I have seen some pretty big rock features go from the crater rim- if you're under that shit when it decides to fall, you don't have a lot of hope.

[gkartashov82]

Hi all,

 

Me and my friend are from California and are planning to come climb mt Hood this coming weekend. We bought tickets long ago, and only now start to read about trip reports and realize that we made a bad call re: timing - August is probably bad month to do Hood.

 

Our experience over last several years include Whitney/Shasta/Rainier/Kazbek/Lassen/several peaks in Yosemite (Dana, Conness, Half Dome). So we do have mountaineering experience and all the gear (ice axe, crampons), but don't do anything beyond class 2 climbs usually.

 

Thus I have couple of questions to more experienced fellows:

1. How bad/climbable would be conditions at main route from Timberline Lodge this time of the year? I mean conditions around Hogsback and upper

 

2. Is there any other route you would recommend us trying this weekend? Something that is not technically hard and has good conditions (=high chances of summit)?

 

thanks