[TR] Mt Hood - Reid Glacier Headwall - Variation. 5/26/2012

[Dasan]

Trip: Mt Hood - Reid Glacier Headwall - Variation.

 

Date: 5/26/2012

 

Trip Report:

My good friend Conor came down from Seattle for his Birthday to get in an alpine adventure with me. With little time and limited means of transportation we headed to the Hood to explore the west side, looking at the Reid Glacier Head Wall. We knew the weather was not looking good, so we used that factor to amp up the climb, making for an interesting and more challenging adventure. We had a great time.

Skinned/booted to top of Palmer in ice conditions with fluctuating 30 mile an hour headwinds. The traverse from the top of the lift line to the saddle was the start of the deeper snow, having to post hole knee high for much of it. The upper mountain was very socked in.

At the saddle we cramponed up, and rested and refueled with continued strong winds and spindrift.

As we dropped into the Reid and traversed up toward the bergschrund we enjoyed our last moments of vision.

From there on we were socked in the whole time, visibility ranging from 15ft to fleeting breaks in the clouds were we reassess out position and made route finding decisions. However we manage to get off route.

Most of the climbing was steep snow, ranging from 45 to 55 or so...But after #4 on our route, the black line, we climbed a few hundred feet of 65 degree mixed rock and rime which proved to be cruxy, due to the lack of good, protectable ice and lack of rock gear. We reached a snow ridge (#5) and rested while visibility deteriorated further making it impossible to know where we were and what type of ground lay between us and the next gully that led up. When the weather cleared briefly we saw it to be down climbable. From there, we climbed the gully upward, which was nice and icy, up to the ridge. We traversed the ridge, down climbed the old chute and navigated down to the Hogsback and down and around crater rock and to the top of Palmer in total whiteness. Then it was just the last leg down to the car. Thank god for compasses!

 

Fun trip. The whole time everything was an unknown until it was right in our faces.

 

Gear Notes:

If I could do it again, I would have forgotten about the screws and brought a pare of pickets. A small accessible camera for better picture taking.

 

Approach Notes:

Some deeper snow, quite stable though.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Dasan

[dougd]

Dasan nice work in marginal weather/conditions. Thanks for sharing the story.

 

shapp, I hope you're reading this and throwing up as promised...

 

d

[B Deleted_Beck]

Super. Totally jealous, as I've been wanting to do this one all spring, and keep getting shut down due to crappy visibility once I'm up there. To see you guys rock it anyway is inspiring, and is what adventure's all about.

 

How was the 'schrund??

[SeanO]

Awesome climb! Your other TR is cool too (gulley). I was one of the guys brewing up at our camp just below the Palmer. Cool to chat with you, and glad you made it back safely.

[123tom]

Nice climb, thanks for the route map

[sdizzle25]

ahh the Reid. I am pretty sure if you had 10 strong climbers try it you would get 10 different routes. good fun though.

[ColinB]

Looks like a fun climb even with the shitty weather. Did you snap any other photos of Illumination Rock? Looks like more ice on there than I'd expect this time of year.

[hippos_are_evil]

I'm going to go camp at Illumination Rock tonight. If you'd like pics of anything in particular let me know. I'm leaving at 2:30

[Xerinae]

Great route map and explanation, sounds like you guys got some killer avi skills!