[TR] Hood - Leuthold 5/12/2013

[Major Major]

Trip: Hood - Leuthold

 

Date: 5/11/2013

 

Trip Report:

I'm writing this TR to provide beta and useful observations of Leuthold this time of year. First, the entire slope of Leuthold has been flushed out by warmer cycles during previous weeks. This 'spring cleaning' is a positive indication for climbing Hood in the next several weeks assuming there are no other major weather changes. The so-called berg is covered with snow debris from the mountain but caution is still advised. Reaching the hourglass requires a small traverse over/through a nose deep runnel, but it is very straightforward and fun to cross. The hourglass is passable with a single axe or tool, making two tools unnecessary and a luxury. Above the hourglass is very straightforward: it required simple front-pointing all the way to the summit. In my opinion, Leuthold will continue to disintegrate considerably in the next few weeks, and this will make it a much less enjoyable and/or safe to climb. Two in our group of four carried skis to the top. However, on Saturday morning at approximately 8:30, the snow was still pretty crusty, so we hiked down to Hogback and skied from there. Not only was the snow not ideal for skiing from the summit, there was quite a crowd on the old chute, which would have prevented most ski descents. My partners in crime, Matt M, Al, and Nat have photos to share and stories to tell I'm sure.

 

Gear Notes:

All necessary crevasse accoutrements for a group of 4.

Two ice tools (only needed one)

Skis

Special cocaine cookies

 

 

 

Approach Notes:

Straightforward: go to I-saddle, prep/eat, and move on.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Major Major

[ivan]

tell me more of these "cookies" of which you speak

[Water]

Matt M/Water:

Notes-

to clarify the term 'ice tools', we mean just a 'second tool'.

 

skinning was great up to Ill-saddle. Illupoopinsaddle has plenty of poop bombs around, so mind your feet and rope.

 

Even with weather being what it was I left the parking lot in a tshirt all the way up palmer at 2am. Friday had been warm and Saturday was too, starting with the cloud cover and not much wind, esp on the West side of the mountain (contrary to forecasts). However the only movement of rock/ice I saw was tiny bits of snow/ice kicked by other climbers. Otherwise seems like the mountain has molted out of its winter shell and sent everything down. However there were clear signs even in just a moderate slope above the hourglass that wet slide activity had happened on Friday. I'm inclined to think Saturday afternoon would be the same, a pinwheel bowling alley, icefall, postholing mess? But in the AM things were calm, clear, and stable, even if it was above freezing.

 

the hourglass area was a ton of fun, definitely the highlight of the day. a few fun moves also getting in and out of the ~5ft deep runnels that had vertical walls

 

the reid traverse was in nasty shape with a 2inch~ breakable crust and rotten snow underneath, made for slow going. skinning this would have been better, but two in our group were sans skis. As Major Major said the debris fields were more compacted and easier to travel on. there are a few obvious bergschrund spots that are open and can be avoided but I think the debris fields have filled in other sections pretty well.

 

If the weather lays down some more snow at say 9,000 and above maybe it would neaten things up, but, the mountain was starting to look pretty brown'tinged and gross. After we got down I felt like I wanted to say 'stick a fork in it', Hood is done (for me at least). Was happy to ski down but have definitely had better snow.. sticky, slow, tracked to hell.

 

haven't been a barrage of hood pics in a while so I'll do the honors of recapping a lot of old hat:

 

below the hour glass, wetslide runnels, nasty

 

 

 

Illumination Rock and sun

 

 

 

winding through the hourglass

 

 

above the hourglass

 

 

 

upper yocum ridge

 

 

 

looking back down from near queens chair

 

 

 

Cathedral Spire

 

 

ice fall

 

 

clusterfuckery

 

 

drink up bitches!!!

 

cocaine cookies:

 

Edited May 30, 2013 by Water

[Ptown_Climber1]

Wow, awesome pics! And to think I bailed out on Cooper Spur Friday night cause of high freezing level. Looks better than I would of expected! Thanks for sharing...

 

and I learned a new word: clustfuckery...

Edited May 13, 2013 by Ptown_Climber1

[Water]

ptown climber---i'd seen you mention looking at the spur earlier in the week and wondered--that idea tempted me. But then with the high freeze levels..

 

If it is any consolation I went over to the east slope of hood there and touched the snow a bit there near the summit. It was horribly wet and post-holy around 9am... not the case over on the west side--those 3hrs of sun did it in. Maybe it firmed up over night up higher like we saw above the hourglass but yeah, not sure you entirely missed out on that route at least--esp for descending would have been a real puckerfest.

 

 

[Cobrien1125]

Great photos and great report. I was planning the same trip and opted out due to warm weather to join some friends on the Mothers Day Mt St. Helens clusterfuckery. Looks like I don't have much time left before Leutholds will have to wait another year!

[astrov]

Nice work amigos!

[caverpilot]

Sweet report and congrats on the Fort George photo contest! I've put cans of Vortex on Diamond, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Thompson Peak (highest in ID Sawtooths), and multiple Montana summits, as well as the usual suspects out in Clatsop. It has been the usual response to showing a photo at the bar: "That deserves one on the house!"

 

Anyway, good stuff! Stay tuned for a TR on my "Fort George" summits this summer!

 

Daryl

 

Here's the TR of our Fort-George-Beer-laden trip up Adams last summer, where we hauled a sled full of it! Mt. Adams - Fort George beer report July 2012

[kevbone]

Awesome picturs......thanks for sharing.

[christophbenells]

i dont believe that is pulpit rock though, i think it is called cathedral spire.

 

as far as i know pulpit rock is the large buttress on the west side of the coe glacier.

 

 

[Water]

Yo thanks for that-you are correct-i try to get placenames and geography correct so appreciate the correction. i updated the title of that picture

[Mickel]

If it is any consolation I went over to the east slope of hood there and touched the snow a bit there near the summit.

 

__________________

There're a lot of information about Ragnarok2 Gold,hope you can get something what you need.