TurinTheLost Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Trip: Mt. Hood - Elliot Headwall Date: 6/2/2013 Trip Report: Mito and I had settled on plans to head up to Hood and try the Pencil if was in and if not do the Elliot headwall. We left sat morning from PDX left the Tilly Jane Trail head around 9:30 and made it up to Snow dome sometime around 4 I want to say. Built a nice camp site with snow walls as it was a bit windy. I really didn't want a repeat of taking down a tent in the middle of the night like a few weeks ago on rainier. We determined that the Pencil was not in. Looked like sun bleached ice, or snow. Probably climbable but most likely not protectable. So we set our sites for a line up the headwall. Started moving in the morning around 5:30. Crossed over onto the Elliot glacier right away and walked up more or less the center of the glacier. Cracks were very well filled in. placed a few pickets for the comfort of it while crossing the Elliot, and soon got to the base of the headwall where I belayed Mito up. There was a pretty obvious line of least resistance through the headwall which we chose. Starting basically from climbers left and weaving around a bit up to a snow gully followed by the final steep pitch to the summit ridge. I'd say most of the climbing was around WI2/3. We did it in 4 pitches from the base of the headwall to the summit ridge, with only a bit of simul-climbing. We placed almost exclusively screws. I couldn't believe how good the ice was up there. That was until the last pitch at least where we ran into thin sunbleached ice. Incredible climbing though, certainly deserves more attention. Elliot Headwall we went up Left side of pic to the snow gully and final steep pitch. Approach to the Headwall P1 P2 P3 P4 P4 Gear Notes: Took 5 screws on route with us wouldn't have hurt to have one or two more. Took 3 pickets, 2 would have done just fine. Took some rock pro and pins didn't need any of it. Approach Notes: TJ trail head to snow dome makes for a nice leisurely approach day instead of doing it C2C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScaredSilly Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Nice. I have always wanted to try that line. How was the last pitch? Must have fun to plop on to the summit after that last bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlegV Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Bravo!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaconben Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Righteous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kletterhund Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YocumRidge Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Good times, Forrest! "The nice leisurely approach" in the rain and whiteout was kind of hmmm, though. Our lives certainly did not suck then . The last pitch was interesting: the rock was as if made of a toothpaste but luckily frozen in place. The summit cornice took some tunneling work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Thats great! Love to see this kind of climbing is still alive!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cascade Kid Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Hey. That's sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YocumRidge Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Thanks, dude. It is hard to say "no" to the decent ice in June. But it is time to move on Rainier though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justcallmegary Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Good one! We saw you guys coming down. Thanks for the steps heading up and down Sunshine. Ended up skiing from your snow shelter on nice butter. Crossing the bergie under Horseshoe rock on the way out was a bit unnerving as it made a small burp as I stepped across it. Other than that nice conditions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougd Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Nice work you two! I remember looking down the headwall from the summit ridge after climbing the spur last year and seeing the tracks where you guys topped out. The steepness was very impressive. d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psistrom Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Nice. And especially nice seeing it done the old-fashioned way--from the bottom to the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.