[TR] Mount Hood - Wy'East 1/17/2014

[Holk]

Trip: Mount Hood - Wy'East

 

Date: 1/17/2014

 

Trip Report:

The rain was blowing sideways outside as though there were a tropical storm a'brewing and while it impacted my bedroom window I had awoken. The time read 1:04am from my bedroom clock in Portland. Suddenly I was filled with all sorts of worry and anxiety since as of six hours prior I had made plans to meet with my climbing partner Matt Pennock in the town of Sandy at ... yep, 1:00am. Although the alarm had never gone off I had to give my internal clock some credit for jolting me back to reality, for you see there never was any rain outside and all that turbulent weather, real as it seemed, had been completely fictitious. I'm remain curious as to the psychology behind this?

 

Lucky for me I not only had everything pre-packed, but Matt was also extremely gracious in waiting the extra hour and some change. After driving through the commonly thick fog and into clear skies I was happy to finally rendezvous with my partner. Even though we were a few hours behind schedule we made the most of our time. By 4am we were dressed, registered, and on the mountain.

 

The rest of the story is told throughout the pictures. We simuled where we could and short-roped where post holing occurred. Overall the conditions were nearly perfect, although perhaps a little too warm. I will add one last funny note that the only climbing party ahead of us (and there were only four climbing parties in total that day) was a pair who had chosen to climb Wy'East as well. Watching their headlamps reach the crater rim just as we reached the glacier was neat and had we been on time I'm sure we would've all climbed close together.

 

 

Matt exiting the eastern gully from the White River Glacier's lower crossing.

 

 

 

We short roped our way up the initial ramp toward the crater rim.

 

Our first view into the crater of two climbers ascending the old chute. In total only four parties registered to summit this day.

 

 

 

 

An easy rock step, however, with the amount of exposure present we opted to protect and belay one another here.

 

 

We set up another belay across this narrow portion of the climb as well. We then simul climbed the remainder of the route to the summit ridge.

 

 

 

The typical summit goober shot - not much changes up here - proof that I was in fact a part of this days climb.

 

Parting shot of the largest bowling alley I've ever had to endure. We knew it was coming this day and made haste not to linger.

 

Gear Notes:

Glacier Gear, Pickets, Screws (didn't use), and some Slings

 

Approach Notes:

The ground up the Mile was like walking on concrete and nothing like I've experienced before. We put on our crampons and roped up before crossing the White River at 7,300 ft.

[wayne]

Wow, your photos are excellent, they really "pop", must be a lot of work?

[bd2510]

I think they just cranked the clarity (midtone sharpness and contrast) at the expense of noise, maybe did some tone adjustments as well. Lightroom is great software for doing this... That makes three ascents of that route that day, great conditions

[Holk]

Wow, your photos are excellent, they really "pop", must be a lot of work?

 

Thanks Wayne, but bd2510 is mostly correct about the process. It really doesn't take too long, but given that all of the images were taken using an iPhone 4s (which is more the reason you see noise in the images than the editing) I figured a little sprucing was in order. I wasn't feeling the DSLR on this one.

 

... That makes three ascents of that route that day, great conditions

 

I take it you were one of two parties ahead of us then?

[Ben Beckerich]

Weird how routes that rarely get climbed always seem to see multiple ascents on the same day. I guess everyone is doing the same homework and waiting for the same condition windows, most times

[The Cascade Kid]

Nice sweater.