Mt Hood June 19th: Got a Cat or Just InfoTo Share?

[JasonG]

A sign of immaturity at best and perhaps even borderline sociopathic.

 

Your quote pretty much sums up cc.com, and that's the way we like it

 

Harassment aside, I do hope you have a good trip on Hood- come back and post a TR!

[VegasJoe]

Will certainly post up a trip report, hopefully a successful one at that!

[AlexS]

How was the trip?

[christophbenells]

:tdown:kirkw

 

why do you get such a boner for telling people the south side is non technical?

 

[stevetimetravlr]

Don't be fooled by the down talking. Shit loads of people have died on the south side route. It should be taken seriously. Safe send brother!!

[LostCamKenny]

Kirk, your words on this thread surprise me a little, though I am certain there was a lot of humor and joking in your posting. Don't get me wrong, I know you are getting out there and all, and probably on some pretty challenging terrain, but I can't help thinking that your view on this is a little narrow. Since we have climbed together in the past I'm sure you won't take this the wrong way or anything but I simply cannot agree with your view when you say "what technical portion" when speaking of the south side of Mt Hood. And I am fully aware that you have done harder. But please consider the following:

 

What exactly does the word "technical" mean? Depending on the person defining the word you could come up with many different responses. Here is what I am thinking, built on my experience and studies of the mountaineering art.

 

IMO (and if one reads "Climbing Ice" by the father of American Ice Climbing Yvon Chouinard then one might agree with me) climbing snow and ice requires quite a different set of "techniques" than just hiking over bare or even varied, rubbly terrain. It is not instinctive to hike up snow/ice slopes of low or moderate angles and when the angles become moderate, steep, extremely steep, or vertical and overhanging, the techniques change fairly dramatically. Anyone who has slogged up a snow/ice slope in crampons has to admit that it takes a little more than just walking to get there without issue - I challenge anyone who questions me on this to try walking in crampons the same way they would walk down the street, and then count the cuts they have in their pants, gaiters and calves. It takes a little bit of technique to correctly walk in crampons, and even without crampons it takes a bit of technique (albeit not terribly difficult technique) to ascend snow and ice slopes. And I'm not even talking about using an ice axe yet! Prior to the invention of crampons steps had to be cut in ice to ascend - even on low to moderate angle slopes (Mt Blanc's FA waaaaay back when is proof enough of this. Those climbers didn't have crampons so they had to develop techniques to ascend the ice).

 

Climbing anything requires vast knowledge of the equipment needed to accomplish the climb. If the tools needed are cams and stoppers then there is a certain amount of "technique" required to correctly use them to ascend. If the equipment is ice screws, two tools, crampons and a rope then there is a certain amount of "technique" required to ascend. And if the tools needed are simply a pair of crampons (OR NOT) and an ice axe then there is still a certain amount of "technique" to using the ice axe and crampons correctly and safely. When something requires "technique" then it IS technical, whether it is the south side of Mt Hood or The Nose on El Cap.

 

I will agree that the south side of Mt Hood is not a terribly difficult or technical route. But I would never say that there is no technique required to climb it - that would be quite foolhardy in my opinion. And while the technical portion of the route is quite short compared to the approach to it, it still requires a bit of technique. Coming down the old chute, though not too bad in a good snow year, still can require careful footing. And in a low snow year that chute can be nearly 45 degrees and icy - steeper at the top of it. In the latter condition there is a fair bit of technique required to not slide down to the hot rocks or Illumination Saddle. Again, not terribly difficult technique, but all the same, it is no walk down.

 

VegasJoe, i hope your climb went safely and that the technical 300 feet of the route treated you to a grand adventure. It did for me a few times and it is likely to again in the future regardless of how experienced I become. KirkW is quite experienced, himself, and though he might come across a certain way here believe me when I say that he is just like the rest of us: climbing using many techniques. And techniques are technical.

 

There. That's my 2 cents. Or more like 10 bucks.

[KirkW]

Kenny, I tried to read all that but I'm a bit preoccupied with seam sealing my 4 season tent and fluffing my 8000 meter parka for my planned technical ascent of 3FJ next month. Later I'll be waterproofing my copy of FOTH. Can never be too safe on these deadly volcanos

 

Would anyone like to split the cost of a donkey? I've hiked that boring section through the burn a number of times and I'd rather just get to the spicey stuff.

 

 

[Ben Beckerich]

If the snow is soft, it's probably a borderline non-technical climb. Walk on up. Are these conditions anyone can expect to find up there? Should we tell non-technical wannabe climbers to just head on up?

 

It's a technical peak. Easy, but still technical. You don't just send noobs up there with hiking boots and a trekking pole. You need to use learned technique to get up and down safety and competently, as yesterday's fiasco surely proved. Circus up there, with inexperienced, exhausted, way over-burned people front-pointing the entire way up and down on screaming calves, because nobody ever bothers to learn French technique. Completely unable to resolve any problems that might arise, like a broken crampon- due to having no technique.

 

Anyone trying to minimize the potential danger, and the requirement for steep snow/ice skill, has some personality defects that need to be isolated from society.

[G-spotter]

Will certainly post up a trip report, hopefully a successful one at that!

 

And if not, in ANAM if anyone survives

[Flintlock]

Can anyone tell me what the current climbing conditions are on the south route of Mt Hood? How late is too late in the summer to climb that route?

[Water]

if you're asking, it is probably too late..

 

Call me crazy but I don't really touch it past mid June myself.. then again it is in the backyard. Maybe later if it was a banner snow year (this year was not).. I am sure you can find people who will talk about conditions and climbing it through the end of September but frankly it is much better suited to climbing through late spring, and not mid to late summer—as a general trend.