[TR] Mt. Hood - North Face 11/6/2015

[DanielHarro]

Trip: Mt. Hood - North Face

 

Date: 11/6/2015

 

Trip Report:

Took a run up the North face and found simply amazing conditions all around! The Elliot is pretty broken, we took the far line climbers left approach to the base of the route. This proved to be the most sketchy part of the day with little coverage on the glacier.

 

Its funny to look back at my old TR's. I did the route back in 2005 HERE I can't believe it was 22.5 hrs on route. I guess its all about experience and conditions.

 

Alpine start from Bend at 3:00 am and started our hike from Cloud Camp at 6:15 am with no need for headlamps.

 

Shenanigans on the Elliot.

 

 

High winds on the summit. Conditions got better throughout the day.

 

Brandon approaching the entrance. Took us 4hrs to get to the base of the route and start climbing. It was slow going on a few sections of the glacier.

 

Legit ice the entire route.

 

 

A little higher up.

 

 

Last ice step in the couloir.

 

Exit to the summit ridge 6.5hrs after leaving the car.

 

Brandon's first Mt. Hood summit.

 

Gear Notes:

Hand full of screws, found excellent screw placements during the entire route.

 

45M 8.1 single rope worked well for safety on the glacier and since we found amazing ice screw placements the rope would have actually held a fall.

 

Approach Notes:

Started at Cloud Camp and was planning on decending the Cooper Spur route back to our car to avoid the stupid car shuttle, but spent almost two hours on the summit trying to find the Cooper Spur decent. Ended up descending the side and hitched a ride back to the North side. "Thanks Michael for the ride!!! Michael was the hero of the day. All in all it took us 10hrs total.

Edited November 10, 2015 by DanielHarro

[ivan]

crazy. 1st time i did it was halloween of '03 in single digit temps - s side descent was beyond nutty

[John Frieh]

Nice work boys! Way to nail the conditions. Wish I could have joined you.

[ScaredSilly]

Approach Notes:

Started at Cloud Camp and was planning on defending the Cooper Spur route back to our car to avoid the stupid car shuttle, but spent almost two hours on the summit trying to find the Cooper Spur decent.

 

Now that is funny. Never known anyone not able to find the Spur. Though this time of year it may not be that obvious as the top is rocky. That said you might have been happy that you did not as it most likely it could have involved a fair amount of down climbing.

 

Years ago I went up the spur in mid October and the upper part was hard névé and ice. I descend the South Side but walked back around to Cloud Cap via the Newton Clark. Which was actually quite nice.

 

BTW From the photos it would appear you went up the right gully. Is that correct?

[ivan]

a circumnav back to cloud cap sounds nice n' all, but i sure preferred drinking beers in the timberline lodge n' awaiting for the calvarly to arrive (w/ the credit card no less )

[DanielHarro]

totally took the Right hand gully to the summit. I think with little to no coverage made it hard to find the Cooper Spur decent route, or that is the excuse I am going to tell myself....

[ScaredSilly]

That works ... one year I met up with two guys coming down the right chute who came up WCR and said they could not find the summit. It was a bit of white out so understandable. But what was funny is that when I arrived on the summit it cleared enough that I could see their tracks coming up from the old chute right below the summit and down the right chute. They missed the summit by 50 feet. Which was okay cause it is easy to walk off the north side.