catstack Posted December 8, 2015 Posted December 8, 2015 Trip: Mt. Hood - South Side - Pearly Gates Date: 11/29/2015 Trip Report: A little late writing up this TR but suppose someone might get some use out of it still. I drove up to Timberline from Portland around 10pm. I planned to get a few hours of sleep in the car and head out around 3:30am. The wind was pretty intense when I rolled into the parking lot. The car was rocking back and forth from the guest and falling asleep took longer than I expected. The alarm went off and sure enough the big wind was still around. I figured it would calm down once I got up near the Steele Cliffs. I left the parking lot around 4am and started to work my way up. The wind was relentless. Every Once in a while a big enough guest would come along and push me down. Besides the wind the conditions were great. Crunchy packed snow the whole way up. Once I made it up to the Steele Cliffs the wind calmed down completely. The sun was rising up and made for killer views as usual. A few people were a head of me and plenty more coming up from behind. I got up to the top of the Hogsback and decided to go up through the Pearly Gates. The bergschrund that's usually hanging around this area was filled in for the most part. You could still see that it was there though. The angle grew stepper and I was getting great purchase with each step. The first half of this is just a step snow climb through the chute. Around the half way point the angle increases a bit and the snow starts to turn into ice. The crux was an ice step like feature that I had to mantle and kick my way up. The ice was super solid and I had a blast climbing up. After this it turns back into a step snow climb up to the summit. I had the summit to myself. I ate a burrito. After a bit I made my way over to the Mazama chute to head on down. Everyone I saw going up was going up this chute. I'm guessing the cat walk is still a little thin? Gear Notes: 1 ice tool 1 ice axe crampons Quote
alpine et Posted December 8, 2015 Posted December 8, 2015 those are some beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing, and the reminder to get on down there again sometime soon. Quote
ScaredSilly Posted December 9, 2015 Posted December 9, 2015 NIce pano shot - and good on ya for going through the Pearly Gates. Quote
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