New line on Hood??'s

[sketchfest]

Well once again Funguy and I failed to make the summit via Leuthold coulior, however we did find some extremely exiting climbing along the way to our failure. As impossible as it seems, we passed the entrance to the coulior in the full bright light of the moon and headed over to the west side of the Yokum Ridge where we quickly found ourselves climbing some very steep and sometimes mixed terrain.

 

We started up the first of a series gullies that brought us closer and closer to the base of the Yokum, passing through some short but tricky section of THIN mixed climbing. Since we had intended to climb Leutholds we had not brought a lot of gear, read: ice axe and crampons, making these moderately steep gullies and short near vertical sections all the more exciting. At about 7:30am, we finally came to a bit of an impasse. The coulior constricted down to a near vertical section of loose rime about 20 feet long that appeared to top out on a thin ridge at about 9’500k at which time Funguy’s left crampon popped completely off as he tried to shimmy his way to the top and his right one came off but stayed on his boot. With no rope, gear or second tool it didn’t seem prudent to continue to push our luck, it was at this point we decided that it was time to turn tail and head home. The ensuing down climb was pure nerve racking HELL, as the already warm temps turned the crummy snow conditions even worse.

 

So here is my question. After I got home and polished off more than a few brews, I wanted to know where it was we had been. I pulled out Oregon High and started looking at the photos. Best I could tell, we had traversed clear over to about the second or third gendarme, climbed through two distinct rock bands, slightly angling to climbers right, until reaching the constriction. As I looked at the photos it appeared that above this was another steep coulior that angled back to climbers left and then topped out in the middle of the exit gully. (12c, I think) From there it looked like another series of gullies might lead to the top of the hourglass. Does anybody know or has anyone climbed this line? Is it worth doing? Under cooler temps it seems like it would be a good climb, great feeling of remoteness.

once again!

[iain]

you went past the reid and didn't notice??? seems people who overshoot the entrance to the hourglass wind up in the south exit gulley on yocum. pretty sure almost every inch has been climbed over there as people bail, get off route, etc. maybe not though! there are a lot of variations on things that are not in oregon high. sounds like you had a fun adventure though.

[sketchfest]

Yeah, I know..how could you miss it! We were making good time and I wasn't paying much attention as we cruised by, oh well!! it was still fun. I was more just curious to know if there was a decent line up through there.

[iain]

that's more fun than just following what some guide book tells you. I hate climbing with people who demand we stay on the line by the inch to what the book says. Mt Hood was made for exploring gulleys

[MtnHigh]

See what happens when you climb under the influence of hallucinogenics.

I swear to god that route is right here somewhere!

 

[dperler]

Was that Sunday morning 01/19? I think I saw you guys

at that time backing down off the ridge amongst some exciting sounding

ice/rock fall (definately below 12-c). The Leuthold hourglass is narrow, but pretty

obvious...to the sober climber...I had no problem

[sketchfest]

No, we were there Sat. morning. I wish I had an excuse like drinking or drugs. We just weren't paying attention and walk right on by. No worries, we climbed something much more exciting even though we didn't make the top.