[TR] Mount Hood - South Side Snowboarding 1/11/2016

[Dinonuggetz]

Trip: Mount Hood - South Side Snowboarding

 

Date: 1/11/2016

 

Trip Report:

A vicious arctic wind battered us the whole way on our first attempt at the summit on Saturday. On our way up the left side of our bodies had been completely frosted in ice. It was miserable. Cam, Don and I made it to the top of the Palmer Lift before deciding to turn around. We skied as best we could back down to the lodge. It is quite hard to stay upright when you don't have a sense of where you are or if you are even moving. All 3 of us fell more times then either of us could count. I tried to take a picture from the Lift Station but as soon as I took out my camera it became coated in ice.

 

 

The next morning we awoke from our comfortable car chair beds and took off after some hot drinks. The wind was calm but the mercury was a little low for my liking. The sun crested the horizon and warmed us up. We made it to the top of the Palmer Lift station by 8am. Just a little over two hours. We took a short break and continued up towards the Triangle Moraine and eventually the Hogsback.

 

 

 

 

At the Hogsback Saddle we dropped our harnesses, rope and pickets off. We brought them just for the fun of carrying more weight... "Nothing like taking the gear for a nice scenic walk". Here we strapped on our crampons and equipped our ax's. We chose to venture up the Old Chute seeing as how the Pearly Gates was beyond full with 10+ climbers. We wrapped around and arrived at the chute. We were going up along with another party of 3. While many others were descending... This made for plenty of ice-fall and the fear of having someone tumble down and take everyone else out. It was quite the traffic jam. I stashed my board at the base of the Chute and scurried up to the summit. Cam and Don joined me shortly after. We took a few photos and began our descent.

 

 

 

 

 

We down-climbed to the base of the Chute and I got strapped in. I snowplowed down the boot-path until I reached the open face above the Hogsback. I put in some turns and stopped back at the saddle. Here I waited for Don and Cam to rejoin me. As they arrived we repacked our gear we had stashed and we strapped on our boards and Don donned his skis. See what I did there? Anyways from here on down it was an amazing ski back down to the lodge. Just avoid the fumarole on the left and you've got it made. The run seemed endless. Fresh low angled powder for thousands of feet! PARTY RUN!!! We made it back down to the car and headed back to Washington.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Boots and Socks are a good choice for this one.

 

Approach Notes:

Follow the Boot Path to the top

[ivan]

no fair having fun on the top of high high high oregon

[Water]

nice! we were the first two who skied down the old chute and through west crater. sunday was a choice day out, weather wise, but reminded me of the spring shit-show..that was obvious by how much activity there was in the lot.