[TR] HOOD - North Face - RIght Gull 2/25/2016

[YocumRidge]

Trip: HOOD - North Face - Right Gull

 

Date: 2/25/2016

 

Trip Report:

North Face on Hoodie. It is where wolfs are real and women become men. A legit alpine route that never disappoints. Actually, it disappoints a lot. It might be fun and easy in some conditions, and hard and scary in others. My success rate on this route in winter is not great, thanks to high winds, and miserably long and sleep-deprived approach that keeps kicking my ass over and over again.

 

Nothing new this time. The Cloud Cap road is conveniently closed and the splitboard/slow shoes approach from the Tilly Jane TH @ 3800' to the face took 7 hrs from the car. My slowest record of all. We run into a lot of deep isothermic snow below the T-line and the spindrifted powder on the Eliot and were breaking trail for eternity it seemed.

 

Checking in at the Tilly Jane A-frame around 2 AM:

 

Cameron on the upper Eliot gl.:

 

Cascades panorama at sunrise:

 

North Face from the upper Eliot gl.:

 

Cameron at the base of the shrund:

 

I did not bother to look for the easier options either on the right or left side cuz I am lazy, so I crossed the shrund in the center on some sketchy snowbridge:

 

The funnel through the first ice step was producing morale-breaking micro-avalanches threatening to kill so we belayed that pitch with the usual belay on the left behind the prow.

 

The splitboarders are stoked at the base of the first ice step:

 

Cameron heading up the first ice step:

 

 

The Sea of alpine ice higher in the gully that we simul-climbed below the second ice step:

 

Myself heading up the second ice step. Phat.

 

 

 

The stretch from the top of the second ice step to the summit was time-consuming: a lot of thin snice veneer over rock ready to come down at any moment. More simul-climbing to follow.

 

The summit pyramid:

 

The summit cornice:

 

 

Finally, we crawled on to the summit:

 

The descent down the south side was in the dark. Pearly Gates had recently spit out an ice avalanche so we went around over the hot rocks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

8 screws, 1 Spectre, 2 pickets, 60 m rope

 

Approach Notes:

Tilly Jane TH, splitboard, slow shoes.

[JasonG]

Impressive. That looks like a lot of work!

[ivan]

2 nights in 1 day is 2 many

[YocumRidge]

2 nights in 1 day is 2 many

Sorry. I know. I am recovering from a heart attack though .

 

[NickM]

Yeehaw. Was looking down the North side that day - the weather was so great. Was really wondering if anyone was gonna give it.

[Ptown_Climber1]

Nice....enjoyed that little distraction form work today! Great pics.

[pioneerian]

Great pics! Thanks for the report

[Cameron Brown]

I was pretty stoked on that climb.. Let's do it faster next time eh? Stoked I can finally login into cc.com too ;-)