bedellympian Posted April 16, 2016 Posted April 16, 2016 Trip: Mt. Hood - DKH/Eliot/Leutholds Linkup Date: 4/16/2016 Trip Report: What I did: -left Timberline at 5:50am, skinned up S-Side to bottom of Devil's Kitchen Headwall (~2hrs) -put skis on my pack and soloed DKH left most variation w/ left exit, tagged summit and traversed summit ridge to the West -stashed skis at West end of summit ridge and downclimbed Sunshine route to just above Eliot Glacier -traversed snow above Eliot 'schrund until I saw a good ice flow, soloed to top of Eliot Headwall following ice and neve (almost identical to the R variation marked in Mt. Hood Climber's Guide except for fun dihedral starting L of route) -tagged summit and traversed ridge back to skis, clipped into skis on summit ridge, skied Leutholds couloir to Reid Glacier -traversed Reid glacier and booted up to Illumination Saddle, skied back to Timberline, at car by 11:45 (~5:55 car-car) Conditions: -DKH is super easy right now, a little wallowing getting up into the couloir and then its mostly 40-50deg neve with one ~10ft step of real ice -Eliot is looking good, many tantalizing options, lower routes that go up the North Face Cleaver look like they are more snow than ice right now -Leutholds is windpacked up top (changing fast I'm sure), breakable crust on powder down low (also will change, afternoons might be good if its not too warm) Overall: a fun morning on Oregon's most accessible alpine crag. Pics... I'll try post some soon, first pitch on Eliot was SOOO GOOD! ... Gear Notes: dress socks from work actually weren't bad in the ski boots, could have done without that second liter of water I carried all morning Approach Notes: skins are the ticket right now! Quote
bedellympian Posted April 17, 2016 Author Posted April 17, 2016 looking up at the only real ice step on DKH: Eliot Headwall beta pics: first ice pitch on Eliot, hero swings the whole way looking up the face from the top of the corner pitch, I went to the obvious white line at the top left the exit pitch up close, deceptively steep but not very long dropping into Leutholds, tracks from parties who had come up earlier in the day Quote
mhux Posted April 17, 2016 Posted April 17, 2016 Holy linkup....nice work condensing a season on Hood into one day! Quote
mthorman Posted April 17, 2016 Posted April 17, 2016 Great job man!! We met you near the top as we were coming up from the Reid Headwall and you were heading down the Sunshine. Looks like we should have gone down to the Elliot to find ice since the Reid didn't have any! Quote
catstack Posted April 17, 2016 Posted April 17, 2016 Damn, that's awesome. I spoke to you briefly coming up Leuthold, I was wondering where you ended up going. Quote
bedellympian Posted April 18, 2016 Author Posted April 18, 2016 Thanks guys! It was nice to meet you mthorman and catstack. Pretty stoked for linkups on Hood. The more I think about it the more possibilities I see. Quote
diepj Posted April 18, 2016 Posted April 18, 2016 We should have held a CC.com pub club event up there. My wife and I were camped at I-saddle and heard Catstack and MTHorman go by. We ran into Bedell on the Queen's chair. Awesome link-up! I think that might be the best approach to the Eliot. Leuthold might be OK too, a little more distance, a little less vert. Catstack - thanks for the booter on Luethold!! Definitely made things a little easier for us in the snow. We decided to carry everything over for "training" and appreciated the tracks. Quote
catstack Posted April 19, 2016 Posted April 19, 2016 diepj - glad someone could get some benefit from that effort hah. Quote
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