Mt. Hood (Old Chute) 5/4/13

Photo Credit: David Jacobson

 Ladies and gentlemen: volcano season is on!

Mt. Hood is the tallest peak in Oregon. The standard route up the South face is generally non-technical, and can offer over 5000 vertical feet of corn skiing on a good day. The day David and I climbed Hood was not a good day for snow. But then again, if skiing 40 degree bullet proof ice isn’t fun, I don’t know what is.

I picked up David in Beaverton at around 2:30am and we headed up a dark and quiet Highway 26 to Government Camp, and then to the Timberline parking lot. The East wind was howling when we arrived, and it was a challenge to pull our boots on without filling them with the grit and gravel that was flying everywhere. We hoisted our packs, made a quick stop to fill out our backcountry permits, and were on the snow by 4:45am. Thus begain the long, windy slog along the climbers trail that parallels the Timberline ski area.

The wind was brutal. Whoever once said “lower your head into the wind and power it out” was probably talking about a climb like the one we were doing. The wind seemed to come straight at us, pushing us downhill, except sometimes when it came from the side and pushed us over. At any rate, it was slow going for quite a while.

Photo Credit: David Jacobson

We reached the top of the Palmer glacier at around 6:45am. We ascended on skins for another 300 vertical feet or so before the traction on our skis started to fail. The snow was icy, slick, and bulletproof. We begrudgingly threw our skis on our packs and strapped on our crampons. The wind caught our skis like a sail and made things even harder for us. However, as we approached the Hog’s Back the high walls of the caldera (or is it a crater? Anyone around here a geologist?) blocked the wind for us. We reached the Hog’s Back just as cloud descended into the caldera, limiting visibility to less than fifty yards.

The Hog’s Back was the first of three decision points for us that day. Up until we reached the caldera, the climb had been clear and visibility had not been a problem. Neither David nor I wanted to negotiate the steep ascent above the Hog’s Back with zero viz, let alone have to ski down it. But we figured it would clear soon, so we decided to push onward and upward.

The standard route on Mt. Hood has changed over the past few years. Traditionally, one would ascend the Hog’s Back and straight up through the Pearly Gates to the summit. However, recently the Hog’s Back has shifted to the climbers left. To ascend through the Pearly Gates, one must make a traverse across a steep, exposed snowfield above the bergschrund. Instead, these days it seems most people are ascending the Old Chute, which is to the climber’s left of the Pearly Gates. While the route does not have the aesthetic of the old route, it is less exposed.

David on the summit

We ascended the steep face above the Hog’s Back in near whiteout. The clouds swirled in the caldera providing brief glimpses of the route above us. When we were just below the old chute, we decided to stop and take a break. The visibility was as bad as it had been all day, and neither David nor I liked the proposition of ending up on the summit ridge in a whiteout. We cut out a ledge with our ice axes, and contemplated our options. This was the second decision point of the climb. The decision we made was to ski down.

David went first, removing his skins and clipping into his skis on the small platform we had cut. However, just as he was ready to step off to create space for me, the clouds broke, and we had a clear view of the summit. “What do you think?” I asked David. “Let’s do it.” Decision three. David threw his skis back on his pack, and we made the push to the summit ridge.

When we arrived on the ridge, we were reminded of the wind that we had escaped while climbing within the caldera. The wind was screaming across the summit ridge. As much as we wanted to ski from the summit, we decided the exposure wasn’t worth it. We dropped our skis and packs, and made our way to the summit with just our ice axes. After a high-five and a few obligatory photos, it was time to descend.

Despite the relatively warm temperatures, the snow remained bulletproof. We clipped into our skis and began a slow, laborious descent down the caldera. Jump turn, sideslip 10 feet. Jump turn, sideslip 10 feet. I descended first. On David’s second or third turn, the scariest thing short of a fall occurred: David’s ski popped off. Luckily he was able to retain  it before it slid down into the fumaroles below. But, in case you have never tried to clip into a dynafit binding on a 40 degree, bulletproof slope above fumaroles, where a fall would be a slide for life, David will likely inform you that it is not the easiest thing to do. In fact, David was only able to reengage the toe pins, and he had to sideslip nearly 200 vertical feet to where I was waiting in order to lock his heel down.

Photo credit: David Jacobson

We finally got down to the Hog’s Back. We hoped that as we reached the lower mountain the snow would soften up. Not so. The descent from the Hog’s Back to the top of Palmer (~1500 ft) was some of the bumpiest, iciest, quad-burning skiing I have ever done.

We didn’t hit soft snow until we reached the Palmer glacier. From there, the combination of sun and warmer temperatures had produced ideal corn. We cruised back to the car, and down to the Ratskeller in Govy  for a burger and brew before returning to Portland. We got over 5000 feet of skiing in, half of them good. What the climb lacked in ski conditions, it certainly made up for in weather drama.

Next weekend: South Sister