17th High Point Visited
13th Highest State High Point
5th Most Difficult
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My wife, Homeyra, had a
physics conference planned
for the last weekend of June
in Corvallis, just south of
Portland so I tagged along
and planned my climb of Mt.
Hood while she was busy
working. I discovered
a guide service, Timberline
Mountain Guides, that offer
two types of summit trips -
a one day and a two day.
I decided on the one day
summit, but the day prior to
my actual climb included a
training day on basic
mountaineering.
I was able to talk one of my
friends, Scott Herrick, into
making the climb together
and joining my team.
He's currently living in
Switzerland, but it worked
out that during the same
time frame he was
conveniently in the states
visiting family in Colorado.
He flew in the night before
our training day and we
camped at Still Creek
Campground (3,600 ft) near
the base of Mt. Hood.
Our class began at 8:30 a.m.
and we started by going
through our gear list to be
certain each team member was
properly equipped for the
variety of conditions that
we would expect to find on
our climb the next morning.
In addition to Scott & I,
two other climbers Jeff from
Tennessee, and Glen from
near Portland and our guide
Eric made up our team.
Eric has guided on Mt. Hood
for many years and on our
climb told us his stories of
other climbs including a two
week trip to Mt. McKinley in
Alaska. Next we hiked
about a mile from Timberline
Lodge and began our training
of basic techniques of
climbing and self arrest.
We learned how to step, how
to use our ice axe, and hove
to move together as a roped
team.
I had fabricated two mini
sleds for glissading, one
for me and one for Scott to
use on our descent down the
mountain the next day.
I took some plastic to a
local ski shop and melted
the front edge with heavy
duty heat fans so I could
create my sled. Also I
attached some kick boards
made of soft foam to the top
of the plastic for extra
padding. Also we I
drilled holes in the sled to
attach a strap to hold onto.
For the final touch we
melted hot wax across the
bottom of the sled for less
friction and more speed. Key
criteria is that it had to
be light, durable, and fit
easily into our packs.
At the end of our training
day Scott and I gave the
sleds a trial run. We
only had a short way to
slide down, but they seemed
to work like a charm.
That night we went to bed
around 9 p.m. because we had
to wake the next morning
about 12:30 a.m. so we could
board the snow cat by 2:00
a.m. At our campground
it never really dipped to
much less than 50 degrees at
night, but the higher
elevations the temperature
steadily drops. We met
the group at Timberline
Lodge and signed in at the
register. Our snowcat
was on time, so we boarded
and began our climb.
The snowcat to the top of
the ski area seems to some
as cheating, but none of us
complained knowing that we
saved ourselves 2 hours of
sleep and 2 hours of
climbing! We unloaded,
turned on our headlamps, and
began our actual climb.
Our first leg of the trip we
used only our trekking poles
as we made our way all the
way to the lower part of
Hogsback. Up to this
point I think we stopped
only twice for a short break
and to hydrate. An
important technique we
learned was the rest step,
where each step you pause
for a brief moment.
This saves considerable
energy and helps keep the
heart rate lower. Our
strategy was not to break a
sweat on the climb.
I also learned that using
the trekking poles saves
another 30% of energy making
our climb more swift.
The poles were something I
debated purchasing with all
the other gear that I
needed, but ended up the one
thing that I was most
thankful to have had.
While hiking, we pealed a
layer, but every time we
stopped for a break our
first thing we did was to
pull our down jackets out to
stay warm while motionless.
Again another worthwhile
investment!
Our final break before
starting the lower Hogsback,
we finally put on our
crampons. For this leg
Eric felt the ice was firm
enough so we continued up
lower Hogsback with trekking
poles and left our ice aces
in our packs. Our next
break was at Crater Rock
We started to smell the
sulfur that rises from the
ground underneath us, but
never did the smell really
bother any of us. Up
to this point, the climb was
steep, but for the most part
for five healthy guys a walk
in the park. We were
half way to the summit and
already passed another team
that started nearly an hour
before us. At Crater
Rock is when things became
serious. We stashed
our trekking poles and
removed our ice axes from
our packs and began to rope
together for our next part
up upper Hogsback.
This was my first real view
of the
bergschrund where only a few
years prior to our climb
there was a major accident
and rescue of several
climbing teams that slid
down the mountain into the
crevasse. As we made
our way closer to the
bergschrund we discovered
that there was a snow bridge
that formed in the middle
that allowed safe passage.
Up until this point we
climbed up no particular
trail, other that trying to
stay in the footprints of
the person or team in front
of us. Now along upper
Hogsback there was a
definite trail cut into the
snow. The route
continued to gradually get
much steeper as we made our
way up upper Hosback.
Footing was very solid and
we continued to steadily
make our way closer to the
summit. At the top of
Hogsback there are many rock
ledges hanging overhead and
are quite dangerous, so
though even very tired from
the steepness of upper
Hogsback, we pushed on with
minimal break. We were
able to pause long enough to
view one of the most
memorable sights of all my
climbing experience.
We were now above the clouds
and the sun was beginning to
rise from behind the
opposite side of the
mountain. This created
a shadow of the summit on
top of the clouds.
Each of us snapped many
pictures of this most
wondrous site.
We pressed on to the last
steep slope which took us to
the summit of Mt. Hood.
Our climb which started at 2
a.m. was half way done as we
stood on the summit by 6:30
a.m. As we reached the summit the
winds picked up heavily and
I couldn't get my down coat
out of my pack fast enough
to try to keep warm in the
cold mountain air.
With wind chill the
temperature dropped well
below 20 degrees.
Again it was still clear and
you could see as far as Mt.
Rainier 100 miles away.
Pretty magnificent just to
see the reward of the last
four hours of hard work.
Recently reading more about
mountaineering, I reminded
myself that we were only
half way done, and often the
return is more dangerous
than the accent. After
about 30 minutes on the
summit, a snack, and many
photos, our wind chilled
bodies were ready to begin
the climb back to the lodge.
Again we roped together, but
instead of following the
trail back down the mountain
we tested the ice and it was
still very firm, so hiked
down giving full trust to
our crampons as they dug
into the ice with every
step. Pretty scary
because directly in our fall
line was the
bergschrund. We made
our way steadily down and
carefully crossed the ice
bridge that still stood
strong over the bergschrund.
We continued down to just
above Crater Rock where we
unroped and gathered our
trekking poles for our final
two stages of our climb
down.
We had one final break at
the bottom of hogsback and
were anxiously awaiting our
opportunity to use our
glissading sleds we had
carried all morning up and
partway down the mountain.
The sun hadn't hit the ice
yet, so the ice was still
very rigid.
Scott tried first, then
myself on a small slope.
We went so fast so quickly
it was scary. The
worst part was the sled took
the abuse of the bouncing
over the foot holes that our
path crossed. Thank
goodness for the extra
padding incorporated into
the sleds, but the abuse was
too much and the plastic
that we used started to
become brittle and break
apart. First Scotts
split in two, then mine.
We still had a long long way
to hike and much preferred
the sledding method, so
tried to hold together the
pieces of the sled for the
rest of the way down.
Once we got low enough that
the sun was hitting the
slopes the slide down was
much softer and easier to
dig our ice axes into the
snow to control our speed.
We finally made it back to
Timberline and gazed back up
and the mountain standing
proud behind us. What
a great experience.
What will be next?
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Mount Hood (11,239), Oregon - State Highpoint #17
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