Earlier in the week, V proposed to climb
Hood on Friday because of favorable weather condition (both Thurs and Fri).
O said she'd be happy to join if we could pick her up. She's done this a few times. V planned to go up via Pearly Gate, and come down via Old Chute (#5). He sent me these photos of Hood: the yellow is our route, and blue is potential crevasses. We ended up using the left wing of Pearly Gate up, and came down Old Chute.
3/11, Thursday. I left home after an early meal (packed a lot more food than needed) just before 6pm. Met V. ~7pm. We drove to O's house in Vancouver, WA (arrived ~9:25pm) for a short rest. V brought 2 extra ice-tools for me and O. But O didn't want any. She said one ice-axe is enough. V insisted on bringing a 30m rope, so I packed his Flask thermal bottle and the picket, to share the load. The 3 of us drove out ~11:40pm towards Mt. Hood.
3/12, Friday ~1:20am, we arrived at Timberline Lodge overnight parking, 24°F, some wind (forecast was 15mph AM, 10mph PM, and 5mph evening). Maybe ~6-7 cars. O said she expected a lot more cars. One group was getting ready to leave when we arrived. Good, I don't want to be the first. Put on O's snowpark pass. V filled out the climing registration. Meanwhile we geared up inside, out of the wind. The restroom is closed. For my head: balaclava, down hoodie under my helmet, clipped headlamp. For upper body: Modal base layer, softshell shirt, fleece vest, down jacket, wind breaker, all fairly thin. For lower body:
REI Aceme softshell pants, waterproof gaiters. I'm wearing my
Columbia Newton Ridge hiking boots (somehow these, in kids model, are the only comfortable boots for my feet, even the adult version causes pain. They are my 4th pair already. They won't work for longer climbs or colder terrain, as they are not insulated; nor for hard ice, because they are not rigid. But I'm afraid of any rigid shoes.) As far as clothes and shoes went, they worked perfect today.
We set out ~1:40am, headlight set to medium. I quickly changed it to red. I found it sufficient, and the high beam is disturbing. But O's light doesn't have red. Meadows Ski area had a flood light shining onto the mountain. Without sun or moon (wouldn't rise until after sun), the stars were brilliant above: to the left was polluted by Portland, to the right a bit by Meadows. We could see the mountain clearly ahead, so close. It was really pretty. So many stars, that V thought he was seeing the Milky Way. All the way to the end of Palmer lift is groomed. There were 2-3 groups ahead of us. Half of them on red light. I heated up quickly, and took off my thin down jacket. At the end of the first lift, V needed to adjust his boots. While waiting, I put my down jacket back on, but not using the hoodie. It was cold, but not too cold, My water bottle was starting to freeze at the lid. Even though our pace was slow, before the end of Palmer, we passed a group. At the end of the lift, passed another couple. I managed to pee somewhere here, since it was still dark -- that'd be a problem later.
The grade of the slope picked up above Palmer. But it was never very steep. We followed the track, doing zigzags, veering left. A few lights up ahead showing the way. It was going more left than I envisioned, and I actually stopped twice to check with my GPS map. At some point, O said we should take out ice-axe. So we did. I wore microspikes all the way up to Devil's Kitchen: this flat area under the sulfur vent. ~10200'. It smells strongly even half an hour before. You can see a crevasse here under Hogsback. No more wind, or maybe the north wind was blocked by the cliffs. We put on crampons here. By then, ice was forming in my waterbottle. I dumped ~1/2L out, and pour the water in 2 bottles into one, and put inside my pack. The sun was rising.
Once on the Hogsback, O asked which way I wanted to go, since we could now see clearly two tracks. I said I'd continue, which looked more straightforward to me. In fact, everyone ahead of us went straight towards Pearly Gate. It was getting steep. A group of climbers were downcliming. I had to walk around them. This section isn't steep enough to need downclimbing.
At the bottom of the Pearly Gate, O and I waited for V, in case he wanted to use rope. I took out V's ice-tool that I borrowed. There was a ledge safe enough to rest here. A girl came up. She proceeded up. V was super slow today. When he arrived, the girl was half way up the gate. Seeing that, V said he was okay without rope. So, one by one, we went up, spaced about a few minutes apart, in case of a slip. Here's a photo of V behind me. This is the only icy place along the entire route. Hard ice, that I had to swing the ice-tool to get a grip. It's certainly easier with two pointy tools in my hands. The gate is short, and it was very narrow, and I actually felt safe because if I slip, I wouldn't go very far/fast, and the bottom has a good ledge to catch me, if not flying too fast.
It's an easy walk above Pearly Gate. The girl who passed V was already coming down. She was climbing solo.
A flat-ish area, with a few small frosty hills. I couldn't even tell which one is the tallest, just walk towards where people are.
8am, summit. Calm, almost no wind. Txted a few people. I sat down for my "lunch". I didn't feel cold, so didn't put on another layer (I still have a down vest in my pack). However, my body was trembling a bit: I guess it was still cold. My feet were cold all along. It's warming up though. The water in my bottle had iced top. Poured hot water to it, so I could drink. More and more people arrived. They were talking about some guy fell into a crevasse on the way down Old Chute, but it was his own fault. The group ahead of us went towards Old Chute. Pearly Gate is too narrow for bi-directional traffic, now with more people coming up.
8:30am, we headed out too, to Old Chute. First, you walk the summit ridge (cornice to your right, and sharp drop to your left). It was fine on a calm day, except one step, where you have to stand on a very narrow piece of snow (~1 foot). That's the only place today that I didn't feel comfortable. If I didn't see people just walk on it, I wouldn't try.
Old Chute is steep, but snow was soft, so made good foot hold. Where you see on the photo, O, is where the slope got steeper. She asked if V and I would like to rope up. There is a hole at the bottom of this slope. We down climbed without rope. One ice-axe is good enough. On the way, more people coming up this way. Back at Hogsback without issues.
Looking back, the mountain looks like wedding caked with frosty icing. Very pretty. This is V on Hogsback in the photo. I packed up crampons and ice-axe. Took my trekking pole out. Also removed my shell, and then headed down to Devils Kitchen. There, V lost one crampon, and I went up looking for it. Good that he noticed the miss quick enough that it took me less than 5 minutes to find it. However, going up now is tiring. I stopped to remove my down jacket. It was warming up quickly.
As we walked down, I removed one layer after another, until just my base layer. Going down is pretty boring, I could see the parking lot all the way. Ironically, at the last mile, the most flat terrain, the ski lift is running (Palmer Lift is not). V was lagging behind more and more. After another long wait, O and I just walked out straight. I got to the Day Lodge at 12:40pm. Finally, proper restroom! 11 hours, much slower than I had anticipated. Out of the sun, inside the entrance, it was chilly. I packed away gaiters, and put on more clothes. O was checking her watch anxiously. It turns out, she didn't take a day off, because she expect to be home ~noon. "working from home" these days:) She has a 3pm scrum meeting. V finally showed up, exhausted. At 1:30pm, O drove out, so V could sleep in the back seat. As soon as V lied down, he was out. We managed to arrive at O's house a couple of minutes before 3pm!
I took over the wheel. After filling gas and toilet, V said he was refreshed so he drove back. He's a more aggressive driver, so we could go faster. He's expected to be home for dinner. On the way, his wife called twice! I got home just before 7pm.
Walked 0.3 miles to TH, filled out climbing permit, signed the registry. Put on microspikes, and off we went at 2:20am. The forest was dark, but the trail is straightforward. No wind in the forest, not cold. I had to make stops to take off layers, twice. I was down to just my thick base layer. V had to remove his gaiters to cool off. His glasses were fogged up so badly, that he had to pack it away. We were, in fact, walking in clouds. When we finally left the forest, a little bit of wind, so put on a shell. Soon, we broke out of the clouds. It was beautiful: the near-full moon was shining brightly. I felt like walking in Ansel Adams' black-white photo. This photo is from V's new iPhone. We could see everything clearly, I even switched off my headlamp.
As soon as the elevation picked up, I was feeling lethargic. After 2nd re-fuel, I was back to normal, and we were making good time. However, I lost my water bottle at some point. I had a thermos inside the pack, but only ~0.5L. V gave me some water, and I also ate snow (very hard).
The horizon started to light up slowly after 6am. Sun rose beside Mt. Adams. Wind kicked in, from time to time. Forecast was 25mph, more or less accurate. The slope wasn't icy, just hard snow. The spikes worked well. Saw a couple of people on snowshoes, many on crampons. I made to the rim ~7:02, maybe 5 minutes after sunrise. The view of Helens' crater and to the north is always amazing. Right now, the rising sun made everything glow, even more beautiful.
After a long break in our puffies, we continued towards the real summit. There was a traverse on a ~45° slope. No one had ventured over in recent days. I was afraid of avalanche. V was convinced that the snow was stable. He's determined to get to the true summit, as he climbed Helens this Jan already, but didn't go to the summit that time. We stopped to put on crampons, helmet, ice-axe. He went ahead first. Here, you can see our footprints.
Before the true summit, this small section has delicate snow patterns. After that, old footprints looked like sculptures, raised from the snow surface, instead of depression in the snow. Very odd.
We had the summit to ourselves. The red arrow shows where most hikers ended at. Took another break here, wind was on and off. On our way down, we met one hiker coming our way. Saw a couple of others contemplating the true summit. We went down directly to join the main trail. There, I packed away crampons, helmet, put back on microspikes. So many people on the slope, it looks like ant hill. On the lower slopes, we were able to glissade a little bit. In the afternoon, the butt tracks would be more established and smoother. Right now, the bumpy ride made my butt hurt. Sun was shining, getting warmer, postholed a bit to let uphill traffic go. At some point, we realized that V lost one trekking pole. Also a conincident that I saw Avinash on the trail going up, among a thousand others.
