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Get ready for a short novel
I write all of this because other trip reports proved very valuable to this excursion, so thank you for the ones who post, heres my 2 cents:
Here's to another crunched timetable climbing trip from 2 mountain hungry Texans. The whole thing started with the 4 of us (JP, Don, Cohl and I) signing up with RMI to climb the DC route on Mt.Rainier. Planning and gear has been handled so far; however, leave it up to me to get these crazy ideas. We had tickets into Seattle, and Cohl's uncle lives in Portland. After thinking this through (8 days before our flight), I realize that flying to Seattle makes no sense. Our flight left Saturday morning. Then I got to thinking......If I could move the flight back only 12 hours (a delicate balance of time with my bride), that would give us time to do a little something extra.......LIKE CLIMB MT. HOOD TOO! This idea got me very excited, I've been dreaming over this mountain for 4 years now. I call Cohl and run the idea by him, of course he said yes before I could even finish the sentence. So now this idea is tangible, but is it possible? I began to plan the trip. Arrive at Portland Friday night at 11:00pm, Don picks us up, drive to his house, gear up, take the Yukon to Mt. Hood, start around 2:30am. Finish at noon, then that gives us an entire day to rest because our gear orientation for RMI starts Sunday at 3:00pm. I decide this will work and gives us enough recovery time for Mt.Rainier. Plus, I can't let this opportunity pass us up, you only live once, we had to try! I switch the tickets and let Don know. The trip is now on, 1 week to fly out!
As always, I get to the airport an hour before the flight, Cohl strolls in 15 minutes before boarding. Cohl has the baggage hostess laughing uncontrollably and accuses her of being high, all about 5 minutes before boarding. Good thing the security check has no line at all on Friday afternoon. We hop on the plane, and in no time touch down in Portland. Don pulls up in a Yukon Denali to pick us up. I have not met him until now. Cohl has been telling me he is a beast. Well, needless to say Don is a 55 year old Nordic beast. A gentle big smile greets me as we shake hands. On the way to his house in Sandy, OR we find out that he climbed Mt. Adams last week for training on Rainier and somehow really jacked up his ankle. He said it was uneventful, no trauma. He came home and the next day it was swollen twice the size and he couldn't even move it or walk on it. More on that later. We get to his house, which is an awesome place for accomodations. 5 rooms and 3 bathrooms makes for a comfy stay. We didn't stay long however. We left after about 30 minutes of catching up. Hopped in the Denali and drove up to Timberline, with a pitstop for Cohl's routine coffee and a free donut after 12pm for me.
Arrive at Timberline lodge approximately 2 am. We start sorting through our gear in the parking lot. It's dead quiet and not too chilly at 6000 feet. At 2:30, we depart the parking lot. We find a paved trail to the right of the lodge and slowly make our way to the magic mile chair loft. Off in the distance up the mountain we can see lights from the snow cats. We press on up the magic mile chair lift trail, no snow at all, just dusty trail. We pass the lift to MM and gain the Palmer lift apparatus. Snow fields start to appear and Cohl and I take a break and discuss crampons. I say lets get them on for some practice. After some discussion he heeds. The first step we take on to the ice glazed snow, we both smile and are very pleased with the bite of our crampons. So starts the slow journey up the Palmer lift line. We now hear the snow cats low drawl and the lights. Slowly, the lift poles go by us, Cohl keeps a steady lead on me, he's making easy work up the steep ski runs while I'm sucking a little more wind. His headlamp gets out of viewing distance, so I give up trying to keep up and just get into a rhythm of step step step rest.....About an hour later we gain the top of the Palmer lift. We are both sucking down water and peeing every 30 minutes. It's ok though, I'm feeling great and hydrated. After a snack and 5 min rest, we continue past the Palmer lift. From here it's mixed snow fields and rock outcroppings, still pitch dark. We continue on like this for an hour or so. The sun is starting to shine a little, and we begin to make out the upper mountain and the characteristic features of crater rock and the steel cliffs.....Wait, is that crater rock is that one crater rock?? If that one is crater rock (steel cliffs), then we are way off route. Well, looking back at the lights from the Palmer lift, there is no way that is crater rock (steel cliffs). Cohl asks, "Did you bring the map?" I reply, "No, I studied the pictures of the route for hours, it should be recognizable." "Yea, but it's still dark and those pictures were all snow." "Ok, well, I highly doubt that (steel cliff) is Crater rock, lets just keep going up and assess when there is more light". "Ok." So we keep ascending the scree and snow fields. By the time the sun has enough light for us to see decently, we can make out the hogsback and the old chute ahead of us. A sigh of relief. So far things are good, no weather, snow is crunchy/icy, no rock fall. (everyone I talked to and read online says it's a bad idea to climb hood on August due to rockfall. We heeded the advice but decided to climb anyway and assess the situation when we got there. One source out of 10 I found said go for it, don't let the naysayers hold you back, so that's what we did, although it was a hard decision for me to go against the common theme).
We get to the base of crater rock, and it is all glacier from here, so we begin ascending to gain the hogsback. I have to admit this is Cohl and I's first time to use crampons and first time for climbing steep snow/ice. It was a blast. The slopes were icy and probably 45 degrees to gain the hogsback. By now we are getting strong whiffs of sulfur gas and can see the vents letting out steam all over the mountain around us. We look to the right and see a glacial moraine with a fumerole at the base. We both decide that this area is not habitable due to gases, although there are tracks that lead down to the moraine. We are both having a blast, crampons biting well and we are up the hogsback. The schrund is open about 10 feet high and 30-40 feet wide. There is a strong trail that traverses to the left 20 feet under the schrund. We take this trail and reach the bottom of the steep ice wall and old chute. There is another deep scar running up the slope to the old chute. I'm still not sure if this was a trail or some sort of runoff pattern. Nevertheless, we take a break here and evaluate the conditions and the route. We both agree there appears to be no danger this early in the morning. Since the slope is still so crunchy for our crampons and axes, we decide to press on. Ahead of us is about 200 feet of approximately 55 degree slopes. I front point with my crampons and use the spike of my axe to ascend to the bottom of the chutes. Cohl is swinging his pick and front pointing. We gain the chute at about 8am. There are 2 distinct chutes above us, and one that veers and curves off far left. The 2 above are rock only, the left has snow. While we are discussing the next move, the right most chute gives us some pebbly rockfall. I bow my head and a quarter sized pebble bounces off my pack. We decide to take the middle chute (later discovered that there is a strong chance this is not the "old chute"). It is rotten, crumbly climbing in our crampons for 150 feet. This proved to be the crux of the climb, for we were climbing 4th class rock that was crumbling below us. Moderately frightened, we gain the ridge. With the summit not in view, we were leary of the 15 foot tower in front of us. We decide to get to the base of it and eval. Finding a way around it to the left (and 1 foot from the north face of Hood sheer drop for probably a quarter mile), we now see the easy traverse to the summit. We reached the high point of OR at about 8:40am. With a small celebration, we now decided we needed to desend ASAP. Cohl and I were both pretty anxious about the descent of the rotten chute, but it had to be done. Us both being men of prayer, we prayed the whole way down out loud. The good Lord saw us down safely (and really without difficulty) back down to the slope above the hogsback. From here we could see a team of 3 gaining the hogsback. We descended un-remarkably and advised the group that the snow was now getting slushy and that we encountered some rock fall. They seemed apathetic and not moving very fast, so we pressed on. Clouds were moving in pretty good by now. We continued the descent, and finally saw the team of 3 behind us descending too. I glissaded every possible chance I could down; for, I was worried about the slight tendinitis in my right knee and the upcoming Rainier climb. Cohl was in shorts and could not glissade. We reached Palmer lift, and I badly wanted to save my knee from any more torment. The lift operator denied us passage down. That's ok! I had a better time glissading down the entire palmer ski run passing people on skis! Now at the top of Magic mile, we got a ride down on the mile. Got on the lift with a 12 year old boy from Canada, very mature for his age. He was at a ski camp at timberline. We got the the bottom, laid in the parking lot for a few minutes, I called my wife, then put the gear up and treated ourselves to a hefty and delicious lunch buffet at timberline lodge.
From here not much to mention. We went back to Don's house to find JP had just arrived. We iced our ankles and knees and Don grilled out for us. I awoke the next morning, got some breakfast and cleaned all my gear from Hood to prepare for our departure to RMI basecamp in Ashford, WA that afternoon. I took a walk down the street and found a scenic overlook onto the Devil's backbone and the Sandy river with Mt. Hood in the background. I gave my parents the "I'm ok call. " We packed up the Yukon and began our journey to Ashford. 15 minutes into Don said he had forgot something very important. After asking what he forgot, we all decided immediately that he go back and get the item. He dropped us off at a Wildwood cafe in Gresham, and we treated ourselves to an awesome b-fast. Their eggs benedict was delicious. After he picked us up, we proceeded to Ashford.
We arrived at Ashford with much excitement. We tied up a few loose ends, rented gear, and Don got us a room in the Whitaker bunkhouse. Cohl and I had a brew, then it was time to start our orientation. Our team met under the green tent, and we find meet our guides for the next 3 days, Our main guide is the one and only Brent Okita, assisted by Pepper Dee. We all then meet in the mountain house and have a get to you know you talk for 20 minutes, then we dive into the trip, go in detail of our itinerary and the route, etc. We have a great group, made up of the 4 of us and another group of 5. Cindy is the matriarch of the group, age 67. Her dad guided Rainier in the 30's, and she wanted to follow in his foot steps. She brought along her 2 daughters and their husbands. Megan, Kirsten, Nick and Marty. This made up our team of 11, with 1 more guide, Mike King, meeting us in 2 days. This group became like family over the next 3 days. After the mountain haus meeting we convened on the grass to do a gear check. The gear check was more like a slap down of our stuff, with most of us hanging our tails all the way to rent the gear that did not measure up. After we had been expertly outfitted, we all went to the Nepalese restaurant down the road. Beef Momo's were delicious, Don had a Yak steak, JP a Yak burger, and Cohl a Nepalese curry. We were to depart RMI for a day of training the next morning, so we headed back to Whitaker bunkhouse and readied our gear and packs. There was a VHS tape in there called the Winds of Everest. We ceremoniously played this video while packing. After that, we hit the sack.
We had a great day or training on the lower slopes of Rainier. Got shuttled to Paradise, hiked for an hour and a half to our training ground. We learned the basics or what we needed to summit Rainier. Techniques like the rest step, duck walking, crossover step, plunge step, boot skiing, glissading, self arrest, team arrest, roped glacier travel....etc. Got back to RMI around 4pm. I saw Dave Hahn under the tent, so I went to shake his hand a get a picture, More pizza and beer and chatting, then off to another night in the bunkhouse. We again prepared our packs for the climb that started at 8am the next morning. Don's ankle is feeling decent. Luckily Cohl had some experience with wrapping, so he wrapped Don's ankle in physical trainer style, a real nice job. It was basically a tape cast, Don was not able to even move the ankle. We met up with our 3rd guide, Mike King. Shuttled out to Paradise, loaded up and began our trek to camp Muir at 10,000 feet. Beautiful hiking through alpine meadows with wild flowers up to the Muir snowfield. We had plenty of practice with the rest step as we trudged up the Muir snowfield, took about 3 hours. We reached camp Muir around 3pm. We were all pretty spent. We packed into the bunkhouse at camp Muir like sardines in a can. Most of our group was on the top rack, which was sweltering hot and smelled like feet and fart. We finally had the bright idea to pop open the fire hatch and had instant relief. We had a lot to do before out 5:30pm bedtime. Ready our packs, organize gear outside, eat, drink, and partake in the 30 minute meeting w/ Brent on the itinerary and procedures for our alpine start. After getting all this done, it was lights out at about 6pm. Brent refused to inform us on the time he would get us up, stating it will be a real time decision between the guides. Fair enough. Cohl tried to weasel it our of him because he needs at least an hour notice to prepare for his "morning movements". Haha, sorry Cohl, you just have to make it happen!
We were awoken around 11:30pm to start getting ready. Time to leave was 12:30 sharp. None of us slept really, there was another group or below us (actually 3 levels) in the bunkhouse. Between all of us, the smells, and people getting up and leaving to go the bathroom with the loud bunkhouse door, we were all pretty groggy. Oh well, time to go! Had some hot water for oatmeal, got dressed, strapped the avalanche transceiver on, tried to use the restroom, to no avail. (5 minutes later Cohl walks out with a smile on his face, "I made that shit happen!" ) Alright, time to get going. We get into our teams and clip the triple locking biner into the rope, and start on our way across the Cowlitz glacier at 12:30. Climbing through these conditions is mesmerizing. After letting the rope out, all you have is a 2 foot halo of light, the crunch of your crampons, and your rope partner 20 foot ahead and behind of you. Every so often I would look to the side of my boots and see a crevasse that opened into oblivion. We continued this pace for 30 minutes, making our way to Cathedral Gap. The gap was a 15 minute climb through loose scree and rock. We gained the Ingraham glacier. Now to make our way to the Disappointment Cleaver. We hopped across a dozen crevasses, crossed 2 ladders, and 1 really narrow snow bridge that arced up and down and was about 1 foot wide with crevasses on either side. Also on the Ingraham galcier we had the unique experience to see the Northern lights on the horizon. We then reached the Cleaver, the crux of the climb. 1 hour and 30 minutes of climbing up 4th class rock, short roped to 4 people (2 feet), with crampons on. Needless to say, it was fairly difficult, and a relief when we finished. Weather has been great all morning, not too cold, but cold enough that at our breaks we immediately don down parkas. At the Cleaver break, we added a layer, and continued upwards across the Emmons glacier. This was a long, switchbacked section of rest stepping for about 3 hours, taking our maintenance breaks every hour and half. This brought us to our high break. Pretty cold and windy here, we donned another layer, beanies and shed the light. We had an amazing sunrise on the upper mountain. More rest stepping as the sun revealed itself more and more. We crossed a few more steep sections that had hand ropes attached. We then gained a rock outcropping, climbed it, then descended into a quarter mile wide crater. This is in fact the summit crater! Dropping our gear, we had a small celebration, rest break and ate some cheese nips, m and m's and yogurt covered raisins. . We then made our way to the Columbia Crest, signed the log book, took the hero shots, then returned to our gear. Cohl, JP and I had the mandatory summit brew, talked for a few minutes with everyone, then began our descent. Descent was long and strenuous. Our legs are dead from climbing 9000 feet in the past 16 hours, and now the daunting task of descending all the way down to paradise (and descending the cleaver)brought along a somber quietness among the group. The sights were amazing though, we got to see all the glaciers and crevasses in they daytime now. My team arrested a fall my partner in front of me. We descended back to Camp Muir, took a 30 minute break, and kept going. It's amazing how tired I felt and how bad my feet hurt, and how that all went away after a small break and changing socks. With renewed energy, we descended the Muir snow field. We all gave a shot at boot skiing and glissading, both seemed to require as much energy as walking down. There were a few fun steep chutes to slide down. Another break after the snow field, and back on to the dirt and paved trail to Paradise. Made it back down around 4pm to the shuttle were we met Cindy's husband. He had more beer for us, bless that man. We stripped the boots and socks and layers off, laid in the parking lot and enjoyed a beer while recounting the experience. RMI had lemonade and cookies too. We shuttled back to base camp, I think everyone slept. There was a celebration planned at base camp, so we all pitched in and bought a few pitchers of beer, chips and salsa and a pizza and fed the guides and climbers. The guides presented us with certificates, and after that we all parted our separate ways. All in all it was a great experience. The people were the best part of the trip. The group we climbed with were most delightful and fun to be around. The guides were great and informative. Don was a wealth of wisdom, and his ankle ended up making it (though I think the Nordic beastliness came out for I know that ankle had to be in excruciating pain, he never said a word). JP was the comic relief with his King of the Hill impressions and "there's an old saying that you get what you pay for" comments. Cohl has a wealth of love for everyone and brings that 100% to everyone he meets. If anyone from the Cindy family reads this, we had a wonderful time, maybe we can do it again sometime as a group again! My email isdylancareydds@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.
Here's a video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhoCJWF2Buo
hood video http://youtu.be/xiwrNnhlooU
Hood summit ridge 8/23/14