Very Late Season Mount Hood-South Route (Old Crater Variation)=Success

Very Late Season Mount Hood-South Route (Old Crater Variation)=Success

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 5, 2011
Activities Activities: Mountaineering
Seasons Season: Summer

Back Story

On our previous attempt two weeks prior to this successful summit, my climbing partner and I experienced "unforecasted" convective activity on the South Route at 2 AM. The lightning was so close that we felt our hair stand-up from the static electricity. We swiftly found refuge in a icy ditch between a rock outcropping and the glacier. To protect us from a possible close encounter with God's wrath from above, we took off our packs, lied flat in the ditch, and placed our packs on top of us. Then the freezing downpour commenced. We donned our hardshell hoods and placed our helmets over our faces. I thought, "well...this is a good time to take a snooze." 2 hours later the storm passed and we decided to press on as far as we could with the time allowed, before rock and icefall became a factor. We made it up to Crater Rock then turned back. Not the case on this recent summit; the weather was amazing!

Timberline Approach

After learning from my previous attempt that I could not sleep in my truck at the Timberline parking lot due to: 1)Heavy tourist traffic 2)Timberline Lodge construction 3)Constant Snowcat traffic; I decided to climb from Timberline Lodge up the "Magic Mile" past Silcox Hut, then up Palmer Glacier to several exposed rock areas that made excellent bivouac sites around 9000'. There were several flat areas that provided protection from the west-northwesterly winds. This allowed for a decent head-start in the morning against the sea of headlamps peppering the south face at 3 AM. Overnight I experienced about 40-knot winds, however according to http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/fdwinds/, the winds were forecasted to decrease in the morning. If you have not used this site before, it proves as a useful tool in forecasting winds and temperatures at certain altitudes. How it works is: Find a location nearby....for Mount Hood, I used PDX (Portland International Airport). You cross over to the altitude you are looking for, in this case...12000'. Then look at the numbers associated with PDX at 12000'. For this particular day it was "3305 +04". This meant the winds were at 330-degrees at 05 knots and the temp was +04C. Another way to get an approximate temp at altitude is to use "standard lapse rate", which is to subtract 2-degrees C (or 3.5-degrees F) for every 1000-feet of altitude gain. Again (disclaimer), this can be used for estimating only....these mountains can produce their own weather! Anyway, enough of the meteorology lesson.....

3AM Start-Up

After boiling some water for coffee (thank you JetBoil Companion)...and watching one single headlamp hauling up the mountain at an incredible pace...my buddy and I grabbed our packs, downed a Gel pack (Starbucks flavor), threw on our crampons, doubled checked each other's gear, and began the slog up to Devil's Kitchen. Since there was zero overcast overnight, the glacier had a nice firm crust to dig in with our crampons. We could smell the sulfur from fumaroles right from the start since the winds were from the north-northwest. About an hour into the ascent, I began to feel a hotspot on my left heel, so we stopped for 5 minutes so I could adjust my boot and tighten my laces some more. I was using brand new, out-of-the-box LaSportiva Trango S Evos. They worked out great after the adjustment. We worked our way up a steeper pitch just prior to Devil's Kitchen near Crater Rock. At this point, we extinguished our headlamps due to great lighting conditions, and continued up the well-used path around the east face of Crater Rock to the base of the Hogsback. At this point, we could see numerous small rockfalls on the eastern side of the crater. We ate a cliff bar, even though I wasn't hungry (which I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to eat, even if you are not feeling great). From here, we left our trekking poles, unsheathed our ice axes, and began up the Hogsback to the Bergschrund.

Hogsback to Old Crater Variation

Since the Hogsback is displaced to the left and is no longer lining up with the Pearly Gates, we elected to take the Old Crater Variation. The Bergscchrund was enormous this time of year and the exposure to it and icefall was too great a risk to attempt to summit via the Pearly Gates. After the short trek up to the Bergschrund, we traversed left down the Hogsback's west side and then up a 45-degree broad pitch towards the convergance of several chutes. We made our way around the vertical exposed rock to the right and then up to the closest chute. This was not the traditional open chute further west, but it seemed safe enough to ascend. At this point, we began to set snow pickets for protection (pro) in a series of 4; 1 every 15 feet. My partner was leading, so he would set the pro and I would retrieve them, catch up to him when he secured the last pro. I would then transfer the pro back to him to start the process again. As we made our way into the chute, the pitch increased to about 55-60-degrees (due to the late season) and the rime ice was rather unstable. Everytime I went to kick a step, the ice would explode and shatter....very little stability. We made our way up the chute, about 75-100', and then reached the summit ridge. The weather was great, with an overcast layer around 5000'. We trekked our way east to the summit-proper and declared our victory!

Summit to Timberline

After reaching the summit, we met a great couple who made their way up the Cooper Spur Route, however it was becoming really unstable due to sunlight exposure. We offered them a ride from Timberline Lodge to their car at the trailhead on the north side, which they accepted. At this point the sun was shining and our exposure to rock and icefall was increasing greatly. We began to make our way back to the chute we ascended to find it rather congested with climbers (many of which did not have ice axes, harnesses, rope, or even crampons). As we looked down the chute, there was a kid who found himself stuck without any gear. He was maybe 20' from the summit ridge, but would not go any further out of fear....cat-stuck-in-a-tree syndrome. My partner and I grabbed our webbing, rigged a harness, set some pro, and belayed him to the bottom of the chute. We offered to bring him to the summit first, but he declined the offer and just wanted to get down. At this point, we encountered 4 other fellas who ascended up a different chute without proper gear, so we began belaying them down, one at a time. After killing an hour and a half belaying folks down, we needed to get down ourselves before the chute became completely unsafe due to melt. We mustered up a running belay down the chute and began our traverse back towards the Hogsback. About halfway into our traverse to the Hogsback, I called out "Rockfall" and put my head down, and watched three basketball size rocks rolling down between me and my partner with only 30' of rope between us. Shortly after, we heard a "luff". At this point, my partner quietly signaled to me that we need to stop setting pro, but stayed roped up, and get to the hogsback as fast as safely possible. We moved with a purpose to the Hogsback and then made our uneventful descent to our camp. We picked up camp, then descended to the top of the Palmer ski lift. From here, I took my pack off, wrapped my pack cover around it, threw on my chest harness, rigged a 10' piece of cord to it and to the back of my chest harness and glissaded down the last 2500' with my pack in tow.

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jaxcharlie

jaxcharlie - Aug 30, 2011 9:10 am - Voted 10/10

Your Patience

Is admirable!

WSUFan

WSUFan - Aug 31, 2011 8:05 pm - Hasn't voted

Mount Hood

jaxcharlie...thank you. Safety FIRST! I did not want to see anyone getting hurt.

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