Hogsback and Summit Chutes from Crater Rock

Climbers pause on the bottom of the Hogsback, a snow ridge that extends up and to the right from Crater Rock toward the Pearly Gates. In most years, most climbers ascend the spine of the Hogsback, negotiate its bergschrund crevasses, round the toe of the rib above, turn left, and ascend the left-hand chute of the Pearly Gates to the summit ridge. This season, however, reports of steep ice in the popular Pearly Gates chute led most climbers to traverse left and ascend the chute immediately left of the large twin crags on the skyline. (Some people called this the "old chute;" others called it the "Mazama chute.") If you enlarge this picture, you can see at least a dozen climbers on the old chute. As far as we could see, nobody went up the Pearly Gates. The deep furrows under twin crags were a clear sign that the crags had been shedding their winter coats of rime ice. Many climbers ignored this obvious avalanche risk and traversed right underneath the crags. A safer traverse could be made by turning left at the bottom of the Hogsback, where the climbers are sitting down at the left edge of this scene. Photo by Michael Knoll, 6:22 a.m., June 23, 2007.