Mt. Hood, South Side Route -- Crux Pitches

Climbers descend the "old chute" ("Mazama chute") from the summit ridge of Mt. Hood. Foreground from left: Sophie Egan and Tim Egan (green jacket, blue pants). The winter's rime ice plastering the towers flanking the chute has begun to spall off, but most is still in place. On this Saturday morning in June, at least a dozen climbers were on this slope at any given moment, despite forecasts of clouds and stiff breezes. The snow surface was frozen granular, which would have made an ice axe arrest extremely difficult even if attempted immediately after a fall. About half the climbers on this slope were roped up, but very few used fixed or running belays to protect even the steepest parts -- despite the fact that a falling climber can exert a force of more than five kilonewtons on his or her rope-mates. Five kilonewtons is 1,125 pounds, the weight of an entire Seattle Seahawks defensive line. A long fall might exert eight kilonewtons on a rope-mate attempting an ice axe arrest. That's the equivalent of being tackled by all four Seahawks defensive linesman, plus two or three linebackers, and trying to hold their weight with the pick of an ice axe. Photo by Craig Reininger, June 23, 2007.