Thursday afternoon They flew in to Portland and I left work early to pick them up. We drove straight to the mountain and packed our gear at the Timberline Lodge. This is a huge ski lodge on the south side of the mountain.
We climbed through the evening and reached the top of the Palmer Glacier, just above the ski lifts, just before dark. On the way up the wind was blowing pretty hard. We thought the temperature was probably below 0 degrees with the wind chill. Josiah's camel back tube was frozen as well as the insides of our water bottles. The climb took about three hours.
I had trouble with my crampons popping off of my boots at the beginning of the climb and took some time to get them adjusted. Just before we reached our camping spot they popped off again and I was having my doubts as to whether I was going to be able to climb higher on the mountain, as it gets much steeper up high.
We spent a comfortable night on the mountain. Dinner was two servings each of mountain house backpacking food, about 1600 calories, plus pepperoni, cheese, and lot of peanut m&ms for me.
My sleep was a little restless and we were up later than we should have been talking. We heated some water for breakfast and had some white chocolate hot chocolate to get up warmed up. After arranging our gear and making some last minute decisions as to what gear we needed to climb higher, we set out at about 6:00.
The climb started with disaster for me. One crampon immediately popped off and I was having some serious doubts about climbing the steeper slopes with this equipment. I tried one last time to adjust everything. Josiah ended up tying the front toe clip to my shoe lace and I pulled the crampons as hard as I could to make them as tight as possible. This ended up working well and I was able to continue with the rest of the climb without incident. I did get some blisters though, from the extra pressure of the crampons pushing through my boots at the heel and the toe.
The climbing was great. there was tons of ice and very little snow so everything felt very solid. We were worried about things warming up too much if we went too slow though and there were several 2 to 3 inch cracks in the ice as we made our way up.
The climbing really starts at a point know as "The Hog's Back". As we approached the hog's back several climbing teams were turning back. This shook our confidence as to whether we should continue. We knew making it to the summit should be no problem, it was coming back down that had Josiah and me a little worried. Adam was confident the whole time. The sun was already getting high in the sky and we could see it hitting the higher slopes across from where we were climbing.
We decided to go for it. We all felt fairly strong and now just needed to climb fast. At the top of the hog's back is the most dangerous section of the climb. We had to make a traverse with quite a lot of ice fall. About half way across lots of ice started breaking off right above me. I ended up crouching down into the mountain as ice fell all around me. I was hit in the fore arm by a piece about the size of a soft ball and had a pretty good bump. Luckily I was able to dodge the football sized pieces.
We made the rest of the climb to the summit with no problem and in very good time. It was about 8:30 and I remember thinking 2 hours and 37 minutes since we left our tent that morning. We were below the hog's back before the sun hit the slopes and we felt much better.
The decent was easy. I like to take it a little slower as climbing down hurts my joints and my blisters. Adam and Josiah were good to ease up the pace a little for me. We ate snacks on the way down and ran out of water a little bit too soon, but we all felt pretty good at the bottom.
Over all it was a great climb. 10 hours total. 3 hours to the tent site, 2 1/2 hours to the top and 4 1/2 hours down. I love climbing on Hood and this time I came back with much more respect for this mountain.
5 comments:
Wow, Erik, that's awesome you made it to the top of Mount Hood, but also crazy! ;) That's even cooler Josiah and Adam flew in for it. Too bad Joe couldn't have been there, huh? He would've loved it. You always talked about climbing mountains, so that's neat you're able to do it now. I just hope you have life insurance. haha! Especially since you had that scary moment with your crampons and also the huge ice chunk that hit you. But other than that, it was fun to read about your adventure and see some pictures. That's a great accomplishment! You should be real proud of yourself. Rachel, you're a good woman. ;) That would be scarey for me, as I'm sure it is for you. That's good that they were smart and safe about it though.
Wow, that sounds like an awesome hike. And, I just saw the pics from Dane's wedding. I loved seeing the picture of your whole family.
I enjoyed the detailed post, everything you described is still vivid in my memory from last time. It seems like the summit looks different now, I know it can change slightly from year to year. You all did it fast too. Mt Hood was about the most enjoyable climb I've done. It seems like there are always people just after Hogs back telling everyone to turn around. That ticked me off because I can assess when it's time to turn around myself. You can't trust other climbers unless you know them.
-Spencer
Rachel, I just read how you and Erik met I am pretty sure I was living with you at the time and I didn't know any of that. What a cute story and so fun to have on record. BTW you two still make such a a great couple :).
Wow! That looks pretty scary. I'm glad Erik had fun though and that he made it back without getting smacked in the head with ice or getting lost in an avalanche..... or whatever else can happen. Looks pretty amazing.
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