Mount Hood | clifftba

Camp for the night

On June 2nd I headed down to Oregon to climb Mt Hood. I found this awesome camp site on the side of Lolo Rd. It was perfect for the night and had a great view.

Sitting by the fire

with time to kill I just started a fire and started drinking some of Oregon's finest craft beers. I even picked up a growler while visiting

View from my camp

Starting the climb

I started out from the parking lot at about 3am (an hour later than planned due to watch malfunctions). The first 2 hours of climbing where the toughest (I was hurting something awful) but then the sun came out and I started to feel better and now I was at the top of the Palmer lift and the real climbing started

Mount Hood shadow over the valley

Me at the Triangle Moraine

At the bottom of the Hogsback

The "Old Chute" route is on the left and the "Pearly Gates" route is on the right. The Old Chute was basically just a walk up, but the Pearly Gates supposedly had a 12' ice wall. I talked with 2 other climbers that convinced me to take the "Pearly Gates" cause they figured I could do it....but how would they know what I could or could not do....oh well

Looking back down the Hogsback

a look back at the route with 2 climbers following. The Devils Kitchen is just to the left of this pic. The smell of sulphur came and went but was fairly pleasant.

A closer look at the "Old Chute"

this is more of the usual route up the mountain, you can tell by the hoards of people going up

Getting closer

Another solo climber enters

About 1/2 way up the first ramp

I know pictures never tell the real story, but this was steep, I mean scary steep. And if you fell, then you fell from the Pearly Gates into the Devils Kitchen...I wonder who names these places. It was definitely a no fall zone, very little chance of self arrest at this point, and basically till the top

Its starting to get tight in here

Now getting up into the route, things start to get tight, it would eventually get so you can touch each side with your arms extended. And the thought of that wall was always in the back of my head, cause down climbing this section was something I did not want to do

Decision time

this is me at the moment of decision, do I continue up or go down?

Ice wall in front of me

go up?

Or go back down?

I did not want to go down, so I stopped thinking and went ice climbing...It was great, and the best climbing I ever done....I won't forget that anytime soon

Last look at the route up

Popping out just below the summit

the great thing about this route is that you come out of the Pearly Gates just below the summit, so its very rewarding

Summit shot

other climbers arriving to the summit from the "Old Chute" route. The neat thing about Mount Hood is that the summit is like a long knife edge, very steep on both sides and quite long to traverse

A look to the east

don't get to close to those overhangs...

Last look at the summit

I decided on taking the "Old Chute" route down so that I could experience both routes, plus I didn't want to down climb the route I took up. What a great traverse with awesome exposure on both sides, and the blue skies where just breathtaking

Traverse to the route down

A look down the "Old Chute"

me at the top just starting down

A look at the summit traverse

A look up

Almost back at the Hogsback

Last look at the mountain

you can trace the route I took, find the Hogsback and then go up the right side of the route and then to the summit. I was glad to be back now as when I went up there was lots of debris falling, and I wouldn't want to be up there now. Surprisingly enough lots of people would still be up there...oh well.