June 8, 2014, Mt. Hood,South route to Wy'east face
6/8/14
OR Mt Hood
470
1
I have been dreaming of the skiing the Wy' East face ever since seeing the dramatic peak towering over the Hood Meadows ski resort. Last year a group of three of us tried to ice climb the Sandy Glacier headwall and cary-over to the Wy' East but our pace was to slow and the exposed traverse wasn't to happen so we skied the Normal route.
This time the plan was to climb the leuthold couloir and cary over to the Wy' East. Because of the east aspect and east facing exposed traverse we decided on leaving at 3am. During the we hours of the morning some yokle teenagers decided they wanted to scream their heads of and bash in one of their pick-up tricks. Finally culminating in them slamming it against the barriers as hundreds of climbers tried to sleep for their big ascent.
at 5:30 we were at illumination saddle and got word that the Leuthold was not in great shape. Instead of traversing around to see ourselves we changed course to follow the hordes headed up the standard south route. I was moving slowly after the trek up Adams the day before, but we still made ok time to the summit. We traverse over the summit and decides to rope up and do running belays down the exposed 50 degree slope and across the loose rock. It was shortly before 9 and the snow had softened a bit but was still stable. The choss traverse was a bit loose and exposed but mostly secure. Glad we used the rope since it was loose.
We dropped in right around 10am to a perfect fall line pitch with excellent corn. It felt like the cherry on top after the excellent run on the chutes the day before and it was great to finally get on this imposing face. The only complaint was that the pitch didn't go on longer. The traverse to timberline was fairly straight forward though we had to boot across some sandy moraine for a few minutes.
I'm somewhat surprised we don't see more reports from these other routes on hood given the ease of access. Only saw 4 other skiers on the face that day, with hundreds on the other route.
This time the plan was to climb the leuthold couloir and cary over to the Wy' East. Because of the east aspect and east facing exposed traverse we decided on leaving at 3am. During the we hours of the morning some yokle teenagers decided they wanted to scream their heads of and bash in one of their pick-up tricks. Finally culminating in them slamming it against the barriers as hundreds of climbers tried to sleep for their big ascent.
at 5:30 we were at illumination saddle and got word that the Leuthold was not in great shape. Instead of traversing around to see ourselves we changed course to follow the hordes headed up the standard south route. I was moving slowly after the trek up Adams the day before, but we still made ok time to the summit. We traverse over the summit and decides to rope up and do running belays down the exposed 50 degree slope and across the loose rock. It was shortly before 9 and the snow had softened a bit but was still stable. The choss traverse was a bit loose and exposed but mostly secure. Glad we used the rope since it was loose.
We dropped in right around 10am to a perfect fall line pitch with excellent corn. It felt like the cherry on top after the excellent run on the chutes the day before and it was great to finally get on this imposing face. The only complaint was that the pitch didn't go on longer. The traverse to timberline was fairly straight forward though we had to boot across some sandy moraine for a few minutes.
I'm somewhat surprised we don't see more reports from these other routes on hood given the ease of access. Only saw 4 other skiers on the face that day, with hundreds on the other route.
I was originally wanting to do Furher Finger this weekend, but I could not find a partner for something that large. So, I sent out a few feelers for doing Baker car2car. Danny could only go Sunday so I pinged Jake and we locked in on Sunday. A day later, Loren asked me if I wanted to go up Saturday to Baker, so having already plans for being up there, I agreed and the thought of a 2x car2car came up.
Saturday morning around 3am, Loren and I left Issaquah, met up at the trail head and were on the trail by 6:15am. We took our first break about 2 hours later at 4,000vert up from the trail head and ate some food and relaxed a bit. We then pushed to the crater for our next semi-break and transition to crampons. After a hike up the Headwall, we got to the summit with a up time of 5 and a half hours. We took a few pics and ate some food before we headed down. The trip down was met with some of the best corn I've ever skied.
We got back to our car around 7-7.5 hours Round Trip and had a few beers to celebrate. After 15-20 minutes Jake arrived and joined in. We then met 2 climbers with double ice axes strapped to them that came down and asked if they could hitch a ride back as they 'accidentally' went down the wrong side of the mountain. Since Loren was leaving, he was a good citizen and gave them a ride to the closest town.
Video from the trip: https://vimeo.com/97852125
The next day, I woke up at 3am with Jake and Danny and we were on the trail by 4:15am. We went a bit slower this day, but we made the summit around 3:30pm. The ski down was craptacular as it was all slush and whiteout for about 3,000 vertical.
Trail notes: The trail from the lot was starting to melt out fast, going up through the creek won't be in to much longer and will need to transition to the switch backs soon. The Easton Glacier itself was in great shape, Loren and I opted to not take any glacier gear and we found no issues with any crack crossings (as of Sunday, nothing more than a 6 inches)
Few records for me set:
-Most vert in a day: 7600 (had to up climb on day 2 to look for something)
-Most vert in two days (15100)
-First ski from the true summit of a volcano
-First climb of baker to the summit
-Most continuous skiing
As far as trips go, this was probably one of the most fun ones I've ever had. Attitudes from all climbers were great, and we all enjoyed ourselves.
Saturday morning around 3am, Loren and I left Issaquah, met up at the trail head and were on the trail by 6:15am. We took our first break about 2 hours later at 4,000vert up from the trail head and ate some food and relaxed a bit. We then pushed to the crater for our next semi-break and transition to crampons. After a hike up the Headwall, we got to the summit with a up time of 5 and a half hours. We took a few pics and ate some food before we headed down. The trip down was met with some of the best corn I've ever skied.
We got back to our car around 7-7.5 hours Round Trip and had a few beers to celebrate. After 15-20 minutes Jake arrived and joined in. We then met 2 climbers with double ice axes strapped to them that came down and asked if they could hitch a ride back as they 'accidentally' went down the wrong side of the mountain. Since Loren was leaving, he was a good citizen and gave them a ride to the closest town.
Video from the trip: https://vimeo.com/97852125
The next day, I woke up at 3am with Jake and Danny and we were on the trail by 4:15am. We went a bit slower this day, but we made the summit around 3:30pm. The ski down was craptacular as it was all slush and whiteout for about 3,000 vertical.
Trail notes: The trail from the lot was starting to melt out fast, going up through the creek won't be in to much longer and will need to transition to the switch backs soon. The Easton Glacier itself was in great shape, Loren and I opted to not take any glacier gear and we found no issues with any crack crossings (as of Sunday, nothing more than a 6 inches)
Few records for me set:
-Most vert in a day: 7600 (had to up climb on day 2 to look for something)
-Most vert in two days (15100)
-First ski from the true summit of a volcano
-First climb of baker to the summit
-Most continuous skiing
As far as trips go, this was probably one of the most fun ones I've ever had. Attitudes from all climbers were great, and we all enjoyed ourselves.
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