11,249 feet
West Crater Attempt, Grade II
- Gear Used:
- ice axe
- second tool
- crampons
April 07, 2009
11,249 feet
The Approach
Mt. Hood is a great training mountain with routes from super easy walk ups to hard ice climbs! This mountain should never be taken lightly though! It definitely has it's way of punishing you! The main problem with this mountain is it is about a 4 hour drive from Seattle! If it wasn't such a long drive I would be climbing it much more frequently.
The Climb
Spencer and I were hoping to climb the Leuthold Couloir route. We wanted to make it an overnight climb just so we could we could spend the night in the mountains. We left Timberline under an overcast sky.
Spencer hiking through the ski resort.
The hike up to Illumination Saddle is pretty much a pain in the ass! Luckily we were to late in the day to see any skiers/snowboarders having a blast cruising the groomers!
On the traverse from above the ski lifts and heading toward Illumination Saddle.
Once above the lifts we started traversing across to reach the saddle. We ran in to some horrible post holing but besides that conditions were pretty solid.
The upper mountain showing it's random weather.
The night was cold and cloudy which made us change our mind about the route. We decided to climb The Hogs Back so we could have an easy retreat if necessary.
Our little home for the night.
Spencer back on the traverse heading towards the crater.
We woke up with the cloud layer well below us! We were in the sun but the rest of Oregon was socked in!
Almost to the crater.
On the Hogs back with beautiful weather!
We quickly made it to the Hogs Back and enjoyed a long break while we waited for a party ahead of us to get higher up. There was a party of 6 ahead of us and they were inexperienced and going super slow as they belayed each person up! In the process they were swinging axes like mad and causing a storm of ice chunks!
The team eventually went around a corner and up an alternate gully I the frequency of the ice storm slowed down. We started climbing up the steep icy slopes. I was about have way up when an ice chunk the size of a soccer ball came hurling down the slope! I pushed both of my axes into the hard packed ice to brace for impact! The ice ball smashed into my right quad and shattered into a million pieces. The pain was immediate and I quickly checked to see if I could still move my leg. Every movement was hard and painful but I knew I would be able to make it down and nothing was broken.
Spencer down climbing after I got pulverized by an ice chunk.
This was unfortunate for Spencer as this would have been his first summit on Mt. Hood but I couldn't go on. We were probably about 400 feet form the summit ridge! After much cursing and screaming at the team above us we both put our heads down and started the down climb. This was particularly hard for me as my leg was throbbing with every movement.
Heading back to Illumination Saddle to break camp.
About to break into the clouds.
If the pain from my leg wasn't bad enough when we made it back down to the ski lifts it was a complete white out! We were navigating from following the poles. It took me hours to make it back to timberline but I eventually hobbled into the parking lot.
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