Mount Hood - South Side - 01.22.11

5200'+ elevation gain
7 miles RT
Left car: 5:00 am
Summit: 1:00 pm
Back at car: 4:00 pm
11 hours car to car

With babies on the way Josh and I were trying to plan one last mountain attempt before we are relegated to in town duties. We were hoping for an overnight, but weather and conditions did not cooperate for that type of adventure. The weather looked better further south, so we opted for a climb of Mount Hood, with an overnight in the parking lot. With not much recent mountain activity more committing routes were nixed and we were just going up the standard south side route. (Also due to the fact that the snow wouldn't be too good for skiing and at least we would get ~2000' of groomed skiing in to mitigate the poor snow.

The ride down to Hood always takes longer than expected. This time we didn't encounter too much traffic, but we arrived in the Timberline parking lot around 11:30pm. It was windy and I was not encouraged. But a full moon and a view of the mountain was an encouraging sign. After a visit to lodge and signing in we went back to the car to consider sleeping arrangements. I balked first and opted to sleep in my bivy sack outside, while Josh and Matt slept in the front seats of the car. While I was fairly warm, the wind buffeted my bivy sack and made falling to sleep difficult. A few times during the night people made noise or trucks drove by that woke me up. Next thing I know Josh was waking me up at our 4am wake up time.

We ducked into the alcove at the day lodge to gear up away from the wind. This is when I realized I had made a few packing errors. I didn't bring the ideal ski socks, but I wasn't too concerned about that. But I was mildly concerned about not bringing a hard shell. When we were finally underway, I opted to skin in my puffy jacket for lack of a better wind blocking layer. The wind had not abated since going to sleep. It may have been even more intense as we started up. The snow was frozen solid, but the skinning went well aside from a few slips.

When we got to the Silcox Hut there were a few parties turning back. They were getting turned around by the wind. We took a pause in the lee of the hut to discuss our options. The snow was way too hard for us to ski back to the car at this point. At a minimum we could head up to 8500' and ski once the sun came out. I made the prediction that the wind was from the high pressure coming in and that it should mellow out later in the day, but who could be sure? We kept going uphill.

Above the hut the wind was worse. One bout carried plenty of ice pellets that felt like getting shot repeatedly by paint balls at close range. I told the guys if that event repeated twice more I was turning around. It didn't, but many strong gusts stopped us in our tracks. As the sun rose and we got higher, we adjusted to the wind more and the wind even started to wane. We took a brief stop at the top of the Palmer Chair before continuing.

Above the ski area the terrain was all rime. Without ski crampons the skinning was proving difficult. We shot for a ice out cropping that others were at so that we could stash our skis. We took another break there leaving our skis behind. We put our crampons on and started to boot up. This is where I realized that ski boots are not ideal for French crampon technique. There is just no ankle flex. Matt had it worst as he was in resort boots, due to his lack of owning AT boots. We made slower progress over the delicate and not so delicate rime petals. Due to our inability to easily walk with the ski boots on, we took indirect lines and made many switchbacks to reduce the angle and ease our ascent.

We arrived at the Hogsback a bit tired and I for one was not particularly motivated. We discussed the route with others there who were not going for the summit because they felt it unsafe. We talked with a group coming down from the summit. After a lunch break we opted to leave our packs at the Hogsback and head up with some essentials. We put on harnesses and carried the rope, just in case we needed it and we were on our way. Josh was motivated and jumped out ahead of Matt and I who were just plodding along. We took the old chute variation as most of the beta we got sounded like the Pearly Gates might be a little sketchy in the heat of the day. An hour later we stood on the summit. To our surprise, the summit was much less windy than most of the ascent. We stayed briefly to snap a few pictures, and then headed back to our packs.

Coming down the chute turned into a circus. A party who ascended Leuthold's Couloir was down climbing and skiing the chute. Another party of young boys was trying to climb the chute and this made it difficult to stay safe. At one point I noticed that one of the boys had only one crampon on. Despite the antics we made it back to our packs safely. Although I was dragging behind. I think due to food and hydration, but I can never be sure which one. We packed up and headed back to our skis. Heading down was quick and we reached our skis after coming down through all the rime covered slopes which had not softened up. Josh and I were ahead of Matt and we discussed carrying our skis back to the top of the lift, perhaps another 300' of vertical or so. Walking on the terrain was hard enough, skiing couldn't be any better. At least it wouldn't be fun. Matt, in his resort boots decided to ski it because he could not wait any longer to stop walking. It took him about the same amount of time to ski it, but he didn't fall and did a good job.

Once at the lift Josh and I prepped to ski and then the three of us were off. I took my time skiing as I was tired and made a few stops to rest. I took a wrong turn at the Silcox Hut onto the cat track which was difficult skiing. After a hard face plant, I started skiing the icy snow on the side of the cat track and then eventually I found the nicer "groomed" snow to arrive at the lodge later than Josh and Matt.

Overall this was a nice trip. We had a bluebird day (not in the forecast.) Other than the high winds for a good portion of the morning the weather was fine. We were a little tired, but that is the drawback of being a weekend warrior. It surprises me just how many novice climbers we encountered including the three young boys who had rented gear and didn't really appear to know what they were doing. (They carried helmets up to the Hogsback, but left them there to go for the summit.) It was a bummer the skiing wasn't good, but we sort of expected that, which is why the destination was Hood for the groomed slopes.

Every time I see pictures of the Mount Hood in winter I love the rime ice. I think it is truly beautiful. I am glad I finally got to see it first hand and marvel in view. It made it difficult for me to ascend to the summit as I was content at the Hogsback taking in the views of the summit rime. I always like coming to active mountains, and the smell of sulfur dioxide is more subdued in the winter when in the crater of Mount Hood.

My pics are here.

Lane Peak - Lover's Lane - 01.24.10

Josh, Matt and I had been discussing this route since we climbed The Zipper on Lane Peak in February 2009. The Zipper was really fun, with a great bunch of guys on a bluebird day. However, due to conditions, it seemed to easy. So we wanted to try Lover's Lane which is supposed to be more difficult.

We didn't bring floatation like last year, and our approach suffered. The final slopes up to the gully were a trail breaking nightmare and I was wishing I had my new snowshoes. We finally reached a section below the gully that was firm having been scoured by avalanches. We donned our crampons, and decided to harness up as well. We continued up with one tool each until we got to a short ice step very early in the gully. The step was about 6' high and around 80° with the lower part being rock and snow. It eased off to a mellow (35°?) angle after the step but had solid blue ice and good sticks. The fun ran out, and it was back to snow after having some ice fun.

By the time we had all got above the ice step, the wind was really blowing. It is difficult to say if it was also snowing as the wind was blowing spindrift all around. It even blew a few light sloughs off the right side of the gully. We continued up keeping a close watch on the snow conditions. While it varied, it mostly had a wind crust, but we did not see it exhibiting instability. We marched onward.

About three quarters of the way up the gully there is a sort of chock stone against the left wall. We went around it to the right with mixed moves and some thin ice. Above the rock, it turned back to snow again. Of course, we were now higher in the gully and the wind appeared to be blowing in all directions. In the upper gully there was a definite wind slab forming and so we were moving in the hopes of getting to safer terrain, although the slab did not show any signs of instability while we were there.

We exited Lover's Lane to the right where we saw a tree in the hopes of rapping into The Zipper, the traditional finish to Lover's Lane. We found a tree with slings on it high up and figured we were seeing the route with low snow. We set a rap anchor and Josh headed down. He went down about 20' before being able to assess that not only did our rope not reach (remember low snow) but there were no intermediate anchors. He then struggled to climb back up to the anchor while Matt and I debated the next move. Josh was tempted to try another lower tree to see if it would reach. Matt and I pulled the plug stating that the avy danger was increasing, and we would be rappelling into a gully where we had no first hand knowledge of the snow conditions. (Other than extrapolating what we had found in Lover's Lane.)

We retreated back to a set of trees in the top of Lover's Lane. From there Josh led out on a short (30m) pitch of mixed climbing which involved several veggie belays and hooking rock and root to arrive at another tree. He then brought Matt and I up and Matt headed out in search of a way down. While that was happening, I had to take my gloves off to warm my hands. My hands had stinging pain and were hard to move or grip. I put them in my armpits for a bit and at this point finally put my shell jacket on. It seemed that my fingers did better actually being exposed to the air rather than in my gloves. But after they felt normal again, I put the gloves back on to continue climbing.

After a short pitch of mostly snow and a little mixed step, Matt arrived at group of snags which he brought Josh and I up to. There was a narrow gully to the southeast that looked promising for a descent. (Continuing beyond it up the ridge would have required some serious mixed climbing.) Matt made a short rap down to a tree in the gully. From there, I led the next rap which had a near overhanging section followed by going under a chock stone. I considered an attempt at slinging the chock stone, but opted not to as it appeared the ropes might get me to walking terrain.

After getting below the chock stone, I realized the ropes might be too short and I attempted to set an anchor with pitons on the steep rocky slope. After sinking a knifeblade I realized I didn't like my stance, and couldn't find a second placement to backup the first with. This led me to trying to see if I could stretch the ropes enough to make them reach below the next step.

In my attempt I ended up hanging off the lip with my autoblock jammed into the knots at the rope end. Meanwhile Matt and Josh were freezing and wondering if I was injured. They yelled down, I yelled back. I tried to sink a lost arrow, but it didn't work. I was able to put a bugaboo in a location and then successfully lowered myself the few feet to the snow below off of my cordelette.

Unfortunately for Matt, when he arrived the rope ends were not even. That, added to his shorter height meant he added another piton to the anchor before he could lower off. We proceeded to traverse to some trees as Josh came down and cleaned up our mess. A short traverse on a steep snow slope got us to our last rappel and finally to walking ground.

The walk out went well if you consider wallowing in 6" of new snow going well. We trudged back to the car and made it out before they closed the gate at Longmire.

Overall, this was a great trip. Unlike last year's conditions we were blessed with what a Scot would call "full conditions." This added to the spice and inspired our reluctance to drop into the Zipper to finish with a possible summit. If we felt good about the snow, it would have proved to be faster to drop into The Zipper instead of taking our retreat route. By the end of the day we were all thoroughly drenched from snow being blow into openings in our clothes as well. But the route was enjoyable. Aside from the bit of ice near the bottom (which may get buried under deeper snowpack) the climb did not feel technically harder. It was more interesting because of the ice and the rappel into The Zipper. We managed to spice it up quite a bit with our retreat variation. Next time I go back, it will be under better skies.

My pics are here.

Hibox Mountain - South Route - 10.31.09

Elevation Gain: 3900'
10 miles RT
Left car: 11:30 am
Summit: 2:30 pm
Back at car: 5:00 pm
5.5 hours car to car

Since it looked like my chances of skiing in October were going down the drain I contacted a few people to see what they were doing. Matt was talking about hiking up to McClellan Butte. I told him I wasn't interested as I didn't want to get snowed off the top, which has happened to me before. I suggested Hibox, and he and Josh seemed amiable to the idea, so it was planned. A late start was planned as the other guys were out late. (Well that is the excuse I am making for them.) We agreed to meet at the Mercer Island P&R at 9:30am. Due to difficulty finding it, we didn't actually leave until around 10am, or even a little after.

It was sunny in the morning, but was chilly and cloudy at the trail head. Matt told Josh and I that he and Shari would head for Rachael Lake while Josh and I headed toward Hibox. It started raining almost as soon as we hit the trail. The trail at times looked like a creek and at other points was heavily flooded. (6"+ of standing water) We stopped to admire Canyon Creek raging where I was able to walk across just a month ago without getting my boots wet. During one long stretch of deep water Josh and I ran across and to our amazement did not get any water in our boots. At that time Matt said he would meet us back at the car as they were going a bit slower, and attempting to navigate the big puddles with a minimum of wetness.

Josh and I continued onward. After a few more creeks/trails we reached the cutoff trail to Hibox in a hour from the car. This trail gets down to business quickly with steep elevation gain and quick switchbacks in the forest. Fortunately there was lots of old growth Douglas Firs to keep most of the rain off us. The trail was pretty good except for a few sections of overgrowth, and a waterfall we had to traverse. Shortly afterward we broke from the trees and it was starting to be a Wintry Mix of precip plus a bit of wind. The elevation was 4700'. We donned our shell jackets and continued. It became more difficult to follow the trail due to the light dusting of snow on the ground while it rambled through grassy slopes.

We kept getting closer, but the summit block was just a shadow in the thick haze of clouds and snow. We reached a point where the grass gave way to talus and snow, and the going got more difficult. It was starting to get slippery. I had doubts we would make the summit. We finally regained the trail and stopped to add another layer as the wind had picked up and it was even colder. I swapped my light liner gloves for a heavier fleece glove. (Which was still not waterproof.) We stashed our poles and continued to the summit block.

We surveyed the first gully we met. Josh thought it might go. I told him if that was the way, I wasn't going to summit. We checked the Peggy Goldman beta. It appeared we needed to keep going around to the right to reach the SE Ridge. Before reaching it, we got a good look at the final gully before the ridge. It was snow filled near the bottom and was less exposed than the ridge. We gave it a go. Josh was making quick time of it while I lagged behind a bit. After the deep snow in the gully, we had to climb some third class rock covered with snow, ice and slush. No moves were that difficult, but it was stressful grabbing the wet cold rock and trying to see which rocks were permanent, and which were removable.

We made the summit, and didn't stay long. We started making our way down as quickly as possible as both of our hands were numbing from the cold and wet. After a slightly more difficult down climb, we were back on more level ground making our way back to our poles. My hands warmed up immediately after I stopped grabbing snowy rocks, while Josh's took a bit longer. We hustled back down the grassy slopes as the snow started to fall more intensely. Back in the woods, we were once again sheltered from the precip and waited until we got back onto the Rachael Lake Trail before losing a layer. The hike out from there was uneventful except for the clever navigation of the wet trail.

If I had this to do over again, I would have preferred a helmet. This was just the sort of alpine experience I was looking for. A small bit of snowy/icy scrambling to reach a summit. There were no views, but that's not what we were after. I think in dry weather, the SE Ridge would be a nice alternative. The rock is supposed to be a little better, but there is more exposure.

My pics are here.

The Tooth SW Face - 05.17.09

2600' Elevation Gain
4 miles RT
Left Car: 7:45am
Summit: approx 4pm
Return to car: 10:30pm
15 hour car to car

It was time for me to revisit the Southwest Face of the Tooth. Last year Julie and I had a great time with great weather on this climb. I had fond memories of it and decided I would share them with some friends (and a stranger.)

So I finally saw a coyote in Washington. Not in the desert where I expected. Not even in the wilderness. When we picked up Steve at the Eastgate P&R, there was a coyote pouncing around the tall grass on the north side of the lot.

We arrived a touch later than expected at the Alpental lot and geared up deciding to bring snowshoes, but leave the crampons in the car. The snow was already soft as there was no refreeze during the night. We started hiking up the trail behind a Washington Alpine Club party of about nine. Bare boots seemed to work well as there were nine people ahead of us stomping in tracks. When the trail started to head for the gully near Source Lake, we donned snowshoes for the softer less consolidated snow. Shortly after the gully got steep we went back to bare boots as the WAC was making some nice steps up the gully. We passed the WAC group in the basin as they geared up and we made our way to the base of the climb after stashing snowshoes and trekking poles at the notch.

We got the to base of the climb in a little over two hours, and noticed that about half the first pitch was still under snow. I proceeded to find a spot where the moat could be filled in and we could access the rock for the first pitch. After some snow engineering and gearing up, we were finally starting the route around 10:45am. Lori led off in boots on some spicy wet moves to gain the flaring off width. After some slow progress and minimal gear options she gained the ridge a bit. Then back across the top of the off width to easier ground and the tree at the top of the first pitch. I followed up, and Matt led behind wearing rock shoes.

I led out on the second pitch with minimal gear options and got to the point I believe we belayed from the previous year. (Having looked at last years photos, I attempted to belay from a much higher point this year.) I searched for a while for adequate anchors before building an anchor with blue and green aliens, and a slung horn. I brought Lori up and we discussed the next pitch.

Lori headed up the money pitch which starts on some slabby moves and gains a wide dirty crack before transitioning right into more blocky terrain. Now with rock shoes on, Lori sailed up the pitch. Steve and Matt had wisely set up a belay below me and Matt proceed to lead the pitch above me. He was well past me by the time I got my rock shoes on and headed up. I got to the next belay and had some water and a snack before reracking the gear, and heading out.

Once I turned the corner, there were people everywhere, as well as ropes. I climbed through/past a WAC group anchor, and then went to the final wall. I put a piece in and attempted to head out on the catwalk. There was no gear above my last piece and the rope drag was horrible. After a bit of attempting to make the moves go, I down climbed to the ledge and set up a belay to bring Lori up. By the time she arrived, the WAC were pulling their ropes, and we would have the summit to ourselves. She led off on the ramp variation as she did not like the description (not good pro) of the catwalk that I had given her. She reached the summit with some hooting and hollering, and then brought me up. As it was late, I left the gear in for Steve to clip to save us time.

We spent a brief amount of time on the summit, and prepared our raps. While I know many people do double rope raps off the South Face, I usually prefer single rope raps. However, the last rap station is somewhat dubious, and it also is a little higher than 30m from Pineapple Pass. So after two single rope raps we decide to do a double to the pass. This reminded me why I favor single rope raps. The ropes were blown in the wind and got tangled. Being the first to rap down, I had to stop at least three times to clean and rethrow the ropes. It seemed like an eternity. Once back at the pass, I waited for Lori, and we went to retrieve Steve's and my packs from the base of the climb.

After some time, we were joined by Steve. Shortly afterward, Matt yells that he is having trouble pulling the ropes. I put my harness back on and ran up the snow to help him. We pulled at the ropes, and it almost felt like there were knots on both sides of the anchor. I told him it looked like the ropes were twisted and perhaps we should set about getting that in order. Once untwisted the rope pull acted the same way. At this time Steve came up to help and mentioned that the knot may be catching on the lip. With a strong flick of the rope, it cleared the lip and we were pulling the rope. After that, it was time to hike out.

The snow out was super soft. Ken had told me waist deep mashed potatoes, and he was correct. Once out of the steeper sections near the notch, we donned snowshoes and proceeded to the gully. With headlamps on, and back in boots, we plunged or glissaded down the gully where we put the snowshoes on again and hiked out.

Overall a nice fun trip. Although it was long, it was not an epic, and other than pulling the ropes, we did not experience any issues. I think when the weather is nice and we are exploring the route, time just got away from us. Sure there were time wasters. It took a fair amount of time to make a safe starting belay at the base. Lori took a while on the first pitch. I took a while finding a suitable anchor on the second and even the fourth. But there was no negative impact other than we all missed dinner. It was really great on the hike out to see the stars start coming out and it was my first time up in the Source Lake Basin at night. It was also my first night hiking in a while, and I do miss it.

I will say too, that I remembered enjoying this climb more last year. This year, I felt like the route had worse rock, and less pro. Not sure if that is a symptom of this being my first alpine rock climb of the year, or how my memory softened the edges. I do remember thinking when I first climbed it why it wasn't done more often. I now have a better understanding of why it is not done too often, but I think it is still worthy of doing.

My pics are here.
Lori's pics are here.

Lane Peak - The Zipper - 02.21.09

Things came together to finally make an attempt at the Zipper this weekend. Josh, and the Matts were on board for this "classic" climb. We decided to leave Seattle at 5:30am and anticipated a 6-7pm arrival back in Seattle if all went well.

We got to the Narada Falls parking lot around 8:30am after a stop for snacks and breakfast items along the way. After toilet trips (porta johns, as the comfort station is not open in the winter) and chatting with others in the parking lot we were finally under way at 9am under bright blue skies. We opted to attempt the route without floatation for the approach as the snow pack has been hard. We also figured with all the recent trip reports, that there was a beaten path to the climb.

We were fairly correct. Floatation was not needed on the road in or even after we left the road for the woods. We crossed the creek and meadow and still no need for floatation. We agreed in the meadow that we would harness up at the bottom of the couloir so we wouldn't be caught having to harness up in a situation where we felt we needed protection. We left the meadow and headed up the slopes to the couloir. For parts of this section, snowshoes may have been handy. Of course, other parts of the slope were bullet proof.

We reached the bottom of the couloir, and put on helmets and harnesses. We exchanged pleasantries with a soloist who we let go ahead of us. Then we also decided to put on crampons as this seemed like something we did not want to have to put on in a sketchy situation. We started up the couloir in steps made by previous ascent parties. The snow was variable, but mostly very firm. Crampons were not necessary due to the steps, but somewhat nice to have on. About two-thirds of the way up was a particularly icy section with no steps in it. At this time we all decided to take out a second tool. (Or first tool for those whose primary tool was an axe.)

This section went by quickly. And shortly we could see the top of the gully. We took lots of pictures, and eventually topped out of The Zipper. We relaxed a bit at the top before heading under the south of the summit to reach the summit gully climb. When we arrived under the summit, the soloist was downclimbing the section from the summit. We waited, exchanged pleasantries again, and started up.

This final step felt steeper than The Zipper, and had pretty solid snow despite being in the sun. (Or perhaps because of being in the sun on previous days.) It also had a thin section where rock holds were used, and perhaps some dry tooling. We all soloed to just below the summit, and then took turns one at a time on the small and rocky summit. We descended back down to a tree with rap slings, and made the decision to do a double rope rap from the tree. Once we were all down, we took most of the climbing gear off, and headed off the mountain. It was now Noon.

Since we were on the south side of the peak the snow was soft, and made for good plunge stepping. Matt Jilson and Josh did some glissading. The walk off was pretty straight forward save for a section where you reach the trees just above the meadow we crossed earlier. We didn't follow beta from the Internet stating to take the far left down, and did some sketchy down climbing through trees to reach easier ground. We got back on the trail and headed up through the woods back to the car. We reached the car just before two o'clock.

When we arrived back at the car, I just couldn't stop saying, "I cannot believe it was that short." Conditions were really ideal for a quick climb of the Zipper. And using the USGS topo map, the summit is only about 2 miles from the car. I think if conditions were harder/icier without steps, it might have only added an hour to our climb. The angle of the gully was never scary steep, and even if it was icy, I may have been inclined to solo it the whole way up with two tools. The gully Julie, Steve, and I went up on McClellan, was steeper (and icier) near the top and we soloed it to the rock with a single axe. There was talk of going back up Lane via "Lover's Lane" or "The Fly" after we got back down. But we were more concerned about getting back to Seattle in proper time. Overall, we had a grand time, and this is a route I may try again. (Although now I'm inclined to try one of the other north face routes.) I can understand why it is a classic, because of the setting, and relatively easy nature of the route. The north couloir on McClellan is definitely a more difficult route, and not as nice a setting.

My pics are here.