| prestonhunt.com > chronicles > Mt. Hood South Side Climb |
11-Jun-1999
On June 10-11, 1999, a group of friends and I set out to conquer Oregon's highest peak, Mt. Hood, via the popular south side route. The climbing party consisted of me and my roommates, Brian Rea and Zack Sachen, and some friends from Portland, Tim Fettkether, Mark McClure, and Keith ??.
To avoid high avalanche danger, we climbed during the night, while the snow was still frozen. We met in the parking lot of the Timberline ski lodge (approx. elev. 6000 ft.) at 10:30pm, got our gear in order, and were on our way at 11:25pm.
Although the night was clear, there was a new moon the night we climbed, so we did not have the benefit of moonlight to guide our journey. Thus, the next 4.5 hours were basically like a marathon stair stepper session in the dark with only our headlamps to lighten the way. Because darkness and photography don't mix, all of the pictures here were taken on the summit or on the way down.
I was going to write up a complete account of my Hood climb, but it turns out that an old school friend of Tim's wrote an article for Oregon Live that pretty much sums up how I felt, so I'll just link to it instead: Oregon Live story: A beginner's climb on Mt. Hood.
These pictures are all from Brian's digital camera. My camera battery succumbed to the elements just as we got to the summit, so I don't have any pictures of my own!
Click on any thumbnail or title below to see a larger version of the picture. Each large picture has links to the other pictures so you can view them like a slide show. Be sure to scroll down on each page as an explanatory caption often accompanies each picture.
