| prestonhunt.com > chronicles > Mt. Hood South Side Climb |
At 5:15am, we were almost the first people to gain the summit, elev. 11,245 feet! As fortune would have it, a stunning sunrise greeted us upon our arrival at Oregon's highest point. This view is the north-facing view from the summit.
Two speedier climbers zoomed past us when we stopped to rope up and don crampons just before the Hog's Back (the people that beat us up did not stop to rope up).
Just before reaching the summit, we were enouraged by the sight of a beautiful amber alpenglow on one of Hood's many snowy mounds just below the summit (on the east side). On our west side, the sun projected an eerie shadow of Hood up onto the clouds. (Sorry, no pictures of either of these - we were way too busy climbing to stop and smell the roses!)