Links

Mini Trip-Report

Aimee, Hoenig, and I left the BOOM! Condo around 10pm, pulling into the Timberline parking lot a bit before midnight. I was a little worried for the climb ahead, as I had just climbed Helens the previous weekend, had been biking up to Council Crest for the previous two nights on my road bike, and had been to karate practice bright and early this morning. Nevertheless, I felt empowered with 3L of Cytomax and a bag of gummy bears and was anxious to see how I would do.

After registering and getting our packs in order, we were on the trail before 12:30 a.m. There were already quite a few headlights twinkling on the slopes ahead of us, but I was confident that we would catch many of them in the hours ahead.

Although the night was foggy and pitch dark, we were blessed with not-too-cold and wind-free weather. The snow was firm, but not icy, so I left my crampons in my pack. For this Hood climb, I had opted to go as light as possible as an experiment (whilst maintaining safety, of course). As a result, I didn't have trekking poles and instead used my ice axe the entire way up. I didn't really have any problems without the poles, although had my pack been any heavier they would have been necessary. (Hoenig and I had also opted to wear our harnesses from the parking lot, to save the hassle of it later on.)

Everybody wanted to get to the summit before sunrise (5:30 a.m.), so we were marching to a strict schedule to get us there on time -- 1000 feet of vertical every 50 minutes, then a 10-minute break, repeat. As it turned out, it was just cold enough that our breaks were as short as possible: usually just enough time to take a bio break, grab a snack and some water, and put our packs back on.

For the first several thousand feet, we were content just marching along and following semi-descent tracks in the snow. Our plan was to stop at Silcox Hut for an extended break, but at around 9000 feet (after a really long westward traverse) I began to wonder if we were still on course. This entire time, we couldn't see anything except snow and darkness, but over the next few minutes, the vague outline of Illumination Rock was apparent against the skyline. The footsteps were getting ready to lead us off route, over to Louthold Couloir or worse! After a brief course correction, we were back on track.

At 10,000 feet, we roped up in preparation for the glacier and the bergshrund. There was another party there and I was amazed at how much more quickly we roped up than they did! After only a brief stop, we were back on our way. About this time, civil twilight kicked in and we were able to see much better. Past the bergshrund, however, our progress was slowed by a trepidatious Aimee, who feared that her crampons would slip on the firm snow.

After about 45 minutes, we finally made our way to the summit, the fifth party to do so that morning by my estimation (we probably would have been quicker if it weren't for my navigational error earlier!) The weather at the summit was abysmal (-5 degree F wind chill) so we limited our time up there to a few photos and headed down.

The descent was fairly straightforward. Ran into quite a bit of traffic at the bergshrund going up as we were going down. Deroped at 10,000 and Hoenig picked up his snowboard. Aimee decided to glissade shortly after this, but I didn't for fear of tearing up my Gore-Tex hiking pants (still need to find a convenient way to glissade without destroying clothes!).

Around 9,000 feet, I was starting to feel the effects of the climb and was generally not in a good mood, especially when Hoenig radioed to let us know that he was already back at the car! I made a mental note to always snowboard off of Hood on any future climbs! Luckily, the snowcat tracks below 8500 feet were soft and slushy and made for easy and quick plunge stepping, and I was back at the car before 9:15 a.m., only minutes after Aimee.

All in all, a text book climb, but I doubt I will go through the pain of recovery for the south side climb again. I want to try some of the other (not too technical!) routes next time. I was surprised that I had performed as well as I did, until a few days later, when I learned that a common pre-climbing technique is to strain your muscles with about an hour of intense uphill exercise, and then to carboload.

The data

Ascent: 5290 feet in 5:50 (avg 15.11 ft/min)

Descent: 5240 feet in 3:10 (avg 27.58 ft/min)

The gear

Qty.	Category	Subcat	Item	Wt. (oz.)
1	Essentials		Balaclava - REI polypro	1.6
1	Essentials		REI polypro liner gloves	1.1
1	Essentials		Emergency solar blanket & storage bag	2.1
1	Essentials		LED keychain light	0.3
1	Essentials		Locking serated blade	2.8
1	Essentials		Paper, pen, & storage bag	2.2
1	Essentials		Suunto Compass	1.3
1	Essentials		Sunscreen (SPF 45) - Aloe Gator
1	Essentials		Whistle	0.2
1	Essentials		Toilet paper	0.3
1	Essentials		Waterproof matches, trick candles (+ bottle)	0.9
1	Essentials		Iodine tablets (bottle)
1	Essentials		No-Doze tablets (bottle)
1	Essentials		Zip ties (aka cable ties)	0.0
1	Essentials		Sunglasses
1	Essentials		Map of area	0.0
1	Essentials		Extra food (Powerbar)	2.7
1	Essentials		Extra socks
1	Essentials		First-aid kit
1	Essentials		Large heavy-duty garbage bags	0.5
1	Food	Containers	Camelbak Unbottle (100oz)
1	Food	Food	Cytomax or Gatorade (premixed packets)
4	Food	Food	Powerbars	2.7
6	Food	Food	Gu	1.2
1	Food	Snacks	Gummy bears
1	Clothing	Wicking	Patagonia Mid Capilene Zip (blue)	7.6
1	Clothing	Wicking	Patagonia long johns (black)
1	Clothing	Insulating	REI Polartec 300 fleece vest
1	Clothing	Shell	REI nylon shorts
1	Clothing	Shell	Jacket - Marmot Thunderlight	22.7
1	Clothing	Shell	REI Gore-Tex pants	14.3
1	Clothing	Footwear	Koflach plastic boots (step-in compatible)	94.2
1	Clothing	Footwear	Insulating socks (pair)
1	Clothing	Footwear	OR super gaiters (pair)	10.5
1	Clothing	Headwear	Nike white baseball cap	2.5
1	Clothing	Headwear	Wigwam pile cap	3.9
1	Clothing	Headwear	Cebe glacier glasses (+ case)	2.7
1	Clothing	Gloves	Marmot Randonee Gore-Tex gloves	6.5
1	Hiking		Headlamp - Petzl Zoom (+ battery)	11.4
1	Climbing	Essentials	Pearabiner - Wild Country autolocking
1	Climbing	Essentials	Long prussik (orange w/ green)	2.8
1	Climbing	Essentials	Short prussik (green w/ orange)	1.9
1	Climbing	Essentials	Helmet - Petzl Ecrin Roc
1	Alpine		Rope - Edelweiss Torrent 8.5x25 dry
1	Alpine		Ice axe - Kong Ultralight	18.5
1	Alpine		Crampons - Kong step-in	25.8
2	Alpine		Rescue pulley -- Kong	2.9
1	Alpine		Ice screw	3.1
1	Alpine		Avalanche transceiver - Barryvox	8.7
1	Alpine		Picket - MSR Coyote 24"	13.7
1	Alpine		Harness - REI OnSight (w/ bag)	15.3
1	Alpine		Shovel - Ortovox (red)	22.5
1	Electronics		Suunto altimeter watch	2.0
1	Electronics		Motorola Talk-About radio (+3AA batteries)	5.9
1	Electronics		Garmin etrex GPS (+2AA batteries)	5.4
1	Electronics		Cell phone (Nokia 8260)	3.5
6	Electronics		Extra AA batteries
1	Containers	Packs	Go-Lite

Gear notes: This was my first summit with the Go-Lite pack and I was generally pleased with its performance, although its capacity was definitely maxed out. I had no problems at all from not having poles, and temperature wise, I was fine. I didn't use the baseball cap at all, probably should just leave it behind next time. After seeing the brightness and compactness of the LED headlamps, I vowed to ditch my old school Petzl and get an LED for all future climbs.