Trip Report: Mount Hood

April 29-May 1 (Mt Hood, OR) —

We headed to Mt. hood in order to burn off the country fried steaks, hashbrowns, and pancakes and arrived to another bluebird day.   We stayed overnight in the ski resort parking lot and got an early start the next day, which was also gorgeous.

2013-04-30 Mt Hood 005

The first 2,500′ up follows the resort boundary line and is well traveled.  We made great time and hit the top of the resort in under two hours.  V felt a migraine coming on so headed down, but I decided to continue up to the choke right before the top given that I was making such good time.

However, immediately above the resort boundary, the entire mountain was a frozen sheet of ice despite the fact that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temp was way above freezing.

SAMSUNG

This made for terrible skinning, so I pulled out my new crampons and continued on my way.2013-05-01 Mt Hood 008

Even after an hour and half of walking up hill, the snow had not softened and I continued to boot up.2013-05-01 Mt Hood 022

I soon approached Crater Rock, and the snow remained bulletproof.

illumination rock

I decided to take a lunch break, soak in the views, and wait for the snow to finally soften.

2013-05-01 Mt Hood 027

Alas, it never did.   So after almost five hours of hiking, I got to do pizza/french fries back to the base.  It was a good day out, even if the turns were terrible.