Northwest Adventure: Adams and Hood, June 14 - 21

[Papa Bear]

Trip to Washington and Oregon, June 14 - 21, 2004

Last week I had a delightful time visiting my daughter in Portland Oregon and doing some hiking and climbing together.

I arrived on Monday and on Tuesday we visited OMC (Oregon Mountain Company?) where we rented some winter mountaineering equipment. My daughter got some crampons and I got Kolfach boots, crampons, ice axe and MSR show shoes. Then we were off to Mount Adams. This was the first of the two major mountains we were attempting - Mount Hood being the other.

We went east on I-84 to Hood River, crossed the Columbia and had a late lunch In White Salmon, Washington. Then it was an hours drive up to Trout Lake to the ranger's station, pick up the permits and finally onto the forest service road up to the trail head. I'll leave the complete trip details for the next note, but in summary, there was snow cover the entire route (plus on half a mile of the road below the trail head), we camped the first night at about 6800', we attempted the summit the following day but had to turn around at about 11,200', and then hiked out. Although the weather and conditions (except the excess snow, some of which was soft) were almost perfect, we didn't plan the strategy optimally, and I for one, did not have my hiking legs. But summit or no summit, we had a great time and now have an excuse to return.

We took Thursday off and got up early Friday morning and headed for Mount Hood. We had reserved with the Portland Parks and Recreation guides and met Rodney, our guide at 8:00 AM at Timberline Lodge. Friday was spent in "Snow School", where we practiced snow walking and climbing, crampon and ice axe use, rope team practice and self- and team-arrest procedures (self- or team-arrest means stopping yourself or a team member from an uncontrolled fall down a steep snow or ice slope). We stayed at a lovely lodge near the bottom of the road for supper and about 4 hours of sleep. We were back at the mountain at midnight, took the snow cat to 8500' and went up as a team, reaching the snow capped summit (11,239') just after 6:00 AM. We were down by 10:15, exhausted but exhilarated by the climb. The weather had once again been great (except for a cloud just on the summit) and the strategy and pacing was much better than for Mount Adams - hey that's what you pay the guides for!

On Sunday we visited two natural areas in or near Portland. Kelly Point Park ( http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5054052&e=518428&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25 ) is in North Portland at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, and although surrounded by industrial facilities, contains a beautiful wet bottomland ecosystem, primarily of Cottonwood. We then visited Sauvie Island, just downstream on the Columbia River. This island is about half farms and half wildlife preserve. We visited one of the preserve areas, the Oak Island nature Trail ( http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5062889&e=514321&s=200&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG100 ) and went through an Oak Savannah ecosystem (a dry bottomland). This was equally marvelous but totally different. It was a pleasure to find these natural areas so near a large city on a busy river.


Then it was back to NYC on Monday. It had been an exhausting but marvelous week. I can't wait to get back.

This note will be followed by two notes containing rip reports for Mount Adams and for Mount Hood.

For a complete album of pictures, see: http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2004_northwest

Regards

Pb

 

[Papa Bear]

Attempt on Mount Adams (Washington), June 15 & 16, 2004

On Tuesday June 15 we left Portland Oregon and headed east on I-84 to Hood River, crossed the Columbia River and had a late lunch In White Salmon, Washington. Then it was an hour's drive up to Trout Lake to the ranger's station where we picked up the permits and finally onto the forest service road up to the trail head. For the past several weeks I had been checking the Mount Adams Web site (http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/mount-adams/index.shtml) to check the conditions for climbing. The forest service road to the Cold Spring trailhead had been blocked by snow first for 3 miles, then 2 and now the blockage was less than a mile. We drove up to the point where my daughter was getting nervous about driving through the snow "barricades" and picked a sharp hairpin turn about a half mile below the trailhead to park. The weather was sunny and warm, with blue, crystal-clear skies and the forecast was for the same for most of the week. This was in pleasant contrast to most of the previous weeks, where cold rain had cancelled the plans of many climbers. The long overdue good weather was sure to unleash many pent-up climbers onto the mountains. Our route was the standard or South Climb, with the "winter route" option since the snow cover was complete practically down to the trailhead.

We had brought overnight packs plus day packs (for the summit climb) and snowshoes. Snowshoes are not normally needed for this climb but they were of great help to us in getting to our camping spot the first day since the snow in the lower part of the trail was rather soft - particularly on a warm sunny afternoon such as this one. So we packed up our stuff but I was faced with a dilemma. I had my big pack and my smaller day pack, but I couldn't figure out how to get the little one inside the big one with all the stuff we had. We carried a fairly substantial winter tent (shared between us) which weighed 12 lbs (ulp!) plus winter clothes, snowshoes, crampons and ice axe, to say nothing of my winter plastic boots (rentals) which seems to me to weight another 12 lbs. To summarize, we had a heavy load and were trudging up through soft snow so the going was rather slow and tiring. Some hikers we crossed as we went up suggested we camp low to minimized the trudging though this area and then go light and early in the morning. This was reasonable advice, but the flip side was a much longer climb for the next day. The usual camping spot is at a place called the "Lunch Counter" at about 9000', but we decided to only go to about 6800' to camp. Those extra 2200' would make a big difference on the next day. We were planning on taking the so called "winter route" of the South Climb, which goes up over South Butte and along the Suksdorf Ridge where it joins the normal summer route at the saddle above the Crescent Glacier just above the Lunch Counter. This is actually a nicer route which has, I would say, a better elevation profile, but in summer it is just a mass of rocks and is impassible. With the snow cover we had it was an ideal route. We camped just below the South Butte. For a map of the mountain see: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5115305&e=616445&s=100&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25 Our camping spot was at the lower edge of the map, southwest of South Butte, where the forested area peters out.

The ranger had said there would be tons of cars and people but we saw only about 8 cars and not very many people on the trail at all. Maybe 10 or 12 going down and no one going up except 3 people we saw going by after we had reached our camp. The trail through the lower, heavily forested area was well graded and easy to follow (although it had 2 - 4 feet of snow cover), but after about 6000' where the trees started to thin out, there were a multitude of herd paths up the slope and it was never clear exactly where the "real" trail went. But we followed the general topography and found a nice spot to camp by about 5:15 PM and settled in. Our progress had been slow but relatively easy except that my heavy, lopsided load had caused an old running injury in my right leg to "act up" along the way. I looked forward to a light pack the next day. I cooked supper (boil in a bag freeze dried food) while Payslee scouted out the route for the morning. We basically had to make our way up onto the ridge to the northeast by the path of least resistance. She found a reasonable route and we got ready for the night. A group of three passed by heading for the Lunch Counter about 6:30. They were gearing up for a very early (midnight) start the next day so we did not envy their plan. It was nearly the Summer Solstice and the light stays bright till well after 9:00 PM but we forced ourselves to hit the sack by 8:30, since our alarm was set for 4:00 AM the next morning. The evening, much like the day, was warm, with clear skies and little or no wind.

I answered a call of nature about midnight and saw an awesome star filled sky above with no moon. Stars like you never see them except in places like this. Shortly after I returned to my sack, the wind started and kept howling for the rest of the night.

We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:00 AM to a pre-dawn clear, but cold and windy day. We got our climbing stuff together and left the rest in the tent where we would return in the afternoon. It was hard to get moving, especially with no hot food since we had decided we didn't have the time to do any cooking. For some reason I will never understand, it seems to take forever to get ready, and today was no different. When we finally got moving it was about 5:00 AM and the sky was getting light with glimpses of sunlight on the mountain tops.

Our climb consisted of two sections: the long ridge line to the saddle below the summit cone - a distance of about 2.5 miles and 2400' of elevation, and the summit cone itself, a much steeper climb of about 1.6 miles and 3100' of elevation. Moving along the ridge was relatively easy and we made it to the saddle by about 7:30 AM (the Lunch Counter was on the south side of this saddle) . Along the way we passed several tents so we knew others had made it up further than we did. For some strange reason, we saw no one camping at the Lunch Counter itself - which was where everyone said they were headed. The uncharacteristic wind direction (from the east) had probably kept most campers away from this exposed area. Meanwhile, I was having problems with my boots, which were evidently a little too big. There was pressure and pain on my heels and I was getting a blister on one side.

We saw several little "dots" of climbers moving up the slope in front of us and we wondered why these people were moving so slowly. We would soon find out. Evidently a number of people had gotten an earlier start than we did since we saw about a dozen "dots" above us on the slope. The slope was wide and relatively even between two ridges, with a series of rock outcrops on the right (east) side which most of those in front of us seemed to be following, so we stuck to the right as well. But I soon discovered the combined affect of the long climb to get to this point from our camp, the affect of the altitude, and my lack of real mountain training (although I had only recently run a marathon) made for very slow and laborious going. To make matters worse, there were no tracks to follow to speak of, and we started hitting soft spots and fell to post holing occasionally. We made frequent stops but when we were moving I would need to stop for a moment or two every 20 or 30 paces. My breath would recover at these pauses but my heart rate never seemed to slow. We stopped for longer rests at several rock outcrops and finally made it to the highest outcrop below the peak (actually a false peak called "Pikers Peak"), about 11,200'. The wind had just picked up and this pushed me past the line. I said to my daughter "My heart has gone out of this climb". She said "Then let's turn around". She had been thinking the same thoughts but didn't want to say anything since she wanted to go on if I wanted to. She was doing better than I, but still felt the affects of the long slog to get to this point. It was just before 11:00 AM. In retrospect I realized it would have been at least another 2 hours to the summit and if I had managed to push on, it would have been an extremely long and trying day. We had made the right decision.

So we turned around and glissaded down most of the steep slope. It was fun and fast but was actually quite a lot of work. We got to practice our self arrest technique but my pants took a beating on the hard icy surface. I'm told that in the summer there are icy luge tracks here made by repeated butt sliding of many climbers, but at this point it was just hard icy snow.

Once down to the saddle we got back on the ridge and eventually met up with another climber coming back down who had also camped down near the bottom of the ridge as we had. She was also pretty beat, but had gotten an earlier start and had made it all the way. She was one of those black dots we had seen who were moving very slowly when we were at the bottom of the steep slope. We chatted as we moved down and we all were impressed at how much elevation we had climbed on this ridge. We finally split up and made it back to our camp at about 2:20 and took an hour to get our stuff packed up. The last mile or so on the ridge was very slow going since the snow cover had softened in the sun and we were constantly post holing. We were glad our snow shoes were waiting for us at camp.

(continued in next note)

 

[Papa Bear]

(Mount Adams Continued)

If anything, my full pack was now even more uncomfortable than when we had hiked up. I managed to get the day pack lashed onto the overnight pack (instead of wearing it on my front) but that made the load very lopsided. The uneven weight distribution combined with my general exhaustion made for a very uncomfortable trek down.. When we finally made it to the car I was almost limping. That old running injury was screaming at me.

For a while we were quite disconcerted as we trekked down since there were numerous tracks going in various directions, but we never found what seemed to be the best one. My daughter thought we were lost and I felt uneasy, but since we were following fresh footprints, I said if we are lost, so are 4 or 5 others in front of us. Finally, to our great relief, we crossed two climbers coming up who reassured us that we were on the right path and the trail ahead of us would be easy to follow. Thank goodness they were right, but like (almost) every hike, the last mile to the car seemed to take forever. But we finally made it to the car at 5:20 PM and it felt great changing into clean clothes at last. I hate to think of when we would have got back if we had pushed on to the summit, and what condition we would have been in.

It had been a tiring day but a good one. With picture perfect weather on a beautiful mountain we could not complain. Conditions and strategy had kept us from the summit, but not from having a great day.

But being the analytical type that I am, I did think about how we could have done better. Here's some ideas:

1) Better conditioning! This is a tough climb, especially with snow cover all the way from the trailhead. I trained for months to run a marathon. But the only real mountain training I had done was a few easy hikes in Vermont after my marathon a week prior to this climb.
2) With late spring snow cover, especially soft snow on the lower part of the trail, we should have allowed more time the first day and camped higher up. Snow shoes are highly recommended for these conditions.
3) We should have worked on packing lighter. Especially a lighter tent and a way for me to balance my load.
4) Better hiking boots. Heavy rentals that didn't quite fit did not enhance my climbing experience.
5) Better conditioning! Did I mention that?

A summer attempt on Mount Adams, with little or no snow below the summit cone, would be a very different experience, undoubtedly easier. Maybe I'll get to find that out this summer or next.

For a complete album of pictures, see: http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2004_northwest

Now on to Mount Hood ...

 

[Papa Bear]

Mount Hood (Oregon) Climb, June 19 & 20

I had been planning an attempt on Mount Hood for more than a year. My daughter, who lives in Portland, Oregon, had climbed Mount Hood two years ago (just one week before the disaster that saw 12 climbers killed and a rescue helicopter crashed), and she had loved the experience. She was happy to do it again with me, but felt she was not up to "leading" the climb in a technical sense, so we decided to use the same guide service she had used in 2002.

Guide Service: we used the Portland Parks and Recreation guide service ( http://www.parks.ci.portland.or.us/outdoorrec.htm telephone: 503-823-5132) which is one of several that operates on the mountain. The cost was not cheap ($279 plus a non-resident surcharge) but it included a lot of amenities that I considered important: a full days training in basic mountaineering skills, a nearby lodge where we had a big dinner and a place for 4 or 5 hours of sleep,and perhaps most important - a reservation on the snow cat which took us from Timberline Lodge up to 8500', just above the ski area. This eliminated the long slog up along the ski area with it's soft snow surface and 2500' of elevation gain. We found this service to be highly qualified and we had a fun group of people to climb with. We were all pretty inexperienced in technical climbing but generally a fit group of people. Other services such as Timberline Mountain Guides were also highly recommended. All the guides seem to know each other and were generally young climbing enthusiasts looking for a seasonal work. Rodney, our guide, was a graduate student at PSU.

If you are technically competent to do the climb without a guide service that is fine. But if you skip the option (and expense) of using the snow cat, I suggest you climb the lower section the day before and camp (which is legal above 8500') around 9000' and sleep the early part of the evening before starting the upper climb (probably at 1:00 or 2:00 AM if you are reasonably fast). There are several areas that are reasonably flat around the level of Illumination Rock that you might choose. To slog up all the way from the bottom in one continuous climb would be quite an exhausting undertaking. Believe me, our experience on Mount Adams earlier in the week attests to this. And one other thing: bring snow shoes for the lower section and cache them around 8500' - 9000'. You'll be happy you did and even happier to use them again on the way down.

Day 1: Snow School: we arrived at Timberline Lodge at 8:00 AM on Friday and were introduced to our guide Rodney and to the other group members. We were responsible for bringing proper clothing and boots, crampons and ice axe. The guide service supplied climbing harnesses and helmets. The Snow School lasted till about 2:30 PM with a break for lunch (on the slopes). It took place in a little gully near the Lodge with a good steep snow slope and plenty of room to learn and practice our skills. In the morning we practiced snow climbing, up slope, traversing and down slope, use of crampons and use of ice axe. In the afternoon we learned and practiced self arrest and then roped up and practiced climbing up down and traversing as a team, and lastly we practiced team arrest. I found it informative and relevant and very helpful when we actually got on the mountain late that night. It was minimal basic mountaineering but it got us through the climb and was a good foundation to work from for future climbs.

The Lodge: we arrived at a beautiful A-frame lodge which was actually a condo in the Trillium Lake area, about 2 miles off route 26 just north of the road up to Timberline Lodge. We spent the afternoon organizing and shmoozing and had an early pasta dinner around 5:30 PM. One guy brought some beer and a surprising number of people decided to imbibe, but I decided to put that pleasure off until after the climb. We got to sleep around 6:30 PM and around 10:30 PM people started moving around and I dragged myself out of bed. My daughter unfortunately had come down with some sort of intestinal problem and decided to take a pass on the climb. I was saddened by that turn of affairs, but knew that with this type of high exertion / high risk endeavor it was the right decision for her.

Timberline and the snow cat: At 11:30 PM we piled into the cars and returned to the mountain and got to Timberline Lodge just before midnight. A few other climbers were milling around. Rodney put in the climbing permits for the group at the appropriate place and after a group photo, we piled into the snow cat. There were 10 of us in the back (9 climbers and our second guide, Rance) plus Rodney in the front with the driver. It would be hard to imagine fitting anyone else in, but I guess full groups of 12 have been known to fit. The snow cat runs every hour from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM and was booked solid for this weekend. The prospect of good weather brought everyone to the mountain. PP&R had cancelled most of their May scheduled climbs due to bad weather (as had other groups such as Mazama) so this was the first good climbing weekend of the spring season. After a half hour's smelly and noisy climb where we passed 8 or 10 other climbers slowly making their way up on foot, the cat left us off at the top of the ski area at 8500'. At last we were set to begin. It was 12:37 AM by my watch.

Day 2: The Climb: Our route was the standard south face route, up across the Palmer Snow field (in our case by snow cat) then up for a rest stop at the Triangle Moraine. Then up onto the Hogback, across the bergschrund, up thought the Pearly Gates and on the summit. Our strategy was to get an early start so as to minimize the congestion with other climbing groups and to get through most of the snow surface when it was still frozen solid. For a map of the upper part of the summit click here; http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5024426&e=601752&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25 . Unfortunately this does not show the mountain as we climbed it. The prominent feature know as the Hogback is not labeled and much of the rocky areas shown were actually snow covered at this point in the season.

(continued on next note)

 

[Papa Bear]

(Mount Hood continued)

Up to the Triangle Moraine (9600'): the first part of the climb was done unroped and without crampons. Most of the group had trekking poles but I had decided not to bring mine. This was a mistake since both for balance and support they would have been helpful in this first part of the climb. We switch-backed up across the slope over a moderate grade. I felt pretty strong although one of our group was starting to fall behind. We passed over a small rocky outcrop at about 9600 which was the top of the Triangle Moraine, shown on the map by the small red cross marker. Here we took an extended rest of about 15 minutes, put on our crampons and harnesses and roped up. Most groups wait till the bottom of the Hogback, about 800 feet higher, to rope up, but our guides wanted us to get some experience with team climbing before the hard stuff started. They used a short rope technique, with about 12' - 15' of rope between climbers. The guides said long roping would result in much stronger forces in the event we need to team arrest a falling climber due to the speed at which a fall can accelerate to in a few seconds.

Up to the Hogback (10,400'): the climb up from the Triangle Moraine was steeper and passed up through a funnel between two large rock outcroppings. At this point the climber who was lagging began to get exhausted and he decided he could not go on. Rodney, our guide, secured the team, unroped and went down to the climber and took him back to the Triangle Moraine area where he set up a bivy for the climber and then returned to our team. Meanwhile we were down to 3 climbers and we followed the other team, led by Rance, up to the Hogback where Rodney would catch up with us. Once through the funnel we climbed diagonally up to the left to arrive a the top of the lower part of the Hogback. There we took another extended rest before the final climb to the summit. So what is the "Hogback"? It is basically a ridge of snow across the old crater and forms a line up to the last steep part of the climb. It is steep but it offers the best climbing route across this area. As an added "bonus", it is bisected by a crevasse known as the bergshrund about midway up the slope. This is where the glacier underlying the slope pulls away from the steeper part of the mountain above. Later in the season this get wider as the glacier pulls away and climbing this section becomes more difficult. Some years this bergschrund is bridged by a snow bridge where the Hogback crosses it, but this year there was no such bridge, so we had to traverse to the left and cross the bergschrund where it was narrower.

Up along the Hogback and through the Pearly Gates: this part of the climb was the steepest and we were told it was a bit more difficult than usual due to the lack of a good track in several areas. The use of tracks, consisting of other climbers frozen foot prints is a great time and energy saver and where there was a good track we made good progress. Our rope team now was led by Rodney again and consisted of the 3 remaining climbers of our group. Movement along the Hogback was slow but steady. A short distance before the bergschrund we traversed to the left and this was rather easy in comparison. At the point where we crossed the bergschrung it was just a big step but a rather scary one nevertheless. You didn't want to fall in there. The blue glacier ice seemed to glow beneath the white snow covering. I wish I had some pictures of this part of the route, but it was too dark and I was too preoccupied with climbing to fiddle with my camera. At this point the sky was lightening since it was close to 5:00 AM. We could see the top of the mountain was covered by a cloud so we would not see the actual sunrise.

After crossing the bergschrund we climbed up towards a rock outcropping and moved around it to the right and regained the upper part of the Hogback. This section was very difficult since several areas were very icy and were difficult to climb with no appreciable track. The last steep part of the climb goes through another funnel between some icy massifs which is known as the Pearly Gates. It is a treacherous but beautiful section. The beauty was enhanced by the cloud, lit from the top by the newly risen sun, that hung just above the level of the Gates. The last person on our rope, just below me, was starting to tire at this point and she kept asking to stop for a rest. I felt I was pulling her up though this area, although I was no powerhouse myself. But we finally got through the Gates and onto the short easier slope to the top.

The summit (11,239'): we were in a cloud but visibility was still 20' or 30' so we could see where we were going. Finally at 6:05 AM, we reached the summit. There was a heavenly beauty there although unfortunately the cloud precluded any view. About 10 or so others were there ahead of us. Our strategy of starting early had paid off since we didn't need to contend with any down climbing teams on our way up and only a few groups and individuals had passed us going up. We took the obligatory summit pictures and there were the usual phone calls and after 10 or 15 minutes we were off again. The strategy now was to get down before the crowd got too thick and before the snow could soften up.

(continued on next note)

 

[Papa Bear]

(Mount Hood continued

Going down to the bottom of the Hogback: We reorganized the rope teams when we started down to even them out and I was switched to Rance's team. Going down was easier on my heart, but not easier on my legs or mind. The top section through the Pearly Gates and down to the bergschrund was very tiring side stepping and belaying with the ice axe. There were traffic jams with up-climbing teams, but lucky for us we seemed to get the right of way by convention. I found the down-climbing much harder than expected, and with my concentration waning, probably more dangerous. When we crossed the bergschrund I stumbled a bit and the rope team leader warned me to watch it. The traverse back to the Hogback was easier but I managed to stumble again. The leader warned me if I lose my feet I need to be sure of my ice axe - which I wasn't. We finally reached the rest spot near the bottom of the Hogback and I tried to recover from my very tiring experience of the last hour and a half.

Down to the Triangle Moraine: I opted to stay roped down this section since I was not 100% confident of myself, especially my mental alertness. most of the others got unroped at this point. My legs were getting wobbly and I stumbled again yelling "falling". I was not happy at this point but we were soon down to the Triangle Moraine, where the terrain got easier and we finally unroped and took off the crampons. We took another well deserved rest and a few more pictures of what had been too dark to see on the way up.

The last bit: from the Moraine to the bottom was easier but it eventual became a long slog through soft snow. As we got close to the top of the ski slopes (around 8500') the snow got softer and softer and we began to post hole. I missed my trekking poles, as on the way up, but I also wished I had brought snow shoes and stashed them somewhere for going down this section. The worst part was the last couple of miles along the side of the ski slope, where the cat had taken us last night. This seemed interminable with tired muscles and soft snow making it a real chore. But all things come to an end and at around 10:15 AM, my feet finally hit the pavement near Timberline Lodge. I turned in my harness and helmet, said goodbye to everyone and was done with the Glorious but exhausting Mount Hood.

Pictures: for a set of pictures see: http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2004_northwest?&page=9 Note that the Mount Hood pictures start at page 9 of the album.

One more comment: this was not a tourist climb! It was as hard as any marathon I've run (and I've run 15 marathons). If you climb this mountain, prepare well and take it seriously!

Pb

 

[HikerBob]

Words fail me! An amazing trip and a riveting read. Congratulations.

Bob

 

[Papa Bear]

I just got through putting this latest trip onto my web site with appropriate in-line pictures, spell checked and generally in presentable format.

Check here Northwest Trip Web Page if you're interested.

Pb