Climbed and skied the Old Chute route of Mount Hood on Saturday under
perfectly clear skies, great climbing conditions and significantly less
than great skiing conditions.
Had a group of snowshoers and skiers, though we never needed floatation. Arrived at the lodge at 11pm and crashed for a few short hours before our 3am walk time. Ended up getting moving by 3:40am and headed up the groomed trail through the ski area. Skies were crystal clear and wind was minimal minus occasional minor gusts. Overall fantastic conditions. Crampons and ski crampons were on from the start and we moved pretty quick to the top of the Palmer lift. Once we got off the groomers we found hard packed wind slabs and ice that sent my skies to my pack with 300 vertical feet. Our other skier with the fixed Violie crampons made it another 500 ft or so before he gave up as well. I hauled my skies to about 500 feet below the hogsback before stashing them after finding wind created ice formations that were going to make skiing very unpleasant (more on these later)
Hit the Hogsback at the same time as the sun and headed up the old chute. Snow was still very firm, so cramponing up the steep slope felt secure and fast. Topped out at 9:30am, which we were pretty happy with given it was our first big ascent of the season and we made a few stops along the way.
The ascent was great, the descent was much less so. The sun had not been on the old chute for a while, so the decent was very slow and involved a lot of down climbing. Once below the hogsback, we discovered that the entire lower slope had lost its light cover of snow that was concealing the endless field of windblown ice fingers which varied from breakable to bullet hard and made skiing pretty terrible. There was really no way to avoid it, as the entire slope was a mix of edge catching ice fingers and huge chucks of broken ice.
Top 1000 feet would have been descent skiing
Middle 2000 feet was torture on my skis and legs
Lower 2000 feet groomers in the ski area.
Back down to the car at 1:30pm and back in Seattle by 7:30pm after food.
Couldn’t have asked for better weather, could have asked for better snow. Leave the skies and snowshoes at home until there is more snow.
Had a group of snowshoers and skiers, though we never needed floatation. Arrived at the lodge at 11pm and crashed for a few short hours before our 3am walk time. Ended up getting moving by 3:40am and headed up the groomed trail through the ski area. Skies were crystal clear and wind was minimal minus occasional minor gusts. Overall fantastic conditions. Crampons and ski crampons were on from the start and we moved pretty quick to the top of the Palmer lift. Once we got off the groomers we found hard packed wind slabs and ice that sent my skies to my pack with 300 vertical feet. Our other skier with the fixed Violie crampons made it another 500 ft or so before he gave up as well. I hauled my skies to about 500 feet below the hogsback before stashing them after finding wind created ice formations that were going to make skiing very unpleasant (more on these later)
Hit the Hogsback at the same time as the sun and headed up the old chute. Snow was still very firm, so cramponing up the steep slope felt secure and fast. Topped out at 9:30am, which we were pretty happy with given it was our first big ascent of the season and we made a few stops along the way.
The ascent was great, the descent was much less so. The sun had not been on the old chute for a while, so the decent was very slow and involved a lot of down climbing. Once below the hogsback, we discovered that the entire lower slope had lost its light cover of snow that was concealing the endless field of windblown ice fingers which varied from breakable to bullet hard and made skiing pretty terrible. There was really no way to avoid it, as the entire slope was a mix of edge catching ice fingers and huge chucks of broken ice.
Top 1000 feet would have been descent skiing
Middle 2000 feet was torture on my skis and legs
Lower 2000 feet groomers in the ski area.
Back down to the car at 1:30pm and back in Seattle by 7:30pm after food.
Couldn’t have asked for better weather, could have asked for better snow. Leave the skies and snowshoes at home until there is more snow.
Getting skis and gear ready near the ski lodge
Sunrise just above the last ski lift
The Oregon Cascades in the morning light
Finally arriving at the Hogsback formation
Skier coming down from the Old Chute
Going up the Hogsback
Looking down the Old Chute just below the Summit
Team at the summit of Mount Hood
Careful downclimbing with the Hogsback in the background
Ilia taking the faster way down
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