This was the next to last trip the Timberline guides offered this season. Because it was warm, just around freezing when we departed at 1AM. We left early in the AM as it's more difficult to move around on the mountain later in the day, the snow would become more slushy as it melted.
This would be the first snow accent for both myself and Eric, who went with me on the trip. We attended the one day class the day before on using the crampons and ice axe self arrest.
We were driven to the top of the ski lift area in a snow cat, which saved us a lot of plodding early on. The guides moved swiftly up the mountain, making new steps for us to follow in as they went. It wasn't until the last leg climbing up to the hogsback that we followed in the footprints of previous hikers.
It seemed like we reached the hogsback in no time at all. A few times I felt pushed, but kept pushing forward so as not to slow the others down.
Several times we heard massive rockfalls in the dark. It was somewhat unnerving as several Hood climbers had died this year. One of the regrets I had was that the guides really didn't give us any time to take photographs. We had just enough time to catch our breath and get a drink of water before moving again.
Then came the worst news: at just 700 feet below summit, our guide felt it was too dangerous and told us we'd have to turn back. It really didn't seem that bad to me, other than the rockslides we'd been hearing. I was totally disappointed to come so far without summiting. Even more so after hearing from others successful summits made the same day, by parties starting out later than we did.
The good news is you do get a discount for return attempts. Guess I'll be back next year!
View of Mt.Hood from the Washington side of the Columbia River.
