Mt Hood
South Side, Old Chute

Chemeketan Club Climb
Trip Report

Date:  Friday/Saturday, May 19-20, 2023

Elevation: 11,239 ft/3,426 m

Leader: Scott Phillips

Assistant: Theresa Conley

Climbers: Sean Wollen, Deeshi Donnelly, Jeff Easter, Adrian Guthals, Diana Oppenheimer

Link to pictures:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/rBiKzWZMwFk3sSk56

Once again, Redmond had another monsoon go through as I was trying to get some shut eye before leaving for this climb.  Not being able to sleep through the barrage of rain and hail I gave up.  Soon after, Theresa dropped by so we could leave at 8pm to meet the team at the climber’s registry at the Timberline day lodge. 

We were supposed to be a team of eight but one person misread the prospectus and thought it was a Saturday night start.  We were down to seven strong. 

The climb was postponed from a week earlier because of warm temps on Mt Hood.  However, both Gabe Starr and Mike Pennington had successful climbs the days before with positive beta on the route.  So, I kept the climb on and hoped for the best when we hit the higher elevations.

On the drive up, the mountain was surrounded by a beautiful sunset of reds, oranges and pinks.  The weather was predicted to be clear skies and sunny with little to no wind.

When we got there, I was surprised by how much snowpack had melted away.  Large boulder fields were where deep snow had been a couple weeks ago.  Mt Hood was quickly disintegrating.

Our team hit the trail right on time at 11pm with snowshoes on the feet, which kept us from plunge stepping up the mountain.  I’m glad we had them.  It was a new moon so we didn’t get any help from ambient light to help guide our way; just the lights on our heads and the snow plows we dodged on our way up the climbers trail.

We were the first team on the mountain that night but looked behind us to view the conga line of headlamps.  We managed to stay ahead of them until about the Triangle Moraine.  There, we ditched the snowshoes and trekking poles and donned the crampons and ice axe.  From there, the snow pack was nice and firm so we didn’t do much plunging after that.

At the Devils Kitchen we roped up and headed towards the Hogsback.  Ambient light was just starting to light up the mountain and we could see the cliffs and the Hogsback now.  The bergschrund was open and the path to the Pearly Gates was impassable, so we opted to cross the hot rocks and go straight up the Old Chute.  This was the route of choice for just about everyone that day.  From there we got a great view of the mountain shadow and the city lights in the distance.

The Old Chute was well traveled and the boot packed was in good shape.  I love a stairway to Heaven.  On the way up there was a bit of ice and snow kicked off by other parties but nothing that would have caused harm to anyone, just a little annoying.  I brought pickets but the snow didn’t have very good integrity and placing them wouldn’t have done anything for the safety of the team, so I just let them dangle on me on the way up.

At the top of the chute, it’s always breathtaking to look over the ridge and see straight down the North side of the mountain.  Then the walk along the knife edge of the ridgeline was just as fun as it was the first time I’d ever done it, and no wind to battle along the way.

We made the summit eight hours after leaving the parking lot and had hazy but great views of the surrounding mountains and landscape.  No wind and the sun was pleasant.

After obligatory pictures and congratulations for the team we headed down before the sun started melting out the chute.

The chute was still in good shape for our descent; we faced the mountain most of the way down.  The boot trail on the way down was still firm but by the time we got to the top of the hot rocks the sun was on the snow and quickly started turning it to mush.  We got down just in time.

From there, we made good time over the Hogsback and back to our snowshoes, glissading along the way.  We did a lot of glissading back to the middle of the Palmer lift and then it leveled out too much. 

Back at the parking lot 13 hours after starting.

This was a first Mt Hood ascent for Sean, Deeshi, Jeff, Adrian and Diana, Congratulations.

Thanks to all of the team members for their efforts on a tough climb on steep snow.  Nobody was sketched out and just took it like champs.

Gear:  Two 50m ropes and seven unused pickets.  Two tools were used by most of us on the steep snow sections.  Snowshoes really helped on the way up with the warm temps.

Submitted by Scott Phillips