Archive for June, 2013
Mt. Hood Climb 20-May-2013
June 28th, 2013 | 
Author: Photos from my first Mazamas climb, Mount Hood.
I top out on the summit plateau.
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- Climb leader Amy (who was also one of my BCEP instructors) and Assistant Leader Mike confer at the Climber’s Registration at Timberline Lodge at midnight. We start the climb at this time to reach the summit around sunrise, while the snow is still firm and chances for rockfall are minimized
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- climbing in the dark near the start
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- At the Hogsback, the ridge below the summit where the really steep stuff starts. We stow hiking poles here, and get out the ice axes and crampons
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- Mike on the Hogsback with the moon in the background
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- Sunrise from the Hogsback around 4 am
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- One great privilege of being on the top of a Cascade volcano at sunrise is seeing the great triangular shadow that the mountain throws across the landscape below
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- The team on the final part of the ascent up the “Old Chute”
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- On the summit plateau with climb leaders Amy and Mike. Mout Jefferson is in the distance. The sun hadn’t risen very far yet, so it was still very cold (in the 20’s).
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- On the summit; it was warmer now
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- group of climbers on the summit
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- Our climb team on the summit
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- On the descent. Yes, the Old Chute is very steep. If you slip and fall, you better know how to use your ice axe to self-arrest
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- Back down at the parking lot
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- When we got back to the trailhead, the boyfriend of one of the climbers on our team was waiting there, standing on the snow in a dark suit, waiting to propose to her. She accepted (and the crowd that had gathered in the parking lot cheered wildly). After drinking a couple of glasses of champagne, they passed the bottle around to the rest of the team. Best End of Climb Ever!
Gear for a Mount Hood climb
Clothing for a climb
Footwear – I’m the first one in the family to get fancy Italian leather boots 🙂 , and crampons
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Mazamas BCEP
When I started to get into better shape a couple of years ago, I first started walking a bit, which turned into Saturday morning short hikes on the paved and unpaved trails near home. I guess to encourage this behavior, Beth bought me a book, Oregon Hiking: The Complete Guide to More Than 490 Hikes (Moon Outdoors).
That’s when it started.
I tried some of the hikes listed in the book, and found I really liked hiking uphill: one can get a good workout, without pounding your knees the way running sometimes can. Plus, the views are often very nice. I did Saddle Mountain in the Coast Range, and the Kings Mountain and Elk Mountain trails near home became my default Saturday workout options. Then I came upon the chapter that revealed that Oregon’s 3rd-highest mountain, South Sister, just required hiking to reach its summit; I did that hike in August 2012.
Eventually I got the chapter on Southern Oregon peaks, and a fascinating description of Mount Thielsen:
Mount Thielsen’s peak, a towering 9,182 feet in the sky, has earned the nickname “Lightning Rod of the Cascades” for no uncertain reason. What was once an 11,00-foot-high volcano has been whittled down by glaciers to its single lava plug, an andesite core left after 100,000 years. What you’ll find on the peak are the lightning-melted spots of fulgurite, a re-crystalized glassy rock that pocks the summit boulders.
Thielsen is no climb for the weak-hearted. It demands endurance, stamina, sureness of hands, and outright skill…
Cool. Sounds like a great hike. But then it went on to say:
…the final ascent is a dangerous technical climb that requires ropes and climbing partners to aid you. Any ascent past the topmost ledge, a Class 4 rock climb, is done at you own risk Only experienced climbers should attempt this final pitch. …to attempt the summit, continue straight up the ridge 1.2 miles on a climber’s trail spiraling to the right around the eastern ledge at the base of the 80-foot peak. The drop from this ledge to the east is thousands of feet, a dizzying view down to the deserts of Eastern Oregon. Do not climb to the peak without rock climbing experience; rockfall and exposure makes this pitch dangerous.
Hmmm. What’s the point of going almost all the way to the top, and then being unable to do the final 80 feet? I guess I needed to get some “rock climbing experience” before doing much more of this uphill hiking stuff. We have some friends who are members of The Mazamas, a Portland-area mountaineering club founded in 1894. Every spring they offer a Basic Climbing Education Program (BCEP), a six-week introductory course to climbing. It consists of Tuesday evening lectures, and field sessions on the weekend (often both Saturday and Sunday). I applied this year an was accepted. Our team, Team 12, consisted of 9 students, 2 volunteer instructors, and 9 assistants. Here are some pictures taken during the course.
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- Indoor rock climbing practice at Mazamas HQ
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- Team 12 at trailhead of first hike, Mt. Hamilton.
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- At end of Elevator shaft hike, Multnomah Falls.
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- Rock climbing field session at Horsethief Butte in Eastern Washington.
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- Looking up from the bottom of the pitch before starting the climb.
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- On my way up.
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- One more move and I’ll be at the top.
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- Me top-belaying the next climber,
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- Starting the rappel back down
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- Some views from field sessions in the Columbia River Gorge
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- Snow field session on Mount Hood
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- Climbing out to Indian Point on a foggy day
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- View from Indian Point through a rare clearing in the fog
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- Everyone crowded at the top of Indian Point
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- The start of the longest and hardest hike of the course. Only two students showed up for this one.
