Mt. Hood Climb'n'Ski!

April 26th, 2013

Roll Call: Asit Rathod, Charlie Nesbitt, John Pew, Humaira Falkenberg, Frank Palermo, Erik Schmidt, and Lindsey Clark

Making some fun turns on West Crater Rim. Photo by Erik Schmidt.

On Thursday during my lunch break, I happened to check out facebook and noticed a new message. It was from Asit Rathod: the outlandish Oregon ski personality I had never met in real life, but had recently developed an internet-based friendship with due to our common obsession with all things skiing.

"Hey hey Lady!! Have a 4am CAT for tomorrow. You and you husband should come join for a summit ski/party!!"

Phone calls to Erik during work hours are typically reserved for emergencies only, but I immediately called him without a second thought. Of course he was in! We got home from work around 6, packed up all our gear, and rallied in the van up to Timberline. The views were spectacular on our drive!

Nice view of Mt. Jefferson in the sunset!

On the way, we invited our climbing buddies Humaira and Frank, who were equally willing to come to Hood on such short notice. Humaira drove over from the Washington coast, and Frank came from the John Day Fossil Beds in eastern Oregon. 

No strangers to our 3 AM alarm, Erik and I got dressed, grabbed our gear, ate some cold pizza (breakfast of champions!) and walked over to the climber's cave to meet up with the crew. We met John, Humaira and Frank... but where were Asit and Charlie? Right before 4 AM, a yellow FJ flew up the wrong way on a one-way road and into a parking spot right in front of the cave. They were here!

In the snowcat, we groggily swapped stories of ski adventures and speeding tickets while passing a handful of climbers slogging up the snowfield. At the top, the driver unloaded our gear and drove away, leaving us at the top of the Palmer glacier under the light of the full moon.

We cramponed up the slope above Palmer in the darkness. As the sun began to rise, we were treated to a rainbow-colored sky! It was magical.

Looking back (and I'm glad we did!), we were treated to a perfect shadow of the mountain cast on the valley below us.

Amazing alpine moment. Photo by Erik Schmidt.

Once we reached Crater Rock, a few of our crew ditched their boards, and we took a couple of photos before marching up the Hogsback.

Devil's Kitchen in the morning sun... glorious!

Silly boys

Papa John? John Sandwich?

Based on weather observations and beta from a descending climber, Erik, Frank, Humaira and I decided to ascend the Old Chute rather than the Pearly Gates. We were experiencing a little bit of icefall as the rising sun began to soften the rime on the cliffs above us.

On our way up Old Chute, chunks of ice began whizzing past us with increased frequency. I wasn't too worried, as I had a helmet on and kept my head down. Then, one particularly large and well-located chunk of ice smacked into me... right on my right boob! Bam! That one hurt for sure!

Humaira ascending Old Chute, with Erik and I following. Photo by Frank Palermo.

Topping out after climbing the chute leaves you on a nice, narrow ridge to the summit. It is easy enough to walk up, but the exposure up there is a little intense!

I walked up the last small slope up to the summit, encouraged by cheering from Erik, Frank, Humaira, and John.

Frank and Humaira descended after a short time on the summit, downclimbing back to Crater Rock where they'd left their boards. Asit and Charlie, taking a purposefully leisurely pace up the mountain, had yet to arrive. John, Erik and I hung out for well over an hour on the windless summit, meeting a handful of people as they came and went off the top of the mountain.

I started feeling pretty crappy after being up there for a while: dizzy, disoriented, and nauseous. I descended just a bit -- maybe 50 vertical feet -- which made me feel much better. We were still waiting for the snow to soften, and for Asit and Charlie to show up.

Finally, I'd had enough and was ready to descend. I stopped caring about the firm snow as I was concerned about having my wits about me while skiing Old Chute. Right as I turned around and started walking, I saw a bright orange figure pop out of the rime at the top of the Pearly Gates. Asit and Charlie had arrived!

I walked back up to the summit for Asit's party. It was the first time summiting for three of us! We were all really happy to be standing on the top of Oregon on such a perfect day!

Asit's dance party, comin' at you live!

John, Erik, a new summit buddy and I headed over to the top of Old Chute to ski down. I was feeling woozy and slow, so I sat at the top of the line and watched everyone else drop in. It occurred to me that maybe I should take a photo, so I caught one just as our new summit buddy dropped in.

Check out the teeny Palmer chairlift way down below!

I worked my way through the narrow entrance, then started making some cautious turns as the chute widened. With open, steaming fumaroles directly below you, falling is really not an option! My skis got going faster than I wanted, and the snow was pretty firm and chattery, but I was able to link some decent turns together and was relieved to meet up with John and Erik at the bottom of the chute.

John took off at that point, as he had to get to work in Hood River. Erik and I made the most of the rest of our descent, by first skiing West Crater Rim, then over to Illumination Saddle. The lower we descended, the better the snow skied!

West Crater Rim:

Photo by Erik Schmidt

Illumination Saddle:

Photo by Erik Schmidt

Once we reached the elevation of the Timberline ski area, it was really hot out! I had to ditch all my layers at the Silcox Hut just to ski comfortably. Then it took tons of concentration to ski to the Timberline Lodge without being grabbed by the snow yeti and thrown over the handlebars!

Photo by Erik Schmidt

Back at the parking lot, we met back up with Frank and Humaira who had skied down on their own. The four of us had originally met a few years ago on the north side of Hood, so we celebrated our successful reunion!

Here's a bonus photo of our luxury, slopeside accomodations:

Rumble Vanskin is his element!

Many thanks to Asit for inviting us along for the quintessential Oregon ski mountaineering experience!! And congratulations to Charlie for your first trip to the top of Oregon!


xoxo
Lindsey

Operation Track Out Broken Top

March 23rd, 2013

Skiers: Court Brock, Erik Schmidt, and Lindsey Clark

A special visitor came to town from Tahoe, interested in skiing big lines and good snow. You know what that means... we headed to Broken Top.

The plan was to ski Pucker first, then traverse over to the crater to ski whatever else looked good. On our way across the meadow, we saw some tiny ants making their way up the ridge: we'd been beaten to it! Not to fear, the mountain is huge and full of ski lines. So we changed our plans and headed straight for the crater. On our way, we saw the cornice on the top of Pucker collapse.

Cutting the cornice before skiing Pucker is a totally reasonable thing to do: it can be helpful to make an entrance into the line, you can use it to observe the current avalanche conditions, and it is easy to see if anyone is down below you so you don't take them out. We figured it was part of the group's plan, witnessed the huge sluff with awe, and were on our way.

We skinned over to the southeast ridge, and began booting up a fun, hidden couloir that Erik really likes called 1:59. Court was breaking trail, Erik second, and I was bringing up the rear. As we were approaching the top, I heard voices behind me, and realized that the group from Pucker was in the bootpack behind us! Two groups of skiers in the same bootpack on one big, wild mountain. I still don't know what they were thinking. Chatting at the top, we found out that the cornice break in Pucker was not intentional. Scary!

We got out of there quickly, and skied the fun line.

Me:

Erik:

Next, we skinned up the moraine and up to the top of the 1:00 face. Court was excited to be on the very top of a pile of rock!

 

While he was up there, he took a photo of Erik and I down below.

We skied past a rad rock pinnacle, and down into the crater.

Erik:

Me:

Court was pretty happy about how his ski day was going.

We decided to ski a third line on our way out, and headed over to 3:00 couloir. It already had tracks in it from the other group, and was pretty sun-affected with lots of balling, but none of us were complaining!

Court:

Me:

We did our best to track out Broken Top that day. Between our group skiing three lines, and the other group skiing five, we had almost the entire front of the mountain covered in skin tracks, boot packs, and turns. Our apologies to everyone who went out the next day!

Check out Court's photos from the rest of his Oregon volcano tour at powdork.com.

Relatively Obscure Shelter in the Woods

March 7, 8, and 9 2013

Skiers: Lindsey Clark and Erik Schmidt

Erik had been wanting to go on this trip for years. We spent a day a few summers ago on a reconaissance mission that involved hours of driving my Tacoma on an extremely steep and bumpy jeep trail to a relatively obscure shelter in the woods. Due to its proximity to some remote, lesser-known mountains with rad-looking ski terrain, he really wanted to see what it was all about.

The time was finally right to check out this particular spot in the winter: I had some time off of work, we had two functioning snowmobiles, and (most importantly) we had a big, low-elevation storm that covered the entire center of Oregon in well over a foot of snow in the days before our trip. It was on! We packed up some overnight gear, loaded up the snowmobiles, and drove South.

We arrived to an unplowed sno-park. Erik, with utmost confidence in Rumble Vanskin's abilities, plowed into over two feet of snow, with multiple layers from recent storms. We got stuck.

First, we started digging. Then the snowmobiles came out to take weight off the trailer, shoot some snow out of our path, and pack down the rest. Erik disconnected the trailer so we could focus on getting the van out, which eventually did happen! Once the van was unstuck and parked in a reasonable location, we had to move the trailer. We did some synchronized snowmobiling to tow the trailer through the snowy parking lot, back to the van.

After all that effort, we decided to gather all our extra food and spend two nights in the shelter, rather than the one we had originally planned for. With huge relief and plenty of anticipation, we hit the approximately 20-mile trail to the shelter.

The ride out was amazing: freshly-groomed trails with fresh powder on top, riding along ridgelines with expansive views of the surrounding area as the sun set! 

As we got closer to our destination, we rode into a storm that sucked all the light from the sky. We left the sno-park in the sunshine, and arrived at the shelter in a snowstorm!

The first order of business was to dig out the front doors, make some steps, and build a fire in the wood stove. Then dinner, then popcorn, then to bed... to be fully prepared for a big day of chasing powder!

The next day dawned in classic conditions: cold and clear. We set off toward our objective, crossing two frozen lakes and within a few miles, beginning to climb the mountain.

The mountain was full of possibilities! We headed toward looker's right, where there were some beautiful chutes just begging to be skied! We skinned past lots of steep ice, which was definitely a sign of what we'd encounter higher up on the mountain where the exposed slopes had seen plenty of wind during the storm.

As we got higher, and the snow got more firm, we decided to stop climbing and enjoy some nice turns back down the face we'd just climbed up. They sure were enjoyable!

We headed back across the lakes and through the woods to the shelter, where we spent another cozy/cold night. Discovered a sign of a notorious visitor from the past...

The next day, we explored some other ski terrain near the shelter, then did our final frozen lake crossing and headed out.

The area is full of possibilities, and we can't wait to get back out there and explore some more! If you want to know where this sweet little spot is located, I won't tell you here... but we will take you there!