One Pic TR: Mt. Hood Old Chute, 4-13-08

[alpinepronghorn]

First sunny weekend here in Portland; time to start ticking off some of the checkboxes... E and I started the spring off with a warmup lap on the South side of Mt. Hood, in the Old Chute. Left the car at 7:15 under sunny skies and warm temps, and after hanging out with the rope teams up to the top of Palmer, made it to the hogsback by 10:30.

Conditions looked to be perfect: smooth snow that was corning up nicely on the south-facing slopes, so I had my hopes up for the upper chute. No such luck. Just as we entered the Old Chute, wind kicked up and formed a lenticular over the summit, temps dropped, and snow seemed to freeze right back up. So after no more than tagging the summit, we stumbled back down the knife edge to the top of the chute, wanting to get down asap.

Considering the first turn:


Conditions were tough, but passable: refrozen styrofoam; the kind you love to boot up knowing it'll soften up in an hour. The Old isn't too steep (mid 30's?), but it kept my attention today. Once over the hogsback, we enjoyed great corn (particularly on the headwall at the top of the white river canyon) until joining the throngs at Timberline pushing slush.

All in all, a great start to the season, and a step toward some other goals:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...t=hood+summit"

[gpcharles]

i mean... doesn't sound perfect, but it sounds like a hell of alot of fun. some time i'll get out to hood for a few weeks for something besides a racing camp and do some real skiing! fresh stoke for that dream mucho appreciated!

[cramer]

All in all, a great start to the season, and a step toward some other goals:

that tr was the 2nd tr i ever read on these boards. All ive got to say is you guys have some big balls and are quite skilled. People die climbing that route and you guys snap on some ski's and ski it. unbelievable. I look forward to seeing your tr of the summit, needless to say.

[splat]

Nice one, aph. Only one photo?

[ptavv]

I did Wy'east on Saturday solo (so no pics).

Was perfect (although I was up there really early and then hung out for a bit until snow softened up just enough).



Ascended red, descended blue (and lower blue where it forks into or around Triangle Moraine). Then hitched back to Meadows from White River.

Then played golf at 2:30.

Saturday was fuckin awesome.

[alpinepronghorn]

Nice one, aph. Only one photo?

Yeah, unless you want to see some of my low-angle steeze... Once I start carrying my camera again you might see a return to the old TRs. In the meantime, I'm just happy to be getting the boards up over 10,000...