The Spur!

Problem: It's officially summer, and I haven't been climbing at all. Not good in keeping with my idea of getting better at mountaineering.

Solution: Sean and I head out to Mount hood a day before Beck and I leave for Idaho for a week long rafting trip.

So we did, and it was a looooong climb. The snow on Hood this time of year was really slushy, even before the sun came up. Recent heat waves melted a lot of the snow I thought would stick around until late August.

We got to the trailhead around 10:00 at night and since there was lightening all around the mountain, decided to sleep in the car and get up early to start hiking.

As it turns out, we got little or no rain and the storms somehow steered clear of the mountain. So at 1:00am we started up and by daybreak were on the glacier starting our approach.

The slopes were something close to 55° and pure slush, making it extra long and hard to gain any traction or move efficiently.

It took us until 8:30 to reach the summit ridge and we were extremely exhausted, and not feeling like eating anything at all even though our bodies needed SOMETHING besides beef jerky.

Because the fall line is over a cliff, we decided to backstep down about 2000ft to be safe and then glissade down a safe part of the spur.

Max speed reached on glissade: 19mph

In reality it was more of a freefall than a controlled glissade. There was no self arresting so I was super glad we didn't attempt to simply climb back down the upper section through the chimneys, as a fall there would have meant a long way down the mountain.

Long day, tired shoulders and legs, but good to be on the mountain again. Sean and I decide to relegate spring and perhaps fall to mountains when the snow is better, and leave summer to ultimate and backpacking trips.

Check out some more pics here.