Mt. Hood Summit Report - Saturday, May 13th, 2023

Date: Saturday, May 13th, 2023
Location: Mount Hood National Forest, Hood River County, Oregon
Elevation: 11,249 ft (3,429 m)
Partners: Alex S., Doug G., Will A.
Conditions: Strong winds at lower elevations during the night, decreasing with elevation and time. Almost no wind at top, very good visibility with sunrise. Very (record?) warm, 11pm alpine start required for sunrise summit. Snow mostly consolidated, some slight breakthrough at lower elevation but very firm and icy higher up. Fumarole (sulfer, methane) scented wind above 9k ft.
Notable Gear: Crampons, secondary ice axe.
Report:

When Mt. Hood is experiencing record high temps, you gotta leave Seattle around 4pm to get to Timberline Lodge for an early, early alpine start with enough time to spare for a sit down dinner at McMenamins. If the more scenic McMenamins on the Columbia is packed, you’re sure to find a table with no wait at the East Vancouver joint. It’s in a stripmall. After stuffing yourself with a worrying volume of carbs and fat—tell yourself it’s just enough fuel for the climb—you’ll want to stock up on gas station snacks. Choose as you’d like but caffeine should pair nicely with the mountain adrenaline to get you through the night and the right candy selection just might save your life in a pinch. I’d recommend gummy bears or peanut butter M&Ms but that’s just me.

We pulled into the lot just before 11pm on Friday and could see others camping or prepping gear. The lot started to fill up slowly and there were a couple headlamps winding up the slopes ahead of us. We were climbing by 11:15pm and kept a quick pace past two other parties until there was just one light way above us. It was windy with strong gusts but it was warm too and the wind kept us cool while we hiked. The trail is well established and you can follow cat tracks and clear boot trails all the way up to the top of the ski lift, about 8,500ft. From here, snow is firmer and it’s as good a spot as any to strap on your crampons if you haven’t already. Trudge up around Crater Rock to the Hogsback snow ridge. The rock is a pretty distinct feature and there will be a good flatish spot to rest near the base and below the large Devil’s Kitchen fumarole before you head up to the Hogsback. You’ll likely smell the fumaroles strongly above 9,500ft. The Hogsback ridge is where you should make a final decision on your intended summit route because you traverse off to the left for Old Chute and continue one up the ridge to the bergschrund for Pearly Gates. We opted for Pearly Gates because we were up very early and there were only a couple climbers ahead of us and a good gap behind us before the conga line would be coming up. There’s a short traverse, maybe 50ft, to the bottom of the Pearly Gates chute and it will be on one of several boot ledges that have been cut out. It’s steep right here and a long slide down to Devil’s Kitchen and the fumaroles so be careful and step with purpose. The Pearly Gates climb was probably the favorite section for our group. Dawn was just breaking and the slow blue of first light started to creep in from the summit illuminating beautiful rime ice formations. We opted to bring two ice axes for security and peace of mind. Plenty did it with a single ice axe as it is well stepped out by now but many climbers also used two. The chute forks into the left and right gates and you’ll want to choose based on conditions and traffic. We chose the right gate and experienced very minimal ice fall and well consolidated snow/ice. You come out of the chutes/gates and there’s a final, short snow field before you reach the summit. The sun was just coming up and we could see all of the volcanoes and rivers on the orange horizon. There was almost no wind and we were able to hang around taking pictures for a while before traversing the summit ridge to head down Old Chute. Old Chute was very steep and not at all stepped out so be prepared for several hundred feed of front point downclimbing before the crater levels out and you can traverse back to the Hogsback Ridge, down the glacier, down the snowfield and past the groomed ski runs to your car. We were back at the Accord by about 8:30a after taking our sweet ass time getting down.