Category: Cascades South

Monkey Face, Pioneer Route

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Labor Day weekend usually marks our last hoorah in the alpine for the year.  It’s a nice long weekend, the weather is usually still nice, and the offices are still in “summer break mode”.  And while 2 of those things were true this year, the weather was not forecasting to be good.  Our treasured and coveted long weekend Eldorado Backcountry Zone permit was as useless as a keychain carabiner.  And while our alpine plans were ruined, we had a few ideas in our mind for Smith.  The Pioneer Route was high on the list.  And while not super techy for a crag day, we were really intrigued by the concept of getting to the top of the notable Monkey Face.  Not to mention the intrigue of climbing a big bolt ladder- something I had never done. [..]

Mt. Adams, Adams Glacier

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Annually since 2019, Jessica and I have humping our gear up the Killen Creek trail hoping to find the route in favorable conditions.  With the overheard objective hazard that this glacier presents, neither Jessica nor I wanted conditions to be anything less than stellar.  We were looking for was a good snow fill, with extremely low avalanche hazard, and cool temperatures.  Those variables finally looked like they’d line up for a splitter window on the July 4th weekend of 2022. [..]

Mt. Hood, Sandy Glacier Headwall

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A year ago, Jessica and I climbed a route on Mount Hood that we had been eyeing for quite some time, the Cathedral Ridge.  The route was just as dramatic and stunning as we had expected.  What neither of us expected was to be as awestruck when we crossed over the Yocum Ridge and were absolutely awestruck by the massive Sandy Glacier Headwall.  “Oh my god, this is huge”, distinctly went through my mind. [...]

Mt. Hood, Cathedral Ridge

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There are really 2 ways to climb the Cathedral Ridge. Either approached by Lolo Pass, all the way from the far northwest flank of the mountain. While scenic and pure, it requires climbers to somehow get back to their car when descending to Timberline.  Alternatively, it can be approached from the good ole south side. It begins with crossing over the Illumination Saddle, then the Reid Glacier, then the Yocum Ridge, then the Sandy Glacier, and then finally make the way onto the Cathedral Ridge. This effectively circumnavigates half the mountain. [...]

Mt. Hood, Devil’s Kitchen Headwall

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Bad luck or poor planning, whatever it was, Jessica and I set our eyes on this climb a couple years back but never managed to send it. Whether it was bailing in very dry conditions or forgetting our boots at home, we ended the 2019 season shot down by this “fairly straightforward” Mt Hood south side techy classic. And as 2020 came and left, we managed to keep ourselves busy with plenty of other climbs. But this spring, spotting a splitter sunny but cold weather window, we snuck out to Oregon to finally (hopefully) bang this one out together. [...]

Mt. Hood, Flying Buttress & Wy’east (DKH V3)

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As we began to make our way up the chute, the climbing stayed drama free. It was exactly what it looked like from below, fun and cruiser. We could see a trio of climbers below us in the distance below looking up at us. Below I knew it, I could feel the sun cresting over the ridge above. A few kicks later, looking over my left shoulder I could see the Wy’east ridge to the summit soaring up above us. “Woahhhhhh, Jess, this is beautiful! When you get up here look over your left shoulder!” [...]

Mt. Hood, DKH V2

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Last year Jessica and I had so many failed attempts at the Devils Kitchen Headwall that we ended up deeming just uttering its name to be unlucky. The fails were not climbing fails, per se... forgetting our boots at home, seriously bad ice fall conditions, etc. By the time we actually managed to give it a shot, it was in condition thin enough that I didn’t deem reasonable to climb half-way through. I bailed off an extremely sketchy screw placement in aerated ice and called it a season for the Headwall. [...]

Mt. Hood, Steel Cliffs South Face

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We followed the traces of our boot pack from 2 days prior, almost completely erased by the constant spindrift. The snow was a ton more stable and far less of a pain in the ass to break trail through. (That wouldn’t last.) We pretty quickly realized that we didn’t do much research about the route, the lower section of which proved to be far longer than expected. [...]

Mt. Rainier, Kautz Glacier

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Technical climbing info Mountain: Mount RainierElevation: 14,411ftRoute: Kautz Glacier, descent via Disappointment CleaverLength: 9,000ftGrade: III, AI2-3 Schedule Day 1: Begin at the Paradise Parking Lot, ascend to Camp Hazard via the Wilson Glacier.Day 2: Climb the Kautz Ice Chute and traverse the upper Nisqually Glacier to the summit crater.  Descend the Disappointment Cleaver. If we were to do [...]

Mt. Hood, The Reid Headwall

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This Andean-esq rhyme clad committing route deserves to be climbed alpine style. We planned to simul-climb the entirety of the 2,000’ face, armed with a rack of screws, pickets, and a couple tiblocks for running protection. We knew that with the long warm days there would be falling ice. We would have to beat the sun before allowing it to bake the upper south west face so an early start and climbing speed would be a big factor.[...]