Mt. Hood Training - Sunday, April 28, 2013

Hanging out on the snowcat road.

Sometimes there's no better way to train than taking the gear out for a trial climb in the snow. On Sunday (4/28) I gathered some of my Denali tools and headed up to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood with my friend Dave.

My primary goal was to stress test my crampons while wearing overboots; Dave wanted to experience Hood for the first time in preparation for an ascent in June. We ended up hiking two miles or so above the lodge in the ski area along the snowcat road.

The conditions were intermittently gnarly. At times the sky would clear, but for the most part we couldn't see more than a hundred feet as the wind howled and clouds hugged the ground. If not for the well-placed poles along the road we easily would have been lost.

The only time we could see the mountain.

After a few hours we turned around and headed back to the car. Had conditions been better we would have climbed higher up the Palmer Glacier. I think Dave still had gas in his tank, but my will to continue was diminished by the weather and by carrying a heavy pack and pulling a sled filled with cat litter jugs.

Overall the day was a success - based on how my crampon/overboot combo performed I decided to make a change before Denali, and Dave got a taste for what to expect on Hood.