The first time I went to mount Hood was during a summer camp with the Vancouver Ski Team. I was in 2nd year K2 but i was able to snag a spot with the FIS team for the week camp. It was also my future coach Andrew's first trip as head VST coach. We were cruising down the I-5 when we the van started making some weird noises. He pulled over at a mechanics and found out the drive shaft was on about to come apart. As I remember, if we drove any further it would have broke, hit the pavement and javelined the van off the road... maybe that was an exaggeration, but the older kids in the van were very convincing. We rented a suburban and either Andrew or Sean shuttled us and the gear to government camp while the other dealt with the van. I never understood what these guys went through taking care of us until I started coaching years later... thanks guys. The next morning we woke up very early, went for a run, breakfast, packed the suburban and up the road to timberline. Seeing that mountain was unreal, and then spending a week on palmer skiing in august was a dream. I remember the early mornings riding the chairs up to the cat track with the smell of sulphur all around. Then after skiing heading back to government camp and getting a huck shake, lounging around in the heat and if we were lucky having a nap for dryland. I went back for several summers and whenever I was there I would just stare at the summit and think about standing on the top.
11 years or so later, after a brutal week of midterms, school work and perfect freeze thaw conditions on the mountain I went for the summit. With my friend Dylan we started skinning up the south side at 8 am and made quick time to the top of palmer. Then finally I moved above the upper lift station towards the crater. Past illumination rock, crater rock, the kitchen to the hogs back. Switched over to crampons and headed up the old chute. We made the summit at 1 pm and hungout in the sun waiting for the snow to soften up a bit. Then I dropped in on the 40 deg old chute for some of the best corn snow i've ever skied (specially in november haha). We shredded all the way to illumination rock on west side of crater rock. Then continued down the zig zag glacier before traversing back into the ski area and to the car for a beer. It was a pretty cool experience and I can't wait to head back up there.
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| only iphone pics, I didn't feel like bringing my SLR |
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| hanging out at the bergschrund |
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| looking down at timberline and the palmer snowfield where I used to ski |
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| summit ridge |
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| haha summit pose... sorry |
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| dylan making turns down to illumination rock |
