Mount Hood Attempt (Mountaineering)
The trip is often worth it, even if you don't make the destination
Mount Hood Attempt (Mountaineering)
Notable Visited Landmarks
Mountains
Introduction
Coming into the weekend starting May 29, 2021, year 2 of the covid, Kayla, Dad and I were looking to get into the mountains to take advantage of some good weather. As snow was continually melting off the mountains, we wanted to take on a larger objective to get into better shape for later in the season. So, when a friend of mine who had done King Creek Ridge a week prior said that the crux of Mount Hood would was snowed in but he was going to give it an attempt I decided Mount Hood would be a good objective for us.
In good summer conditions Mount Hood would be a moderate scramble with 1300m of elevation gain if approached from King Creek and 1450m if approached from King Creek Ridge. I was a bit skeptical of my friend’s judgement thinking it could be scrambled so early, so we brought crampons and ice axes. This was a good call, as conditions were much more difficult than expected. We were turned around about 50 vertical meters from the summit due to bad conditions but before that we went through a couple hundred meters of steep snow and the day ended up being 13.6km and 1730m of elevation gain due to snow complications trying to get from King Creek Ridge to Hood.
If you are interested in bagging this peak, I would not recommend ascending at this time of year. If you are looking for a fun mountaineering adventure, and don’t care about summiting then getting up to pass between Hood and Brock under good conditions could be a fun trip.
Approach
We started on the King Creek Ridge trail a couple minutes before 7AM, the trail up to King Creek Ridge was dry, and elevation was gained pretty quickly. Once on the ridge there was some snow, but it was hard packed which was nice. Once we got to the latter part of the ridge we realized that there was a lot of snow and this was not going to be an easy day, there was in fact more than 500 vertical meters of snow to ascend if we wished to make the summit. We made it to the top of King Creek Ridge in about 1:45h where we took a break and discussed our plans to head over to Mount Hood.
Hard packed snow on King Creek Ridge
View looking south from the 1st peak of King Creek Ridge
Mount Hood is center right, there is a lot of snow on the route up
At the low point between the 2 peaks of King Creek Ridge there is a steep gully initially having vegetation that led down from the ridge which for the most part is guarded by cliffs. We started down this gully and after crossing a couple meters of snow came to a class 2 downclimb. After descending in the gully one cliff band further and passing some more snow we cut skiers left between the trees and cliffs to a new gully that was relatively dry. Due to snow in the trees, we descended this gully down to King Creek which was about 280m below the ridge, it was not great knowing we would need to ascend this on our way back.
Looking down the gully we took to get to King Creek
Cutting across into the next gully skiers left below the cliffs
On the left bank of the creek we started gaining elevation on dry ground taking us above the headwall on the slope leading to Mount Hood. After passing some bushes without leaves we got to a slope of hard packed snow. The rest of the way up was on snow. We put on the crampons, took out the ice axes and started up the slope towards the steeper part of the mountain.
At King Creek, headwall ahead, we took the grassy slope to the left
Gaining elevation on dry ground
Crampons on, and they stayed on for hours
Going up the easy slope towards the difficult section
The Climb
As we approached the more difficult terrain, we could better plot out our route, the whole time the path up looked incredibly daunting. There were larger gullies housing either avalanche debris or debris from fallen cornices and outside of these gullies the terrain looked pretty steep (it was). We decided it was best to stay out of the big gullies, so our route involved sticking climber’s right of the large gully to climber’s left of the scrambling gully until we were high enough to gain a ramp taking us climber’s right to the upper gully leading to the col between Hood and Brock. Our original plan was to take the upper gully to the col but as we got there, we saw that we could stick climber’s left of this gully and we were able to find a way onto the ridge. Luckily, the snow for this whole section was hard packed and didn’t show much instability.
Our approximate line up the mountain, dots near the top represent the steep chimney
Starting the more technical section the snow was a bit softer than on the way up. We hugged the rock to climber’s left and gained elevation on the wide rib bringing us to a ramp build of snow above the gullies to our right. We took this ramp up and to climber’s right towards the cliffs above us. When we got close to the cliffs, we traversed climber’s right towards the gully leading to the col.
Dad and Kayla starting on the more technical section
The initial slope is quite steep
Kayla and Dad coming up the wide rib
Kayla and Dad coming across the snow ramp
Once we could bypass the cliffs we went vertically up and skirted around some larger rock to climber’s right. This brought us to a narrow gully angling up and to climber’s left. We followed this almost to the ridge with a narrow snow filled chimney close to the top. The slope in this gully is very steep, likely more than 60 degrees in places such as the chimney. Once at the vertical wall marking the ridge, we took a narrow ramp climber’s right for about 5m giving us access to the ridge.
Kayla and Dad coming up the steep slope, the cliffs we traversed around are below Dad and Kayla
Taking the wide gully up and to climber’s left, staying close to the rock
Dad and Kayla about to head up the steep chimney, you can see my steps going up
Kayla and Dad in the chimney
Kayla on the narrow ramp leading to the ridge
Once on the ridge the snow quality deteriorated significantly, and the slope was still steep. We made it about 50 vertical meters from the summit but turned around due to potential avalanche conditions. There was about a 1 foot layer of soft snow on top of a harder snow pack, this layer wanted to slide when we took steps.
Dad and Kayla on a drier part of the ridge
Dad coming up a steep section to regain the ridge
Beautiful views looking South from the ridge
View near our tournaround point
Egress
On our descent we followed our steps back off the technical section, we proceeded down the slope to King Creek and up the opposite end of the valley the way we came to King Creek Ridge. From the ridge we enjoyed a nice descent on easy trail. A very successful outing even if we didn’t summit.
Kayla descending steep terrain on dangerous snow just below the ridge
Dad descending the snow chimney
Dad and Kayla traversing across the snow ramp back to the rib
Descending the rib, terrain is still pretty steep
Re-ascending back to King Creek Ridge up the bush filled gully
Dad and Kayla at the class 2/3 climb near the top of King Creek Ridge