5/1/02
After my oral thesis defense on Monday, we gathered up the chillen' and streaked for the coast. I needed to put a physical (and mental) gap in place for a good 24 hours and the coast seemed a good place to do it. The kids are always down with the camping gig, especially when the beach is involved.
Arrived back at the house to find a message from Matt, who is almost always up for a mid-week ski. Naturally more mental health-adjusting is always in order, so I gave Matt a call back and confirmed the date. As much time as Matt & I have spent grubbing around Mt. Hood - we'd never been to the top together . . . so a summit effort seemed the obvious choice.
The plan was, conditions permitting, to do a descent all the way down to Government Camp - a descent of about 7000 vertical feet. Neither one of us had any idea about how manky that descent from Timberline might be - but who cared? We'd been contemplating the MEGA-descent from the top all the way down for a while, and it seemed like the right day to squeeze it off - not matter how absurd. So we left the Oldsmo-bubba at the lot at the pass, and made our way up to Timberline. The drive up to the pass had been absolute pea-soup . . . literally driving 20mph from reflector to reflector. We punched through the deck at about 5000 feet, and the moon came into view. NICE.
| Taking the carpets for a walk - just prior to 6AM. Timberline lot below right. |
|
We were skinning by just after 5:30. The wind became more and more of a factor as we ascended. by the time we reached the top of the Palmer we were in the vortex, and bailing maneuvers were being considered. Gusts were in the 40-45mph range, making skinning on the rock-hard surface even more taxing. I was guessing that once we got into the crater's pocket things might die down - Matt agreed - we'd probably know in the next 30-40 min if the summit wasn't going to happen.
| Sunrise lighting up the wind-driven snow plume up top |
|
| I think we missed our chance to be first on this route this year... |
|
Sure enough, as we ascended the wind started to settle down. By the time we reached a point just above the White River Glacier, things were almost calm . . . allowing us to fill our lungs with the sulfur spew from the crater's hot spots even more effectively. We put on our crampons at this point and shouldered our sliding tools.
| Devil's Kitchen to the right pumping the aromas |
|
| Matt approaching the Hogsback |
|
| The ramp up to the Pearly Gates is a place of stunning scenery, which always makes you feel not so bad for stopping to suck the O's for a while. |
|
The cloud deck below us persisted all day, making the place seem even more lofty - like an island in the sky.
| Looking down from about 5000 feet above the clouds. Timberline's lifts can be seen as a thin line mid-photo |
|
The summit was nearly still, and completely sun-drenched. Almost unimagineably comfortable compared to the wind-blast a few hours earlier.
| Matt crossing the summit area |
|
|
Looking down the Cooper Spur route. I knew the top was pretty steep, but
this glance down the route probably
has caused its removal from the must-do ski descent list...
PUCKER! |
|
| Matt humpin his gear up to Oregon's highest picnic area |
|
| Jigsaw puzzle for ages 6-11 |
|
| Matt about to descend thru some of the man-eating sastrugi |
|
Our plan had been to descend the Mazama Chute. We made our way across a particularly airy traverse directly above the Snowdome to what we thought was its entrance, but it appeared to be hideously choked with rime ice. Perhaps we were looking down the wrong chute? We decided instead to back up and descend the standard route. The summit plateau had about 3-4 inches of powder snow on it, effectively hiding the sastrugi lying in wait, making for rough powder turns with teeth-chattering, bone-knocking interruptions ("dust-on-cubes?"). We scraped our way down to the top of the Pearly Gates - Matt squeezed through on his Board - I re-shouldered the sticks and down-climbed thru. I had a bit of the "Singer-legs" working by this point - so putting the skis back on below the gates was a touchy business. Skiied back down and rejoined Matt on the Hogsback.
| The snow was already softening up nicely. Made a few turns into the crater and then around Crater Rock and out. |
|
| By this time the skiing was too good & I was too tired to think to take many photos. We continued down and then skiers right of the Palmer chair and made hundreds and hundreds of velvety-smooth turns in the corn. The snow was like silk. |
|
Made our way down to the top of the Alpine trail and exited the ski area and back into the cloud deck for the jaunt down to Government Camp. Now this is a fun little poke mid-winter with 6 or more inches of powder on it. But, in addition to the punchiness acquired from the summit climb and the ~ 6000 vertical feet we'd already skiied, the snow here became increasingly coated with all manner of organic material (dust, pollen, sticks, & other tree-ejecta) so the skiing became a riddle of variable speed front- and back-seat driving. We soon entered into the top of the Summit ski area and it was done. 7000 vertical feet of skiing (with a brief boot interlude) in a single pop!
After throwing all of our junk back into the Old-mobile, we made the shuttle back up to the Timberline lot to get back into the sun and sample some fine Creston, B.C. products.
| Matt making preparations for a well deserved post-descent Kokanee |
|
This was definitely one of those 'concept descents' that had to be done because it could be done . . . . and will probably be repeated exactly zero times.