5/22/01
We knew it was going to be a warm one today (forecast highs in Portland of 90+ . . . normal is upper 60's or low 70's), and the Wy'East face starts getting morning sunshine very early because of its exposure. We met in Hood River at a very early 4am, but fully stoked. Plan was to complete the 5000 vertical foot climb by 10am or so, and then drop in. The drive up to Meadows parking area already had Mt. Hood illuminated partially by very early morning light.
| Matt works hard for style points behind the world's smallest RV. |
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Arrived and were on our way by 0450. The temperature at the base of the area (now closed) was pretty warm already. So we weren't sure if there had been any refreezing / hardening of the snow overnight. First few steps on the snow confirmed that overnight hardening had been pretty minimal. We agreed that we were OK with some tough travel and some sticky skiing, but would draw the line if things started looking too loose or wet up high. By about the 7000 foot level the glop was actually starting to firm, just a little.
| The Wy'East Face looms above |
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The thin snowpack from the season became obvious when we started above the top of the Cascade lift. There was a break in the coverage here but started back up again by the time we were looking down on the upper part of Heather Canyon. We continued up the ridge dividing the Newton Clark and White River drainages on a thin line of scree, wondering what sort of shape the snow was in up this high. The rock line reached a terminus where we took a break. Neither of us gave the snow a shove at this point, maybe for fear of knowing that the snow was too wet to go any further. At this point we had done about 3500 feet of climbing.
Break over, we put skins away and skis on the pack and started up the snow slope. The snow was firm!! At least reasonably so such that 1-2 inch deep steps could be kicked in it. We were stoked. By about the 9000 foot level the pitch steepened and we continued to roll. I kicked steps for a while.
| Looking down from above the Heather Canyon. |
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At about 9500 feet the pitch steepened again to 35 degrees or possibly a little more, and the sunshine that the face had been receiving for the previous few hours was clearly starting to take a toll on the snow. My Scarpas started to sink a little deeper with each step - perhaps to about 1/2 way up the boot. Matt was wearing snowboard boots, and found that their wider footprint kept him from sinking quite so deeply - so he took over the stair- building duties.
| Matt punches in some sweet steps. Snow gettin' a little soft. |
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Matt punched in and made some serious progress for quite a while. However, at around 10 grand we were both beginning to sink a little too deep for comfort. Too bad . . . the top of the face was only a few hundred vertical feet away. The time was about 10am and we agreed that the final pitch in these conditions was not only going to take us far too long to climb, the climbing as the pitch steepened into the final couloir (about 45 degrees) was probably not going to be entirely safe, and at the very least not fun. We packed down a little platform in a safe spot near the base of the couloir and took a break.
The pitch on the face is awesome. 40 degrees initially mellowing to about 30-35 down to the top of the White River drainage. We both were a little unclear about how the first few turns were going to feel on the softening snow. Matt did the honors . . . the turns on his Split Board were almost slow motion affairs.
| Matt does first turn honors. You can see the Timberline parking lot down there at the pointer. Mt. Jefferson upper left. |
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| One good turn deserves a couple more. The Meadows parking lot is at the pointer at the upper left. |
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Those turns must have been good . . . he didn't stop to do a visual belay for me until he had put down maybe a hundred turns! Sweet.
| A few good turns deserve 100 more! Matt makes like a dot at the end of all of those turns |
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| Finishing off some turns on the lower face. |
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At about the 8000 foot level we started getting into some heavier stuff but it still wasn't a problem. We traversed out of the White River drainage and regained the ridge separating White River and Newton Clark and (mostly) skied our way back down to just above the Cascade lift. The winds blowing over the bare ridges had fully loaded the snow in places with grit - making the descent sort of an "etch-a-sketch" experience and making our tracks pretty easy to pick out from way below.
| What was and what might have been... Our progress was arrested at the bottom of the couloir demarked by the 2 rocks at the left of the upper face. Top of the Cascade chairlift to the left. |
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Below 7000 feet the glop made the skiing a chore, but each time the
thighs would call for a rest, it gave an excuse to stop and take a
look at our tracks way up on the face. By the time we returned to
Matt's rig they were still barely visible almost 5000 vertical feet
above us.