We decided that since we were climbing on Friday/Saturday we should get an early start to beat the crowds to the top. We left Portland at 10:00 PM and arrived at Timberline Lodge at 11:30 PM. We started the climb at just after midnight.
Brian near Timberline Lodge. Notice the flag blowing in the background.
Matt, Brian and Scott during a food and water break at 2:30 AM
Sean
"Hey guys, I can't feel my hands". Matt trying to regain feeling in his hands. He was only wearing medium weight gloves and the cold temps and wind were stealing all the heat from this fingers. Luckily as we climbed higher the winds decreased and the cold hands were soon forgotten.
Brian making his way up to the hogsback.
Twilight moon near the Hogsback - 4:31 AM - 10,500 feet
Sunrise light while ascending the old chute. 5:00 AM. ~10,800 feet.
Sean and Brian ascending the old chute. Notice all of the climbers on the Hogsback (middle left). Our group ended up being the 2nd group to reach the summit. Luckily we didn't get caught in the traffic jam.
Matt in the old chute. Notice all of the rime ice on the rocks near the horizon. This is not normal for the last week in June...it usually would be all rock by now.
Mt Hood Sunrise - 5:40 AM - 11,237 feet
"Stands in Silence" As the sun rises behind Mt Hood, a perfect pyramid shaped shadow is cast upon the surrounding landscape. Definitely my favorite image from the climb!
A view of the Cascade Range looking south from the Summit. Mt Jefferson is the first peak (~50 miles away) and the Three Sisters and Broken Top are further back. A nice fog layer was filling the valleys below.
Brian and Matt
Sean
Scott
Brian, Matt, Sean
Brian
Sean and Matt.
Matt preparing his pack for the descent.
Brian, Sean and Matt on the summit ridge. The summit ridge has a knife edge this year. One wrong step in this area would not be good!
Looking down the northeast face of Hood. It is a LONG way down from here!
Old chute traffic jam. This is why we started early. There are 35 climbers visible in this photo and there were about another 20 who had just reached the top.
Looking up the hogsback to the bergschrund.
From here Matt and Brian skied down and Scott and Sean descended on foot. It was too cold to glissade so the descent took a bit longer than anticipated. Everyone was down by ~9:15 and we were on our way back to Portland by 9:45 AM.
