A straightfoward climb with steep snow section to the highest peak of Oregon
Mount Hood is a pretty straightforward climb with steep snow sections. I highly recommend bringing touring skis, since skiing down before Devils Kitchen is pretty easy. You can stash your skis at Devils Kitchen and save at least 1.5 to 2 hours, because you can ski 4000 ft of descent from there all the way back to the parking lot.
I told Chutang I wanted to climb Mount Hood five days before the attempt. To my surprise, she agreed even on such short notice, which was nice :)
We arrived at the Timberline Lodge parking lot at 8 pm and there were plenty of spots. From the lot you can see the entire route, and the climb really is straightforward. Expecting a noisy parking lot, we slept on and off until 1 am and started around 1:40 am.
We had to carry our skis for a short distance before we could start skinning. The snow got icy as we gained elevation, and we put ski crampons on around 7200 ft. The slopes steepened as we carried on. Chutang wasn't very comfortable with skinning (her third time touring), so she switched to boot crampons at 9000 ft. I'd actually recommend putting boot crampons on around 9200 ft, where you have a flat surface. Skinning isn't fun and boots are faster past that point, and you'll need crampons anyway after Devils Kitchen.
We reached Devils Kitchen in 4 hours and 50 minutes, and the smell of sulfur was uncomfortable. Wanting to move away from it quickly, we took a very short break, stashed our skis and poles and headed toward the old chute area.
Although we knew there would be a million people going up Mount Hood with us, we still found it crazy once we actually saw the line. Well, we were part of the problem.
The steep snow climbs about 600 ft, and by my measurement it was around 45 degrees at the bottom and 65 degrees at the very top. The slope was very icy up high in the chute, and 90% of the people we saw were using two ice axes. About a third of the way up, we met a very friendly climbing ranger who showed us the old chute and the 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock variations. He told us the steepness and climbing difficulty were the same. The 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock chutes had fewer people than the old chute, so we picked the 1 o'clock variation. The slope is steep but climbing up is okay.
With so many people on the route, the amount of ice balls knocked loose by climbers slipping was crazy. My helmet, hands, and legs got hit by high-speed ice balls multiple times. So a helmet is a must! I also saw a few rocks and a water bottle tumbling down the slope. Luckily nothing hit anyone.
After topping out the 1 o'clock chute, the summit was a minute away. From our first push into the old chute area to the summit, it took us 1 hour and 15 minutes. From the top we could see the Sisters, Jefferson, Helens, Adams, and Rainier, and there was no wind. The ranger wrote in his blog that it was the busiest day of the season.
After a 1 hour break, we started heading down. We chose the old chute variation and found it similar to, or a tiny bit harder than, the 1 o'clock chute. The exposed "cat walk" over to the old chute is pretty mellow, so don't worry about that part. Going down is of course harder and scarier than going up. The good news is that the old chute had warmed up a bit, so the snow was a little softer to step into. I can imagine that if the snow gets too soft, the rock and ice fall danger goes way up. The descent felt endless. I had a headache and nausea, and I'm not sure if it was caused by altitude, sulfur, or the heat. I wore an R1 with a wind layer going down, and it turned out too warm once the sun hit me. Chutang told me her hands were tired going down. The old chute took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to descend, so up and down took roughly the same time.
Back at Devils Kitchen, we took a break to transition to skis. My headache and nausea were still going, but luckily the ski down was enjoyable. Corn snow in the upper part, and the bottom two thirds was inside the ski resort. The 4000 ft descent all the way to the parking lot only took us about 40 minutes, with lots of breaks since my headache was still on. Chutang excitedly told me she wants to ski harder next year so she can ski down another Cascade volcano. The whole trip took us 11 hours and ended at 1 pm.
