It’s impossible to ski in the Pacific Northwest and not develop a fascination with the volcanoes of the Cascades. Rising far over the rest of the range, they’re visible from anywhere and everywhere. Rainier dominates the skyline of Seattle, Baker looms over the San Juan Islands, Hood looks out over Portland, Adams and Helens poke up above I-5 in between. On a sunny day, at least one of them is visible from just about any other peak, and even on cloudy days it’s easy to clear the low ceiling and look at the snowy summits floating high above the gloom.
I’ve daydreamed over skiing the volcanoes since coming up here, and I’ve slowly started to tick things off the list. Lulu and I tour a lot of the ski season, but there’s a pretty big difference between heading out for a powdery backcountry day at the Pass and heading up one of the big peaks of the Cascades – from greater difficulties with weather and avalanche danger to glacier travel, long approaches, more vert, and a number of other challenges. We whetted our appetites for more big peak backcountry days last year on Mount Shuksan, which while not one of the classic volcanoes, is a formidable ski as the 10th tallest peak in Washington.
Following the July 4th holiday, I traveled down to Oregon for a week of ski testing at Timberline ski area on Mount Hood, and this time I packed a couple extra bags of backcountry and camping gear. With deep snowpack lingering long into summer this year, the timing seemed right to try and knock a couple more off the list.
Mount Hood
I first skied at Timberline ski area on Mount Hood almost 10 years ago, on a film trip with Unparalleled Productions. It was the quintessential dirtbag film trip, laying out sleeping bags in the trees next to the park & ride the evening that everyone was supposed to meet up, then camping out for the rest of the week at the abandoned airstrip down in the valley. I’ve been going back every June and July for ski testing since coming to K2, but for lack of weather, time, equipment or fitness, had never climbed up to the summit above the ski area.
Lanes of hardpacked morning snow above the marine layer at Timberline, Mount Jefferson rising above in the distance.
After passing up a perfect day in June because I didn’t have my backcountry safety gear, I resolved not to return without my backcountry kit in the future. Packed for July, the weather turned out perfectly as the ski test wound down on Friday morning. The bulletproof groomers inbounds began to soften during the morning debrief, and Darrin and I decided to climb up for the afternoon to check out the conditions before deciding on whether to stay another night and try for Mt Adams the next day.
Darrin nearing the bergschrund on the Hogsback.
The afternoon temperatures stayed cool, and we climbed steadily up away from the crowds of teenagers that swarm the resort for summer park camps. Resting briefly above the fumerole known as Devil’s Kitchen, we switched over to crampons and ice axes to climb up the Hogsback and up one of the chutes to the summit ridge.
Darrin on the summit ridge of Mt Hood.
I’d long envisioned topping out above the chutes to find a mellow snowfield leading to Hood’s high point, terrain features that my mind must have imagined. After some steep climbing through wet, almost glass-like crystals and hard ice underneath, I stood on top of the chute, peering down the sudden drop of the Sandy Headwall, falling away dramatically for hundreds, if not a thousand feet to the glaciers below. While the footpath along the ridge to the summit was plenty wide (a “butter-knife-edge ridge” we declared it), we took care in placing each step.
Looking down the Sandy Headwall on Mt Hood's north face.
Conditions necessitated a short downclimb through the summit ice/rime, and I was glad to switch back from crampons into my skis for the long-anticipated descent. It’d been a long time coming, and it felt great to carve slushy turns down the slopes that have taunted me for years. Back at the car after almost 5,500′ of skiing, Darrin and I exchanged a high five and started plotting out a plan to camp out and head for Mount Adams in the morning.
Back in the parking lot, enjoying the change to flip flops and admiring the view that's taunted me for years.
Coming tomorrow… a full-day, late season ski assault on Mount Adams to close out the ski season officially for 2010-2011.
[...] a K2 ski test in Oregon, Darrin Haugen and I decided to quick-hit the southern volcanoes, skiing Mt Hood (11,250′) and Mt Adams (12,280′) back to back in a big end of season [...]