This was my first attempt at Mount Hood. I had never done any sort of back-country skiing before and thought it would be cool to rent this weird set of skis that clipped directly onto my plastic mountaineering boots. Me, Dave Welles, and Parker pulled the drive from Seattle in the evening, hit the parking lot around 10pm, and start climbing method. It was one of the coldest climbs I’ve ever done to that point. Wind just wipping through. We walked by the Mazama’s cabin where some folk were inside by the fire sipping steaming drinks and we stared on in envy. We carried skis to the top of the chair lift and cached them.
From there it was pretty straightforward to the hogs back. I brought the wrong crampons and they wouldn’t fit my plastics, but the snow was pretty ok and it didn’t hinder us any. Lucky break. We kept the rope on and dropped pickets up the Old Chute – do not climb the chutes on a rope without placing pro. People have died from higher parties taking a fall and sweeping the people below.
Quick walk to the summit and then down to our skis. This was meant to be a warm-up climb to doing Rainier via the Kautz Glacier route in a few weeks. Unfortunately, the rig I chose was just a terrible idea. Not only my first time skiing with a large pack on, but also doing it with no binding stability, nor any forward lean on the boots. I took one turn and sprained my knee pretty badly. Ski patrol was literally right next to me, but because I didn’t have a lift ticket they wouldn’t/couldn’t help. I still think it was pretty shitty of them, but I also understand liability insurance. Parker dragged my bag down, and I iced my knee to numb and then hobbled out to the car very slowly. No Rainer for me this time due to the knee, but Parker and Dave made it!
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