3rd Hood Summit of '10

The weather finally let up and we set out @10:30pm Tuesday evening (June 22nd) for Timberline Lodge. We left the lodge at 1am without the aid of the Sno-Cat this time. This adds at least 3hrs and doubles the altitude gain of the climb. Our target was the Wy'East Route. But it wasn't to be this day. The approach proved to be too much for my conditioning and by the time we neared Creater Rock I was running out of gas. (The bad weather since April and the chaos at work had conspired to keep me out of the gym and not hiking so I felt the conditioning lagging on the Devil's Kitchen Headwall but because of the Sno-Cat and the adrenaline from the headwall itself, I didn't catch it and now, three weeks later, I'm hitting the wall short of the Hogsback. Because of this, we adjusted the route. Instead of crossing the upper White River at 9000' we continued to the Hogsback and Joe recommended either the Steel Cliffs or Pearly Gates. We opted for the Pearly Gates and to leave my pack there until the return trip. With a couple longer breaks, which helped me keep going, we were falling behind schedule and the Steel Cliffs route doesn't have good options to bail so we chose the easier route. Turned out to be a lot of fun anyway. The Pearly Gates were quite icy and we took the north (left) option which is steeper and narrower. We got one short pitch of technical ice. On the entry, while cleaning an anchor, I'd planted an ice tool in the snow, turned, caught it on my jacket and watched as my tool slid to the bottom of Devil's Kitchen. Okay, so the tehnical ice was now going to be a one tool event. Luckily it was short even if vertical. The rock climbing at Smith paid off, though, it was just a bit tricky and required a lot of trust in the feet. After that it was a real quick march to the summit, but we didn't get there until 10am. Once back at Hogsback we picked up my pack and descended into Devil's Kitchen to get the errant ice tool. Really soft snow by now and pretty hard going, feet kept slipping out on the traverse; finally put the ice axe away and went to hiking poles for balance. From Hogsback to the Top of the Palmer was three glissade tracks (adjusting at the bottom of each to cross to a new fall line so we would arrive at the lifts). Then another hour and a half on snow shoes back to the lodge. We were at the car and ready to leave about 3PM. Pizza at the Ratzkeller in Governmnt Camp and back in Portland at 6:30pm. Long day, good lessons (almost forgot my hiking poles during packing, dropped an ice tool, and gotta focus on training or Rainier next month will be a problem. But a successful summit and a great trip all in all.