Mt Hood, Oregon

By John Klebes

In mid-June Jonathan Stevens and I made a springtime attempt at the highest point in Oregon.  Mt Hood is an 11,237 foot volcano just outside of Portland where it dominates the skyline.  It is the fourth highest in the Cascades – and is both spectacular and deadly.  It is heavily glaciated; twelve glaciers and named snowfields cover approximately 80% of the cone; and receives staggering amounts of snowfall every winter.  It has erupted twice in the past 200 years, has numerous fumaroles emitting steam and other gases on it’s upper sides, and many believe it will erupt again in the next few years.

Five of us set out for three days on the mountain along with two guides, but quickly encountered soft snow and wet conditions.  Two of our group decided they were having a lousy time and turned back halfway up the assent to our 8,500-foot camp with one of the guides.

That left Jonathan, myself, and West-Coast Ed (a friend of mine from our 2002 Mt Rainier Expedition) together with the one remaining guide.  We set up our tents in howling wind on an exposed ridge just before the sloping snowfields leading to the ridge of snow called the Hogsback.

It took all four of us to hold down and secure the tents in the gusting wind.  Despite the early hour we could do nothing but crawl into our tents and listen to the howling wind.  It was impossible to light the stove in the storm so we had a cold supper and long difficult sleep.  That is until Jonathan was awakened by our guide asking for help when the wind snapped two of his tent poles.  Jonathan braved the hypothermic conditions in an attempt to secure our guides tent from the elements in a near white-out but ultimately our guide ended up crowding into our tent where we spent the next two nights crowding four people in a three-person tent.  The snow and wind kept up all night filling our tents vestibule with a foot-half of snow.

The next day it finally cleared a little and we got our first views of the bergschrund, a deep crevasse at the top of the hogsback ridge, which is the crux of the climb.        

We had a chance to dry some of our gear, practice climbing and roped glacier techniques, and check our equipment, before we going to bed early for a 1:00 am summit attempt.  We were in good spirits at first, expecting great weather, but around 9:30pm the wind, snow, and rain returned.  Hoping for clearing weather we set out for the Hogsback at 1:00 am in high winds and freezing rain but soon realized we would not be able to summit under these conditions.  Covered in sheets of ice, wet to our core, we headed back to our crowded tent hoping for another attempt around 3:20 am.

It was no use, high wind, snow, and finally relentless freezing rain ruined our summit attempts, and on our third day we hiked out in wet, windy weather.  A disappointing adventure that humbles one to the whims of Mother Nature.

It is with some consolation that Jonathan and I explored the Great Multnomah Falls, highest water fall in Oregon, and second highest year-round waterfall in the nation, on our way out to the airport.  After a great hike from the base all the way up to the very brink of the falls we flew home.