For our first climb of the year we went on a "winter" climb of Mt. Hood. This was an all-nighter. We drove down Friday evening and started hiking at about midnight. Mike and Mark, father and son, near the top of the ski area.
We climbed the Old Crater Variation. There was a constant shower of small pieces of snow coming off the cliffs above. Mark near the top, about 700' above the crater fumaroles.
We got to the top ahead of schedule. We wanted to see the sunrise from the top, so we killed some time by taking a chilly nap at 11,200'. It was worth the wait! Mark on top.
Doug on the summit.
We had to walk along the crater rim to get back to our route. To Mark's right is a 2,000' drop, to his left is a 700' drop into a fumarole. Not a good time to stumble!
Looking down into the crater and Timberline ski area. The line of snow on the left is the Hogsback. To the right of it are some fumaroles.
Mark had skinned up to 9,000' while Doug packed his skis and boots. It was nice to ski out in 15 minutes after taking 3 hours to climb up to that point. We could not have asked for better weather and snow conditions in March.
