Mt. Hood

Last Thursday night, Dad and I left his place at 10pm and began climbing up from Timberline Lodge at 11:45. Dad had attempted Mt. Hood once before, about 30 years ago with the Mazamas, and turned around due to severe weather conditions. He's spent the last 6 months getting in shape and preparing for his second attempt, over 30 years later.

After beginning our hike, I immediately noticed that Dad was moving faster than usual, which I attributed to his losing 90ish pounds since the last time we hiked together. He kept up the pace through a cloudless night, and when the sun began to rise at around 5am we were nearing the Hogsback and the beginning of the actual climbing. Clouds began to form as soon as the sun came up and concealed our view of the summit. As we were confident in our ability to descend in a whiteout, we roped up and continued up the route most commonly referred to as Old Chute.



Just starting to get light on the way up


Nearing the summit on the steep section

At 6:45 am on Friday morning, we stood on the summit after 7 hours of hiking/climbing uphill.


Summit Photo!

Dad did awesome, traveling as fast or faster than most everybody else on the mountain that day. Our views from the summit weren't great due to the fog, but considering how bad the weather can get up there, it was really pretty nice.


Classic Hogsback Shot on the Descent

It took us 4 hours to descend 5000 vertical feet to the car. We promptly drove down the hill to Calamity Janes where I proceeded to eat a 1 lb burger topped with cheese, bacon, and avocado. . . mmmmm. I miss that place.