Up
I went up Mt. Hood on my own to get in some climbing before the Mt. Rainier trip. Conditions looked perfect and I figured I was ready to solo the climb. If it got sketch I could always bail and get waffles.
The way up felt fairly slow and I got off track a few times with all of the snowcat trails zig zagging. I didn't break any records getting to the top of the palmer but from there to the Hogsback went really fast. I set up a camera at the South side of the Hogsback to get a timelapse of me climbing up. No one else was up top so I had the mountain all to myself.
The climbing was in perfect snow, really good for cramponing and super solid. There seemed to be more snow than last time and the old chute felt less steep and I was able to upright walk portions of it until the summit rim. I got to the proper summit in about 3:40, which is by far the fastest for me. With that it was still over an hour to sunrise and it was very cold so I spilled water everywhere, called it good and headed back down.
Down
Downclimbing was just as solid as going up, but less time spent gasping for Os. I ran into the first parties just above the Hogsback which was in line with my plan of getting off the steeps before people could rain ice down on me. I took my time going back down - spending time taking photos and chatting with folks as they climbed upwards.
Panoramic Photos
Panoramic Photos
Profile of climb
Profile
(GPS doohickey got a little confused on my way down, thus the bump up of altitude on the descent)
