The adventure started Saturday June 22, 2001 with a 6am drive to Government Camp. The guide, myself and three others were scheduled to make the climb the following morning. After introductions we drove to a snow field near Timberline Lodge to spend the day practicing mountaineering techniques.
Along with our other gear we were required to bring crampons and an ice axe. Saturday we spent a significant amount of time learning how to use the ice axe to arrest a fall on the snow or ice. We took turns diving off the edge of a bank head first, feet first, on our backs, and on our stomachs, and using the ice axe to (hopefully) stop our fall. Later we learned the necessary rope tying techniques and roped ourselves to one another. As we traversed along a ridge, one or two of us would intentionally fall over the side of the embankment and expect the others to stop our fall by diving to the ground and using their ice axes to save us all. Of course this was only play and there was little chance of getting hurt during this practice session short of stabbing ourselves with the ice axe during a practice fall, which fortunately didn’t happen.
The weather was not expected to be good. Saturday night there was only a 50-50 chance of the climb actually taking place. We were scheduled to catch a snow cat at Timberline Sunday morning at midnight. We got back to our rooms at around 3:00 o’clock and planned on eating dinner at 6:00pm. Some took a nap…I couldn’t sleep so a couple of us walked over to the Mt. Hood Brewpub and had a beer or two. We came back, had dinner, and by the time we finished cleaning up we only had 2.5 hours to rest up before we had to leave.
At 10:45 we got up, got dressed, and headed back to Timberline to catch the snow cat at midnight. We got to the top of the ski lifts, the starting point, at about 12:45am. The snow conditions were perfect so we put on our crampons. We could see stars above but knew the weather might change at any time. Because it was pitch black we all had head lamps to see our way as we started toward the top.
The first ½ of the climb was easy but the second ½ was much steeper and more dangerous. At that point we roped ourselves together before continuing. We also noticed high clouds starting to form around us. It was warm while we were moving but it became cold and windy if we stopped for more than a few minutes. After 4 hours of climbing we could feel we were close to the top. Weather was holding up and we were now sure the trip would be a success.
The last 100 yards seemed to take forever but once on top it was incredible…the highest point in Oregon. The view was tremendous. We were above the clouds. There was an ice cave that could use to escape the wind. It even had a picture window with a view to the east and Hood River.
After about 20 minutes we could see the clouds were coming down on top us and we decided to get down before we ended up in a white-out or blizzard. Snow was predicted down to 6500 feet and we were over 11,000 feet.
The downhill trek was uneventful until we got near the ski areas where we proceeded to glissade most of the way back. We were like human toboggans moving along snow shoots that were made by others previously. We made it back down in 3.5 hours. By noon I was home catching up on sleep.