Trip Report

The May 6th Mt. Hood climb led by John Pegg was cancelled when the group awoke at 1:30 a.m. to violent high winds, the same winds that caused several deaths in Washington. The climb was rescheduled for May 13 despite the forecast for more bad weather. We spent the night at the beautiful Mazama Lodge near Government Camp. Obsidians can stay there for only $5 per night. It is dormitory accommodations, but quite comfortable. The Mazama groups cancelled because of the weather and advised us to do the same, but we slipped away at 1 a.m. to check out conditions for ourselves. It was snowing at Timberline Lodge, so the group decided to at least climb to the top of the Palmer chair lift. It was not a day for the timid, but the group was experienced and well equipped. There were brief periods of clearing followed by clouds, wind, and snow. We decided to go for it. For a brief period on the Hogsback there was even sunshine. The crevasse was quite open and impressive, but we negotiated a small snow bridge. The final chute was extremely icy. It was 14 degrees F with strong wind at the top, so we lingered only long enough for a couple of photos. On the descent the clouds seemed to settle in and we were happy we had marked the route so well with the new wands prepared by the climb committee (the old ones were lost in a white out on the Mt. Hood New Year's Eve climb!). The climbers were Tom Donnelly, Sue Sullivan, Malcolm Johnson, and John Pegg (leader). We took a strange pleasure in being the only group to summit that day.