Mt Hood

We were the only group to go up Leutholds today. We started early, at 11pm, and were surprised to see the climbers lot was almost full already, probably because many others pushed back from Friday to Saturday like we had. Our group was strong and we made good time up to the saddle, where we found several tents. The mountain was warm but the wind was eastern blustery so it felt cold, but we were mostly shielded from it on the glacier where it felt much warmer once we descended.

There were two groups in front of us on the glacier that turned around due to ice fall and one group that came after us and probably turned around because they were so late or thought we were kicking down the ice that was falling. We dealt with getting pelted, it wasn't pleasant but it was mostly small and porous, though the sound some made whizzing by was impressive in a bad way. The two groups turning around threw off the rest plans. We went up to check the conditions and decided to continue since we were in it, which meant we stayed roped up and kept going straight until the hourglass because there was no where sheltered to stop and snack or derope. Hungry and thirsty, we took a short break before stowing the ropes, getting out our second tools (that would have been handy earlier) and pushing through the hourglass and up to queens seat, where we rested and enjoyed the view, arriving after dawn but before the sun hit the slopes over the couloir. If everyone wasn't fit and brave, taking a break or turning around in that ice fall would not have been fun. The upper mountain was straight forward to the cat walk, which we hit just as Tobiah's south side team arrived (along with a lot of other groups), and all enjoyed a half an hour on a calm, warm summit. The mountains were out though there was some haze. We descended the old chutes with almost as much ice fall (from all the other climbers) as we had experienced in the morning.