Hood South Side

We practically had the summit to ourselves today. Some guided groups summitted before us (after a snow cat dropped them off at the top of palmer as we watched on a break). We had two extra climbers with us, one who was climbing solo and asked to attach to us, the other's partner had hurt his knee and turned around and he asked to continue with us.

Our main concern was ice fall later in the day, it was warm but the snow was in pretty good shape. We had two climbers turn around on the approach due to feeling sick/not right. We started early at 11:30 to help avoid the heat and enjoyed the stars under clear skies. We kept a good pace up the kitchen, donning crampons above palmer. There almost a hogs back this year, snow is much lower than normal. The sunrise was vivid with pinks and yellows, and we found the old chutes had good steps most the way up. This was a first for several in our party. The descent was slow but steady, with long breaks for everyone to catch up, and it wasn't as hot at the bottom as we had feared it might be.