Hello SACsters,
SAC members Kari Friedwald and Kipp Bajaj led recent climb school graduates Mark Williams, Dave Cordier and his thirteen year-old son Alex, along with guests Greg Swanson and Chemeketan Cynde Alt on a climb of the standard south side route of Mount Hood early Sunday morning.
Since the weather forecast for later in the day projected rain showers at elevation, we opted to start at the modest hour of 3 a.m. Thinking we would be eventually forced to turn back as conditions degenerated, a successful summit would be unlikely; so we decided we would just try to go as high as we could.
We had partially cloudy skies overhead and a light breeze for most of our climb to above the Palmer snowfield. The snow was mostly soft but there were several well-established boot-tracks to follow. Dave and Alex decided to turn back early and were assisted by Kari.
The weather system above Triangle Moraine became increasingly overcast with the upper mountain socked-in. The remaining party decided to turn back from above Crater Rock at about 10,200' when the visibility dropped to about fifteen feet.
Still a good day to be out!
Kipp
Photos Complements of Cynde
