Mt. Hood Climb - South Side Route

We were done taking shots and really wanted to get down out of the wind. I had hoped to call my dad from the summit to wish him a happy Father's Day, but there were suddenly so many people on the summit (more than 20 at least) that we just wanted to get the heck out of Dodge to avoid bottlenecks on the descent. Here's a shot looking down from the start of the descent down the chute. The top of Crater Rock is visible on the right and the east side of the Pearly Gates is on the left. The lower mountain and ski area is visible at the bottom of the shot, and to the lower right are the Zigzag Cliffs. The cliffs are a common place to end up in a whiteout if you are not correctly navigating. Hood can be a very dangerous mountain to descend in a storm. And, what do you know, the beginnings of one was just starting to blow through. (We made it down long before any precipitation came down. It was a most uneventful descent.)

I did get a few minutes up on the summit alone as Brett first turned to descend and Jeff H. followed. It was blowing very hard and I was getting cold up there on the little corniced point. So I started to very lightly bounce my body, not leaving the slope, certainly, just shrugging my shoulders, bending my knees to try to warm up. And I could feel the whole summit move with me.

I stopped bouncing and started moving down.