Mt. Hood Climb - South Side Route

We made it around the traverse and I decided that the quickest way down to the base of the Palmer, lacking skis of course, was a seat glissade, my old favorite. So we all took off our crampons and I led the way down a trough carved out from the hundreds of climbers descending the day before (and the day before and the day before...). The snow had not really softened much at all, and I took off like a missile down the 25-degree slope. Attempts to slow myself with my ice axe were ineffective, and my reward for digging in my heels to control my speed was simply a great fountain of ice in the face. Eventually, after a Mach Ten ride down at least half a mile, and probably more, my ass heated up hot enough to stir fry a nice batch of Pad Thai, and I had to roll over onto my stomach and try to self arrest. The pick of my axe finally bit into the slope and I eventually came to a skittering stop about 15 feet later.

The photo above shows what I found much later: Gore-Tex Paclite doesn't really like seat glissades of the supersonic variety. The membrane on the inside of my jacket melted off. There are no holes in the exterior, thankfully.