I spent this last weekend on Mt. Hood's remote Sandy Head wall a very interesting and cool climb with David Cap, a great friend and my Denali partner from last year! With a day and a half to spend in the mountains we thought the Sandy Headwall would be a good challenge plus it would be relatively safe from rockfall being on the western side hidden from the sun for the whole morning we would be on it. After meeting up with David at Timberline we began our very casual approach to Illumination rock where we planned to bivy.
We arrived at Illumination Saddle around 6pm where we met a friendly climber from British Columbia who we chatted with while choking down freeze-dried dinners and melting snow. Swirling clouds around the summit brought about suspicions that the crappy weather predicted for Sunday may be coming in a day early. Nevertheless we crawled into out tent with optimism for the next day. We woke up with clear skies and busily prepared ourselves to start climbing. In twenty minutes we were ready to go, leaving our tents and sleeping bags around 3:30am. We dropped from Illumination saddle onto the Reid glacier with no problem and a few maneuvers around giant crevasses put us at the base of the scary Yocum ridge, where we planned to cross. The snow and rock crossing was a bit treacherous but eventually we were on the Sandy glacier and cruising toward its impressive headwall.
As we worked our way up the headwall it got steeper and more interesting as the cathedral of rock and ice narrowed. Rather than just plodding up steep snow we found some decent alpine ice to swing our tools into and a couple ice screws and pickets were placed. Surprisingly very little debris fell from above us apparently our strategy to avoid the sun and inherent rock fall on the west side of the mountain was working!
After finishing up the head wall we took a break to enjoy the mountain, as well as some snacks and water. I asked David how he felt, "there are no words to describe such a great climb" was his response! I couldn't agree more!
From there we finished our climb to the summit where we took the obligatory summit shots and watched wicked clouds snake their way up the crater and over the summit ridge.
After almost a year without sharing the mountains together I was glad to get out with David. The last time I had seen this guy we were parting ways on Denali's West Buttress where he had decided he'd had enough, while I stubbornly persisted another 5 days.
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| Hiking up the ski area (Photo by David Cap) |
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| The mighty Illumination rock |
We arrived at Illumination Saddle around 6pm where we met a friendly climber from British Columbia who we chatted with while choking down freeze-dried dinners and melting snow. Swirling clouds around the summit brought about suspicions that the crappy weather predicted for Sunday may be coming in a day early. Nevertheless we crawled into out tent with optimism for the next day. We woke up with clear skies and busily prepared ourselves to start climbing. In twenty minutes we were ready to go, leaving our tents and sleeping bags around 3:30am. We dropped from Illumination saddle onto the Reid glacier with no problem and a few maneuvers around giant crevasses put us at the base of the scary Yocum ridge, where we planned to cross. The snow and rock crossing was a bit treacherous but eventually we were on the Sandy glacier and cruising toward its impressive headwall.
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| David down climbing to a snow bridge to get us on the Sandy glacier |
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| David coming up through a narrow gap low on the Headwall |
As we worked our way up the headwall it got steeper and more interesting as the cathedral of rock and ice narrowed. Rather than just plodding up steep snow we found some decent alpine ice to swing our tools into and a couple ice screws and pickets were placed. Surprisingly very little debris fell from above us apparently our strategy to avoid the sun and inherent rock fall on the west side of the mountain was working!
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| Upper portion of the Sandy Headwall |
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| David climbing through the rock band |
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| Lance leads placing a picket and screw (photo by David Cap) |
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| Into the sun! (photo by David Cap) |
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| David at the top of the Sandy Headwall |
After finishing up the head wall we took a break to enjoy the mountain, as well as some snacks and water. I asked David how he felt, "there are no words to describe such a great climb" was his response! I couldn't agree more!
From there we finished our climb to the summit where we took the obligatory summit shots and watched wicked clouds snake their way up the crater and over the summit ridge.
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| Lance with the summit behind (photo by David Cap) |
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| David enjoys the glorious day |
After almost a year without sharing the mountains together I was glad to get out with David. The last time I had seen this guy we were parting ways on Denali's West Buttress where he had decided he'd had enough, while I stubbornly persisted another 5 days.
