Mt Hood/Leuthold Col

Route: Leuthold Col
Difficulty: Grade II Ice
Elevation Gain: 5,200ft.


On April 28th, 2006 Jiri Richter, Atzuko, Martin Babare and myself set out to climb Mt Hood via the Leuthold Col. The climb is rated a Grade II Ice climb and is a great climb when the conditions are just right, otherwise it is a rockfall/avalanche funnel.

The four of us started out carpooling from the Tacoma Park&Ride and heading south to Oregon. We made quick stop for dinner along the way in Zig Zag. Pizza and Beer were on the menu. We arrived at the Timerbline Government Camp at approximately 7:45pm. (6000ft). The temperature was around 47 degrees. The night was clear and we definitely had the weather on our side. Martin and I carcamped in my Subaru while the others slept nearby. We woke up at 12:05am to get our packs ready.


We began our slog up the mountain. It was a clear night, and my pack still seemed heavy even though I had gutted it twice before leaving the parking lot. Jiri was on skies and was in the best shape out of anyone in the group. We continued the slog up in the fairly soft and slushy snow up the Palmer Snowfield and past the Ski lifts. Once past the lifts, we turned left to head over to Illumination Saddle. When we arrived at the saddle, we noticed a tent and a dude just waking up by himself and getting ready to climb. He indicated that he was also destined for the Leuthold, but he "had to do it quick, because he had to go to work today". We found this pretty amazing, let alone doing the Leuthold solo. Since he had done this route before, we decided to follow his lead.

We descended onto the Reid Glacier. This was a very steep downclimb, in which we faced the mountain and self belaying until we reached the glacier. We decided that based on the heavy amount of Snow and few crevasses that we would travel unroped. As we traversed the Reid, we crossed several avalanche debris fields that looked fairly new. One of the key routefinding challenges for this climb is to identify the correct Coulier. (The base of the Leuthold Col is on the far left). We arrived at the base and made another decision to not place pickets. Everyone was fairly comfortable with this decision and we began the climb up the steep snow. The gain from the base of the Col to where it opens up at the summit ridge is approximately 2,000ft.



Initially it was simply very steep snow when we entered the Col. After about 800ft, in the middle of the hourglass the snow became very hard with a hard crust. While this made for solid cramponing, we were unable to continue to self belay. We took our second ice tools out turned to dagger position as we leaned into the mountain. For some strange reason, there were the occasional golf ball size chunks of ice that would come tumbling down the Coulier. As we approached the base of the Coulier, the orange tint in the Horizon could be seen as the sun began to rise.
















Atsuko heading up the Leuthold.
The gully makes a couple of twists and turns before finally opening up.
















Here is Chris following not far behind in dagger Position unprotected climbing up the Coulier.















Chris topping out at the ridgeline for a break and sees plenty of relief on the other side.