Had a chance to get out and about, and decided it was a great day to take advantage of the weather and get up Cooper Spur. I haven't been up there since 2004 and figured a decade was far too long. With the Cloud Cap road reopened, the stars had all aligned and away we went! Left town a lot later than I usually would, but even with the slow going of those last 10 miles we managed to hit the trailhead about noon.
Could tell that we were in for a treat when those last couple of curves revealed the mountain in all her glory! The road up was in pretty good shape but still managed to rattle the change in my ashtray enough that I had to take it out and toss it in the backseat! There are a number of waterbars along the way, but nothing too serious. My Subaru handled the road just fine and at a snail's pace I think just about any passenger car would manage.
Went the extra .1 of a mile to the historic Cloud Cap Inn, originally constructed in 1889 (a few renovations over the years of course). Talk about views! The Inn is situated in such a way that you can look back from almost any part of the hike up the mountain and see it staring back up at you...would have been an amazing stay for those first visitors from Hood River (but it took them 8 hours to get there!).
Heading straight through the Cloud Cap Campground grounds, you find yourself with a bevy of trail options in relatively short proximity. Go straight up first, then left and up, and then you are on your way! The trail here is the lovely loose sand that any hiker of a volcano knows only too well...but the "two steps forward, one step back" stuff gets out of the way fairly quickly in the first half mile or so and you begin to get your first real views of the mountain from up close. The view is amazing and your final destination (in our case, Tie In Rock) looms above you for most of this trek.
That's Tie In Rock at the arrow...so named because you don't want to be going any past this point without roping up and getting those crampons on.
A quick duck back into forested terrain takes you on a short stroll through flowering meadows and bleached white gnarls, all while Hood reminds you that while you are having fun right now, there is still ~2,000 of elevation coming your way.
Exiting the treeline you quickly find yourself at the next iconic piece of this hike: the Cooper Spur Shelter. Sitting at 6,700' elevation, this shelter has saved many a hiker from the exposed ravages on wind and weather...something we were reminded of at about this moment. It sure was getting breezy up there and the temp called for a fleece, despite the bluebird day.
After the shelter, the trail begins to switchback in long sweeping passes up the flank of Cooper Spur itself.
At the Northern end of each of these switchbacks you are treated to straight down views into the Elliott Glacier. The terrain of this slow moving giant is mesmerizing...a vast collection of sheer ice faces, crevasses and talus debris.
Along the way, your views will stretch from Rainier to the Three Sisters. On this day, Adams and Rainier only peeked above cloud cover and St. Helens was hidden beneath. But turning South brought views of Jefferson, Faith, Hope and Charity.
Right in about the 8000' mark, the switchbacks are all done and we stood atop the spur proper. Just ahead of us sat "Hiroshima Rock" as it is informally known. Commemorating a Japanese climbing team from 104 years ago, it is a humbling site and nearly became our stopping point. Upon reaching the crest of Copper Spur, the winds were really showing us what they had with a constant 25-30 mph chiller sucking the heat from our bones and the "sureness" out of our steps.
Having the end in sight, hovering just 500' or so above us, it was just too hard to cut things short! So on we went to Tie In Rock. This is such a deceptive end point, because the trail dips very simply down to the snowy surfaces of the Newton Clark Glacier which has been sitting off to your left for the last mile. Rock islands call temptingly for you to head out to them and the pitch of the mountain has mellowed considerably enough to seem doable. Avoid these temptations however unless experienced and in possession of all required mountaineering gear. It just really isn't worth it to go playing around out there.
The wind was really howling at this point, despite the relative calm nature of these photos and after a brief sit-down and snack we were ready to head back down. The trek back along the ridge shows you just how much of a knife's edge you've been walking between two ice sheets 200' to 500' below you on either side. Actually, the view headed down is my favorite of the entire hike and offers a different perspective to those amazing ice features you've seen.
We decided to eliminate many of the switchbacks we had labored up, and took a fairly straight-down climbers trail all the way to the shelter. Along the way we saw a memorial to a mountain rescue pilot that I was unaware of...and in the changing light the shelter itself begged for a few last parting photos.
It was a great (albeit blustery!) day to be on the mountain! We totaled about 7.5 miles and ~2750 feet of elevation.
-Aaron
Who can resist! Here is are a few of my favourite photos from the trip (click for bigger view).
