From the first viewpoint on Bald Mt, Mt Hood looks a bit cold in its snowy mantle.I lucked into a nice break in the weather — no precipitation and even a little sun for the first half of the day.
- Morning view of Hood
At about the McGee Creek trail junction and the start of the climb up the ridge, there were patches of 1-2” old, crunchy snow topped with a dusting of fresh powder. At the open viewpoint along the ridge there was a good 2-3” of snow. From there, snow depth increased continuously as you gain elevation. Nonetheless, boots were fine all the way up to the junction with the McNeil Pt. Trail. I put on micro spikes just after the little dip coming off the ridge, where things got a little slippery, but didn't really need them.
- Timberline Trail
- sun shining through the trees
- Hood from the ridgetop viewpoint
- Timberline trail at McNeil cutoff junction
I headed up the shortcut to the McNeil Pt shelter. The snow in the meadow was a good foot or more, and spikes helped climbing up the steeper parts of the scramble.
- McNeil Shelter
- Slopes above McNeil Shelter
After a break at the shelter, I put on the snowshoes and headed up the ridge above the shelter. There was probably 1-2’ up here, more in drifts. The wind was brutal coming from the south over the ridge, and I gave up following the exposed trail up the ridge. Instead I meandered up the little bowl to the left and headed up through the krummholz, and eventually reached the top of the ridge. I dropped over the ridge into the little shelf on the north side, then down the rocky slope to join up with the McNeil Pt trail. A couple of ravens followed me all the way from the shelter up to the shelf below McNeil ridge.
- Ridge above McNeil Shelter
- Ravens keeping me company
- "skiing" down the ridge
From the MP trail I dropped into the south branch of the Ladd Creek (although you might also call it the Glissan Creek, since it flows from the Glissan Glacier), wandered up the creek a bit, then back down the Glissan/Ladd moraine into Cairn Basin where I rejoined the Timberline Trail.
- Cairn Shelter
- Hood from Cairn basin
Great snowy day on Hood! Depending on how snow levels work out, I'm hoping for a couple more opportunities to access the higher elevations of Hood this year.
