Mt. Hood Barret Spur 08-24-2019

[markesc]

Had a blast heading up Barret Spur, will def. be back!

Hoards of people on the TT, but only saw 3 other people on Barret:

Cloud Cap:

We had this stunt pilot out... I actually didn't think he was going to make it with the headwind, had to have been close to stall speed!!

American Kestral was showing off as well:

Bull Run Lake:

Girl On McNeil... hope her selfy turned out:

[markesc]

[Chip Down]

Small world; I was up there too, on the Coe Glacier, and poking around here and there. (report will follow)

I'm intrigued by the trees in pic 4. Never noticed that (or have forgotten).

Interesting how Coe seracs into thin slivers like that. (Yeah, I just used serac as a verb.)

Didn't notice the plane. Was that on the west side? [edit: pic looks like it must be east, guess I missed it]

Yep, sure was crowded down on the trail, more than I've ever seen. I guess my last few trips have been early/late season, or weekdays.

[Webfoot]

I really like the glacier photos.

[markesc]

Small world; I was up there too, on the Coe Glacier, and poking around here and there. (report will follow)

I'm intrigued by the trees in pic 4. Never noticed that (or have forgotten).

Interesting how Coe seracs into thin slivers like that. (Yeah, I just used serac as a verb.)

Didn't notice the plane. Was that on the west side? [edit: pic looks like it must be east, guess I missed it]

Yep, sure was crowded down on the trail, more than I've ever seen. I guess my last few trips have been early/late season, or weekdays.

Yeah it was a great day, left the car around 6:45am, and really was a quiet hike until just around the McNeal cutoff, and ran into multiple TT campers/people getting water. Once leaving the trail to go up Barret, it was just magical. Only saw one guy with a dog that had a gps and told me I should go up barret as it's the perfect day so I did! Thought he was going to go up as well, but I think he turned around/went somewhere else? I do want to tackle the actual summit next time, just that the wind began to annoy me and I was just locked in a state of astonishment even from that lower summit knoll. There was some precarious moments as I mistakenly went maybe 15-25' too far to the east and that's some loose sand at a steep pitch that was about to make into one very very bad day, so if anyone reads this, stick to the obvious trail for the 1st half, then stay to the right/middle right about half way up, even if that means a bit more bouldering.

The stunt guy in the plane was out of nowhere, he went over barret then immediately hit even more wind and peeled off heading north then east and back down towards cooper spur and out of site. That guy was crazy because you could see the poor thing struggling, then it pitched up, then he was forced outta there I imagine there's more of a funnel of wind created by the mountain as you get higher up?

I think if you want more solitude, there's October and there's always night hiking, then get above the TT around sunrise, so that's the plan 'next time'

Griswold:

[sgyoung]

I really like the glacier photos.

Same. Those are great. Nice photos of Adams and Rainier as well.

[dmthomas49]

Here is the flight tracking for N5094L. I wonder if the owner knew where it was flown if he would be upset.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N5094L

[markesc]

Wow!

I wonder what the stall speed is on one of those things?

[mjirving]

I camped in Barrett Saddle that night and then went up, over and down the nose of it on my Mt Hood High Route loop. Stunning pics. Very interesting on the plane. We saw one on Friday over by Newton-Clark glacier.