Intermediate Alpine Climb - Mount Hood/Leuthold Couloir

Trip Report

Timeline

1:10am Start from Salmon River parking lot
3:20am Top of Palmer, stash skis
4:30am Illumination Saddle
5:15am Base of Leuthold Couloir
7:40am Queen's Chair
9:30am Summit
11:15am Devil's Kitchen
12:00pm Top of Palmer
~1pm Back to cars

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Drove from Seattle to Mt Hood through rush hour traffic, and arrived late at Glacier View sno park to spend the night. 

We originally planned for a Thursday climb but as we drove up the road to Timberline lodge, sand along the road was blowing sideways, and once we parked, sustained gusts shook our vehicle side to side. To make matters worse, once we opened the car door, our sno park permit flew out and the wind quickly carried it out of sight. Winds were forecasted to be 15-30mph but we felt like they were stronger. 

After waiting an hour in the parking lot wondering if the wind would calm down and whether parking enforcement would accept a handwritten note about our lost sno park permit, we decided to take a rest day and climb on Friday instead, when winds were forecasted to be calmer. 

Friday, April 18, 2025

We arrived at the Timberline lodge at 12:45am and dropped off our climber registration at the lower entrance of the day lodge. There was no trace of yesterday's wind, and the latest forecasts showed a calm day with wind picking up in the evening. We stuck our sno park permit firmly against the windshield  just in case.

After sorting out group gear, we left the trailhead at 1:10am and skinned up to the top of Palmer chair, where we stashed our skis (8464'). We then booted climbers left and upward toward Illumination Saddle. There were a couple tents and a bivy here, but it looked like everyone was still asleep and there were no parties ahead. A couple minutes later a couple climbers came from behind us and we chatted briefly--they were going up the Reid Headwall. 

We decided to stay unroped as we descended onto the Reid Glacier and took careful steps to avoid a long, sliding fall on the icy snow. The surface was smooth and slick, but our crampons gripped securely, and we made our way across to the base of Leuthold Couloir.

We could see the Hourglass--the crux of the route--from the base of the couloir, and as we ascended it slowly got clearer into view. 

We encountered maybe 10-20 feet of blue ice under a thin layer of snow, which took our swings beautifully and allowed us to solo up these sections quickly and out of the way of the rime ice fall. Every little breeze knocked more stuff down on us and we were eager to move as quickly as we could to get out of the path of debris. 

Above the hourglass, the route transitioned to a steep snow climb and eventually leveled out to the so called "Queen's Chair" at around 10,600' where we took a break just below it topped out for a bit of wind protection. 

The last stretch after this was the climb along the ridge up to the catwalk leading to the summit. This was the windiest part of the climb, and staying climbers left off to the side didn't seem to help much. The wind-swept snow and ice and refrozen into icy chunks that required some big steps and zig zagging before we made it to the top, where we followed the packed down cat walk past the Old Chute, the 1 o'clock couloir, 2'o clock couloir, and then finally to the summit!

We sat around for a leisurely lunch break before heading back on the catwalk and descending down the Old Chute. All of the south side descent options that we could see (Old Chute, 1 and 2 o' clock couloirs) were in great shape, but to avoid the traffic jam we decided to descend down the widest path -- Old Chute. At this time of day the snow was still fairly firm so we front pointed down until we reached the sun-baked soft snow and plunge stepped to hot rocks. 

A bergschrund has formed to skiers left/climbers right of hot rocks, so skiers descending should take care to avoid it. One option is to end run toward skiers left.

We descended down the boot path to hot rocks, bypassed the bergschrund, and took a few dirt switchbacks back onto the snow and descended toward Devil's Kitchen. Some holes in the snow are starting to form here, so we stepped carefully and fortunately did not punch through. 

We booted back down to where we stashed our skis near the top of the Palmer chair and enjoyed a leisurely ski back to the parking lot, reaching the cars just before 1pm. 

Map