Trip Report
Mount Hood/South Side
Up and down One o'clock Couloir from Timberline.
Martin Fisher
- Sat, Apr 5, 2025
- Mount Hood/South Side
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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- I know this gets listed as lower on the technical scale for a Basic climb, but there are some features to it to consider if you're taking up students:
- Two tools (and proficiency in using them) on extended steep hard snow and potentially ice (with exposure) will be a must.
- There's a fair amount of face-in downclimbing for several hundred vertical feet.
- Old Chute and Pearly Gates are no-fall zones, and due to the traffic on the mountain and narrowness of the chutes, it's not really advisable to set up a fixed line/pickets/belay.
- Once it warms up, there's high potential for ice and rockfall
- Groomed tracks until the top of the Palmer lift (around 8,500 feet)
- The snow in Old Chute was the best it's been of my three Hood climbs. Pretty easy booting up to the base of One o'clock Couloir
- The couloir had an ice step.
- There are no porta potties in the climber's parking lot, and Timberline Lodge is locked at night, so if you need to use the restroom before your climb, your last chance will be at the rest stop in Government Camp, which is the last turn on your left (coming from Portland) before you make the left on the road up to Timberline.
- Baby crevasses opening up before you hit the Hot Rocks from Devil's Kitchen. Be careful when descending back to Devil's Kitchen to stay on the boot path as you could easily come down right on top of one of the crevasses.
- I didn't see anyone going up Pearly Gates or Old Chute. I might be mislabeling One o'clock Couloir/Mazama Chute, but to the right of Old Chute there are two gates. The chute to the left had the lesser ice step, while the one to the right had a more extensive one that led many climbers to turn back and use the left chute.
- I know this gets listed as lower on the technical scale for a Basic climb, but there are some features to it to consider if you're taking up students:
I have previously climbed Mt Hood twice, and climbing it again this year (or next) was not on my bingo card as I like to have new adventures. I had planned on doing a training hike this weekend, but when I read a glowing trip report about the snow up on Mt Hood I instantly shifted my plan as I've been itching to climb again for awhile. I chose a 3.30 am start (well, it actually ended up being after 4 am, but that's how things go) based on the amount of time it took me to climb Mt Hood last year (5.5 hours climbing time; ~2 hours of transitions/layer breaks and time spent on the summit). This year I moved a little slower as I had the choice between postholing from the Triangle Moraine to Devil's Kitchen or trying to use yesterday's plunge steps.
There's a groomed track from the climber's parking lot at 5,900' to the top of Palmer at 8,500'. From there, you're on the Triangle Moraine following all the headlamps up to Devil's Kitchen. I booted up to Palmer and switched to crampons there, but I could have just as easily put them on at Devil's Kitchen. Palmer makes a convenient place to take your first break, though, and put them on.
Mt Hood's shadow makes its first appearance.
After a break at Devil's Kitchen, I took the low traverse that goes up through part of the Hot Rocks instead of the high traverse. Most people took the former, but I wasn't eager to have more people above me sooner than necessary, so I took the low traverse. From there it was great booting all the way up to One o'clock Couloir (Old Chute is left, One o'clock is center, and Mazama Chute is to the right; no one chose Old Chute and One o'Clock was said to have the easier ice step).
Once approaching the chute it was slow and tedious but steady climbing up to the top. There's high potential for icefall (and rockfall in another month or two) here. The climbers I encountered were respectful, patient, and encouraging with one another at the toughest part of the climb. Lots of communication needed as the chute is pretty narrow, ice is coming down from time to time, and you're in a no-fall zone.
After you get to the top of the chute, it's a relatively flat .25 mile walk to the true summit. From there you have views of Rainier, Adams, St Helens, Jefferson, and the Three Sisters.
The downclimb was again slow and steady, but tedious. You're face-in (depending on your comfort level) for at least several hundred vertical feet or more. Two tools were great, and almost everyone I encountered had them. Very confident and experienced climbers can get away with one, but as another weighs so little and adds potentially a lot of safety, why forgo it?
The not-great part about Hood is that after you exit Devil's Kitchen, you can see the parking lot. It looks so close, but you've got about 4,000 vertical feet of descending still to do, and it never seems to get any closer! There were glissade chutes, but I didn't get to use them as I forgot my rain pants to go over my very grippy mountaineering pants.
Overall, it was a really fun day. Despite it being a Saturday, early season, and a short weather window, the mountain was not as nearly as packed as I expected. I mean, it was busy, but not too bad. It seemed like everyone was just happy and grateful to be out there, and I saw almost nothing but smiles on everyone's faces. I'm based in Portland, so this is my home mountain, and it's a fitting one to start my climbing season with.