Walking Through NW Wilderness: January 2015

Sunset from Pittock Mansion

Sunset View of Portland from Pittock Mansion

Mount Hood Crater Rock

This has been an extremely low snow year here in Oregon. Pretty much all the snowshoes routes has very little or no snow on it. I still wanted to snowshoe somewhere and gather some snow pictures.

I decided to go to the top of Palmer lift and beyond on Mount Hood. With weather being in 60F, we decided to start before sunrise to be able to climb on ice with crampons. until we reached Silcox hut at 7000 ft level, snow was slushy even in the morning at 6AM. We were able to walk unto the hut without any special traction devices.

After passing the hut, we were getting into icy conditions and decided to put on crampon. From here on, it was straight up following the ski tracks. It was early in the morning, so ski lift has just started, but there weren't any skiers up on the slope. Ski tracks were being groomed. All in all -- not much of a wilderness experience with snowcats going up and down besides us.

At 8600feet, we got to the top of the palmer lift and had a long break. I couldn't believe how warm it was that day. After taking few more pictures, It was time to go higher up. Once we reached 9200ft level, we decided to make a traverse towards Illumination rock. That was it for the uphill hike. After stopping for another 30mins, it was time to glissade down the mountain. By this time, most of the snow has turned soft. Glissading down was just as fun as it could be. We were able to go all the down to Silcox hut and after that walking down another 1200feet down to the lodge was the most tiring of all.

In summary, if I were to describe the day in a line -- that would be "Amazing views and extremely warm!". I would definitely do this again sometime later in the early spring and stay somewhere higher up to watch the sunset. Lets see how that goes.

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Indian Point

This was one of my rare solo hikes. I started very early and when I got to the Herman Creek TH, there were may be 3-4 cars parked. One way in, I ran into one older couple at the junction of Gorton Creek Trail and Herman Creek Trail. After having a brief chat, I moved on to Gorton Creek Trail towards Indian Point. I kept seeing two people in front of me, they were ahead of me. Even though I kept a pace of ~2.5mph going uphill, I wasn't able to catch them until I got to the Nick Eaton Cutoff Trail.

Last time I went to Indian point, I missed the unofficial trail section that drops down to the viewpoint. This time I noticed there were signs on the tree on the main trail, and it would be hard to miss that. After dropping down to the Indian Point, I took a few shots. Weather was foggy and later I realized there was something called "Inversion Effect" in the area - hanging layer of fog in the valley/ water body etc. I wasn't able to get any views towards east columbia gorge.

After soaking in the views, I decided to make a loop via Nick Eaton Ridge Trail. As the weather got warmer, fog started to thin out. One thing about solo hiking is that I get to just keep going and not have to stop anywhere to wait for someone. After I joined the Herman Creek Trail back again, I ran across many people coming towards me - some prepared and some high-heel hikers (with a water bottle and Jeans, totally unprepared, if something were to happen). On the trailhead, parking lot at at least 50 cars parked! Surprising for a day like that.

Indian Point

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Twin Lakes - Barlow Pass Snowshoe

Nothing too fancy or adventurous here. We started at Barlow pass Sno-park on OR-35. Headed south on PCT. PCT intersects with Upper Twin Lake first and the same trail goes around Lower Twin Lake, comes back to PCT. This completes a lollipop loop to twin lakes area.

With fresh snow in the area, most of trees looked like snow sculptures. Lakes were completely frozen. There were footsteps on the upper lake, but no one form my group tried to be adventurous. Overall, this was 10 mile loop with 1300 feet of elevation gain.

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New Year's Day Climb - Mount Saint Helens

We had initially planned to climb Mount Saint helens on 28th Dec, 2014. When we planned it, the weather looked just a little too cold for my liking, but it was forecast to be sunny. When the actual day came around, forecast changed to moderate to heavy snow. So, we canceled the climb and decided to do it on new year's day..weather permitting again :)

This is what the weather looked like for Dec 28th :(

After spending the new year's eve at friend's house with few glasses of wine, I went to be at 2 AM in the morning. I always had a fear in the back of mind that will I be able to complete the climb? Will I be able to stay with group? Am I fit for this?

In contrast to what I have done in summer months, starting at the Climber's bivouac TH, in the winter we started at Marble Mountain Sno-park. This is whooping 1200 feet lower than Climber's Bivouac and adds ~2 miles to the distance. So, instead of 10 miles and elevation gain of 4500 feet in summer, this is going to be ~12 miles with 5700 feet of elevation gain.

We started at around 8AM from the trail head. Snow was mostly packed on the trail as we walked towards the Chocolate Falls. At 2 miles, we crossed the Chocolate Falls. It was dry with no running water. Sun had already come up, which made it quite warm. Although the temperature was in lower 30s, we were feeling really hot and sweating like it was 80 degrees out there. Soon every one was in the base layers!

Around the Chocolate Falls crossing

Very Soon we came to the first weather station. It was time for a short break. I put on microspikes, as I was feeling a bit insecure in my footings.

At the weather station around 5600ft

After that I was a slog to the top. we crossed many people coming down. They must have started in the dark. Few of them, we had a long conversation with to inquire about the snow condition. As we went up, snow turned in the solid ice. It was time to put on some crampons around 6600ft.

Although we had said 1PM would be our turnaround time, considering the weather stayed perfectly sunny and warm, we tanked that proposal and kept going up even after 1PM. Finally, we made it to the summit at 2PM. It was time for celebration.