Snow Dragon Ice Cave - Mt Hood

Last year I came across a PBS documentary about ice caves under sandy glacier on Mt Hood, but I wasn't physically fit to join a group for this adventure. Getting to one of these ice cave requires serious route finding and traveling across steep scree slop and rock fields with constant risk of rock falls. I wasn't prepared for it.

This year, I decided to give it a try and joined a group of expieriecd hikers, some of them had been there before. It still requires route finding and deep knowledge of the area. We accesnded up from Top Spur TH and caught Timberline Trail going up to the McNeil Point Shelter. Rather than following the Timberline Trail, we cut across via climbers cutoff (very steep shortcut to the stone shelter!).

Weather was supposed to get better as the day goes on, but it didn't turn up that way. It actually worded as the day progressed. We started with cloud and fog. It soon became very windy with gust about about 40mph. After the stone shelter, we had to an off trail traverse. Visibilty started to deteriorate very rapidly as we moved on to off trail part of our trip. We couldn't see more than 100 feet beyond us. 

Absolutely zero visibility!

Fortunately, PBS is still mapping the caves in the area and they have marked the trail with orange flags marks. We started following those for most of the way. At some point we lost track and ended up way above the cave. Lack of visibility and bad weather, made us worried and we decided to stop for lunch and go back. 

All of a sudden, weather opened up slightly and to our surprise, we were within 300 feet of the cave opening. After finishing our lunch, we headed for the cave.

Snow Dragon Ice Cave

As we were exploring the cave, sever hail storm started. We packed up and hurried back up. We didn't want to get caught up in these conditions. Few minutes later, we heard thunder and lightning. First words that came out of everyone -- "FUCK! Lets get out of here." Rain got heavier and with high winds, it became were difficult off trail travel. We finally made it back to the shelter. Even though the weather was still stormy, it was bit of a relief as we got out of the open exposed area and now going to travel under the canopy of large tree and on a defined trail.

Last 5 miles back to the car went fast. My pant and shoes were completely drenched at this point and changing into a fresh pair felt so much better. 

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