Timberline Touring
Overview
Timberline Lodge is the start point for many of the routes up Mt. Hood. The uphill routes are well marked and even groomed up to the top of Palmer Glacier. Parking fills up quickly, so get there early. On the downhill, either take the resort runs back to the base, or take Salmon River Canyon (just to the East of the resort) back to the Climbers Lot. When touring, remember to get a self-issue permit and fill out your group info at the kiosk just inside the lodge entrance.
2023-12-23: First Palmer Glacier Ascent
Summary
Perfect weather conditions made most of the day easy: get on the uphill track, keep walking to the top of Palmer lift. On the descent, I took Salmon River Canyon down, which was still a bit rocky and icy in spots, but had some powder stashes from wind transported snow that were quite nice. Lots of people were out, both at the resort proper and the uphill tracks.
Tracks
Conditions
Mid 20s, clear skies, and low wind after 3"-6" of snow overnight. A few clouds came through, but didn't stick around, so the satellite image of the day is great.
Report
As far as gear and planning, everything worked fine. I still need to get in better shape, and work on my technique, especially pacing. I'm moving too quickly, then getting tired and stopping. I have 35 minutes stopped over the 3hr 15min uphill section, I'd rather get that down to 10-15 minutes stopped and keep the same overall time.
I think I get geo-tagging to work in the camera this time, so in theory the pictures have location data in them. I'll need to see if there's a good way to link pictures to the track. Although it seems I've been taking low resolution photos, so I do need to remember to fix that next time.
While the clear weather and obvious uphill track made it pretty hard to get into much trouble (the parking lot was visible the entire time, as were the Timberline lifts), it's easy to see how much harder it would be without visibility. Going much higher than where I stopped opens up plenty of places to make wrong turns on the way down, either down Steel Cliff or White River Glacier to the East, or Zig Zag Glacier to the West. And it is possible to miss the parking lot if you're in Salmon River Canyon.
Photos
2023-11-26: Another easy practice day
Summary
Much the same as the 22nd, though less coverage after 4 days of sun warming. There was no cloud layer this time, so the views were really good. Trillium lake and Ski Bowl were visible from where I was, as was what I think is Mt. Jefferson off in the distance.
Conditions
~35°F, clear skies, low wind. Sun warmed snow, losing coverage. Hopefully Hood gets more snow soon, the next forecasted is in about 4 days
Report
No gear issues, and no real boot problems.
Pictures
2023-11-22: Day 1
Summary
This was a good gear shakedown and practice day. Minus a couple minor issues, everything important worked well. The main problem was my lack of cardio over the summer. The conditions turned out better than I expected in the end, since I was above the cloud layer things were mostly clear and the slope was skiable for being early season.
The Plan
Park at the Salmon River lot at Timberline, test out all my gear with a short uphill and back.
Conditions
~40°F, clear skies (above the cloud layer), low wind.
The main uphill approach at Timberline still doesn't have much snow. However, there's a line up slightly inside the resort boundary that has plenty enough to practice skinning and get some gentle turns in until Timberline opens. Just keep any eye out for rocks, I skipped off two on the way down.
Report
The gear failures were minor but annoying. The first failure was about 1 minutes after parking: I dropped my monocle, and all the internal optics pieces broke loose. It was cheap, but I didn't think it would be that bad; it's now the first piece of gear on the Wall of Shame. The second failure was the basket falling off my pole. The baskets they came with were unscrewing the whole day, so I'm not surprised. I've replaced them with better fitting ones, so that should be solved now.
Otherwise, besides being unsurprisingly out of shape for uphill, everything worked out well. I do think I'll look into a 40L pack at some point, as opposed to my 30L one. Fully loaded there isn't much space left, and getting to things is a bit annoying. But I was carrying more than I usual will for a day trip, so that's not a problem for now.
Tracks
Pictures
