Mt. Hood North Side Traverse
It's not often that you find perfect powder and sunshine on your day off. On April 17th we got lucky, the stars aligned and we scored perfect conditions.
The snow reports and the telemetry showed that it had snowed 13 inches over the few days and the wind had not been over 20 mph. That meant awesome powder high on the mountain above treeline.
We left Ryan's van at 6 in the morning and headed up the Tilly Jane trail. I've been up that trail many times, and it has definatly lost most of its appeal, and is now just a slog.
Once in the alpine, we crossed the Eliot Glacier and headed towards the feature known as the "snowdome". The snow was perfect for skinning on and the scenery was awesome.
We crossed the moraine seperating the Eliot Glacier and the Langille bowls and transitioned to our downhill mode. It was an amazing 3,000 vertical foot run of perfect angled slopes, with light fluffy smooth powder. That connected to a secret access gully that had some steep turns down onto the Coe Glacier.
We climbed up Barret Spur and got a great steep, 1,500 vertical foot run in perfect powder.
After dropping in on Barret Spur, we toured back up the Coe Glacier and took in the scenery.
We got one more 5,000 vertical foot run down the Eliot Glacier, and the Tilly Jane drainage and trail.
So many great turns!
In total we covered 16 miles, 8 on skins and 8 on boards. We climbed 9,500 vertical feet and got 9,500 vertical of descent, with only three skin to board transitions. Perfect tour for splitboards!
photos courtesy of Ryan Irvin