Snowboarding Mt. Hood's Cooper Spur Route

I left Portland right in the middle of rush
hour traffic. While I love living near
downtown for the beer, food and music,
traffic is my most hated enemy of all time.
As much as I screamed no one would
move. I got on the open road at 6:30 pm.

Since I was already so late I decided to
stop in Hood River at the Full Sail brewery. I got an amber ale and a gouda burger. Then I got some gas, another beer for the bivy and some snacks for the next day.

I pulled up to the Tilly Jane trailhead
and talked with a nice man in very short
shorts. After hiking for about a hour and a half, I reached the snow line and set up camp. I hate hiking in the night. Went to bed at 11:53 pm.

I awoke at 4 am and started skinning. It was a beautiful morning, the sunrise was incredible. I looked out over Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, and the Columbia river to the east.

I made it to the climbing route known as Cooper Spur, and a rock known as
tie-in-rock. No tying in here, I was solo.
I switched over from splitboard to ice
axe and crampons, and started the upward progress. The climb was terrible. I came to 600 vertical feet of old, rotten leftover sastrugi that smelled real bad. Or was that the fumaroles on the other side of the mountain? Either way it stank. Once I entered the chimneys my feet were sore
from front pointing in my soft snowboard boots. My route up was the looker's right "chimney". My snowboard route down
was the looker's left chimney.

I was too gripped to stop and take any
pictures on the climb up, since i was on a 55 degree slope and my camera was in my bag. I made it to the summit around 11 am and was the only one up there.

Just looking over Mt. Hood's north face is scary enough, let alone putting your board over the edge. On the ride down I did manage to take one photo, but quickly put the camera away as I did not feel safe on that slope one bit. I made about 75 jump turns with my ice axe in my hand until I made it back to tie in rock. It was awesome.