Without the cast of usual suspects along, I figured I'd venture out on a poke that had been plaguing me for a few years. Figured with no one else in tow it would be no big deal if this epic turned into a complete flail. So I motored up to Mt. Hood's North side with a stab at the Barrett Spur in mind. I'd been repelled by deep snow on the access road and poor navigation in previous attempts. Figured the third try would be the charm.
It was.
| Mt. Hood's North side as seen from Clear Creek Road. Barrett Spur is the prominent feature on the lower right skyline. |
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Up Forest Road 650 a ways there was a split and an obviously signed "Elk Cove Trail" trailhead. Problem was this trailhead was at 3200 ft. . . . the trailhead on the map was supposed to live at 3600 ft. Popped back in the car and traveled a bit further up the road ("this can't be right") but soon realized I was on my way to the Pinnacle Ridge access. Didn't want to hit that trail as the access from that one requires a bunch of climbing back out of Elk Cove to hit the trail on the return. So I wound my way back to Trail 631 and suited up.
After leaving the trailhead it was soon obvious why the road to the old trail was out of commission. The bridge over Pinnacle Creek was gone - by flood or by design - replaced by a one-lane footbridge. After about 20 minutes of walking I was at the old (now unsigned) trailhead . . . a mere 3.9 miles from Elk Cove and still over 4000 vertical feet beneath the summit of Barrett Spur (groan . . . ). Perhaps Pinnacle Ridge access next time?!! With the road-walk addendum, it'd be about 1.5 miles shorter one-way than the Elk Cove access . . . but I digress.
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The North side on the approach hike TR 631.
Start choosin' yer line! |
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At about 4800 feet I started encountering a bit of snow on the trail. The snow became nearly continuous by the time I reached the crossing of the main drainage out of Elk Cove. Breaktime . . . popped off the sneakers and took the moon boots off my back.
Soon thereafter I was into the Elk Cove. An awesome place with the Coe Glacier descending viewers left, Barrett Spur towering above, and a big juicy bowl to the right.
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Barrett Spur above Elk Cove. Find yer line, yet?
Coe Glacier icefall immediately below Mt. Hood's summit |
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No obvious easy way to the top so I angled right and started kicking steps up the nearly 1500 feet to reach the main ridge below the summit of the Spur. The easterly aspect of this bowl had caused it to soften up a bit, but the steps were easy to place. Angled right around a yawner of a glide crack (matter of fact there were LOTS of big glide cracks at about the 6500 ft. elevation).
Seems like the wind always powers down all the way to "off" when you're a little fleck inside a big snow-covered bowl & the sun does its best to turn the place into an oven. The sweat POURED down. Finally figured out that the sweat-channels were pretty effective at keeping the salty stuff out of my eyes if I just looked continuously down & about 2 feet ahead of me only. Any glance upward was immediately penalized with disabling stinging of the soft-boiled eggs. Oh well. Easy enough to look down, turn the melon off, and keep on grinding up.
| Almost to the saddle immediately below the main summit on the spur. |
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Took a break in a beautiful saddle at about 7300 feet - above the Ladd Glacier and just below the main summit of the spur. Spent the time watching two rope parties climbing the Sunshine Route over 3000 feet above me. Looks awesome.
| Ladd Glacier below and right as seen from the saddle |
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| A good look at the entirety of the Sunshine Route |
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Packed up and punched steps steeply up the remainder of the Spur to the lower summit at about 7700 feet.
| Staircase up the final pitch. Elk Cove 2000+ feet below. |
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Dropped my gear and marched up the remainder of the main summit and spent a while up there just taking in the views.
| Saddle between the lower and upper summits on the Spur |
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| View of North side of Hood from the main summit of the spur. Coe Glacier to left - Ladd Glacier to right. |
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There were some REALLY steep lines off the main summit and the cornice that lives between the upper and lower summits down toward the Coe Glacier. Will save those for another non-solo day . . . maybe.
| View from the upper summit back down the route - steepest lines off the saddle to the right. Mt Adams in distance upper right. |
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Downclimbed back to my gear and popped on the skis and made my first few steep turns off the lower summit. Made some sweet fall-line turns in excellent corn snow to where I believed the line I had picked out on the way up was. Couple of mad-cap orientation traverses and I was in. Just kept thinking "watch out for the glide cracks" and after exiting the lower section of this nice little chute found myself getting chummy with one of 'em. From here on down the bowl broadened and the snow got softer - I kicked off a wet slide and watched it hiss its way down the bowl, like a slow-motion ooze.
| Final few turns into the upper part of the Elk Cove. My line basically took me through that little pinch straight above and fall-line down - except for a skirt of that rather large glide crack |
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Cruised my way back to the big Elk Cove basin - I'd noticed that the drainage was open and snow-filled a long way down out of the basin so I followed this line to about 5200 feet where it finally pinched off.
| A look back at the line from the Elk Cove - basically dropped from the little nub summit down the obvious fall line observers left. |
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Finding my prints from the climb up was easy enough and I was soon returned to the drainage crossing. From this point on down a pretty easy and very straightforward march down to the old road and the new trailhead in about 90 minutes time.
| Final look back at the work on the exit trail - |
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All in all a great day out. It really wound up being a long hike with some skiing in the middle. The Spur probably is best done sometime in mid to late-May. Was it worth it? Absolutely.