I read Tim N7KOM's summit report from last week and decided to get while the getting was good. Things were still pretty much as he described from the previous weekend. The 2 trees were still blocking the road. The good thing about that is that there is a wide spot in the road just around the previous corner to park. There was only one other wide spot after that to park before the gate and nowhere to turn around.
Treefall has been cleared!
When I did this activation there was treefall at 45.64442, -123.54488. This added approx. 1.5-2mile-ish round trip to the hike.
Roscoe and I headed up to Rodgers Peak for Winter Field Day. There was a mix of bare road and snow on the road hike up. Generally anywhere in the shade had snow. Snowshoes were not needed and I was not postholing during the hike.
It is with great excitement that I am announcing the 1st Annual W7O SOTA Campout here in beautiful Southern Oregon. We will be camping out at Hyatt Lake Recreation Area (42.168,-122.464) within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument from July 8-11th, 2022. We hope that many will join us for a fun extended weekend with many great summits and sights to see in the area. Make your reservations soon. There are also cabins to rent available for the glampers at Hyatt Lake Resort (link below).
Wind Mountain is a popular summit on the Washington side of the Columbia river gorge near Carson WA with wonderful views of the river and Mt. St. Helens I was a little worried about access given the recent snowstorms the area has had, but decided to take the chance. The trail was pretty icy, and for lack of crampons I found myself relying heavily on my trekking poles with ice tips.
Yesterday morning I climbed Mt. Hood (W7O/CN-001) for a sunrise SOTA. I think this was my 6th ascent of Hood. Conditions on the mountain change daily & weekly. This was one of the more difficult ascents & descents.
My friends and I left the climbers lot at Timberline just before 2am. We took our time and made the top of Palmer around 3:40am. After a quick breakfast we continued up the mountain on good solid snow. We were hit with sulfur from Devils Kitchen throughout the hike up.
Patterson Mountain is an established hike, with quite a few resources providing the details. WA7JNJ's previous trip report should provide plenty of information for fair weather activations, so I'll focus here on my experience doing this hike in January.
McClellan Butte had been on my list the last year or so as challenging hike, due to the last section required to get within the activation zone. I've watched the video below multiple times, and it provides helpful trail and summit information...along with an alternate parking/hiking to shorten length. The video also captures the summit scramble and views from the summit.
One picture and a short description.
My second visit, steep and difficult. Nice summit area with a balcony like area to set up. Left a new register in place.
Hiked in sport shoes, probably better to use boots as there are some steep, slippery bits accessing the summit.
UPDATE Jan 2023 - Beacon Rock Trail is closed. You might find status here:
https://www.parks.wa.gov/AlertCenter.aspx?AID=3530&fbclid=IwAR16QwFmuw_…
We didn't make it up to the summit for this one. The road was posted closed for the season. We drove as far as we could up to the summit but it rapidly got nasty and we decided to turn around. Will have to try again in the spring.