Mt. Hood, King Creek Ridge, and a WTF was I thinking moment

If you've followed me on this blog for any amount of time, you know I've made it my life mission to chase adventures at every opportunity. So when Friday was calling for perfect conditions, I took the day off and headed out to bag two peaks, because as a friend put it, adventure rarely comes looking for you. The TLDR version of this story is that we had an awesome day of scrambling, but got into a few precarious spots that could have ended very badly. Skip to the photos if you don't care for the details. 

The detailed version goes like this: We expected a straight forward day of hiking, but got a very technically demanding day of scrambling instead. Off we went hiking through a beautiful canyon alongside King Creek, having to cross the fast flowing waters repeatedly using whatever wet logs or rocks weren't submerged. One of us fell into the drink fairly early on, which in retrospect, set the tone for the type of day we were to have. After the twelve or so creek crossings, there was a couple kilometres of annoying bushwhacking that we cut short by taking an alternate ascent route that involved awkwardly scrambling across multiple cliff faces, to bypass steep snow runs. And when we finally got within site of the main face of Mt. Hood, we could see the normal ascent gully was socked in with that same steep snow that would send you sliding down the mountain if you slipped. So we needed to carefully pick our way up faces of choss (loose, crumbly, unstable, and unsupportive rock) to avoid snow patches. Ultimately, we would stop just shy of the summit, because we were already venturing into full climbing territory, and still had one bad snow patch to traverse. We had lunch perched atop a rocky highpoint, and readied ourselves to descend the same choss we just came up. For most people, this would have been a good day, and they'd have just retraced their steps back to the car. 

But we had no interest in crossing that stupid creek again multiple times, so we decided to climb up the backside of neighbouring peak, King Creek Ridge, to descend down it's frontside hiking trail. What should have been a straight forward hike and switchback up this, turned into one of the more precarious things I've done lately... we switchbacked a few meters too soon, and ended up on a difficult exposed ledge. I went further up to scout ahead, awkwardly squeezing through a steep chimney and hugging a rock face that angled away from the mountain, which is not a good feeling. This was clearly NOT the correct route, so I shouted back for Keith and Phil to go down and find the correct switchback. But I was already committed at this point, and downclimbing back to where they were wasn't an appealing option. I yelled to them that I would meet them up top, got my nerves together, and started the climb up, not knowing if I would end up cliffing myself out somewhere. There were a few solid minutes of me saying to myself, this is how you end up on the news. Scrambler gets separated from party, ends up in some bad terrain, and plummets to his death. So with each move, I repeated to myself, "Don't fuck this up, or you're done. Test each hold before even thinking about making the next move." It felt like eternity, but in reality was probably just a couple minutes of me climbing up two blind overhangs before I topped out on the summit of King Creek Ridge, to let out a loud "HOLY SHIT, that was a scary." (Pardon my French). Ten minutes later, Keith and Phil came leisurely hiking up the proper path, and we enjoyed some time up on this summit, before descending an easy trail down the front.

If you made it through all that, thank you for reading. I assure you, I am not one of those adrenaline thrill seekers with a death wish. I make very calculated decisions about safety, do my research on routes ahead of time, and generally don't bite off more than I can chew.   This was just one of those rare times where I had overcommitted in searching for a route, and then had to make the most of a bad situation.  

Almost as if in reward for surviving the day, we were treated to a view of a beautiful grizzly bear and her two cute chubby cubs on our way home. 

 




One of many creek crossings. The water was flowing fast, and it was fricking cold.
 
  Scouting out our next move. The main ascent gully was buried in snow, so we had to take some detours.
    To avoid the steep snow patches, we ended doing a lot of scrambling across these types of faces, with really rotten rock.
   Keith goes scouting for another route up.
Beere Brewing Co. Walkie Taco Double Dry Hopped IPA.
Mt. Wintour.
Looking south towards the Kananaskis Lakes.





Taking a look at King Creek Ridge, which we would ascend after dropping back down from Hood.
Looking back up at Hood.
Standing atop King Creek Ridge, which would be a fine objective on it's own for a day, without having already gone up another mountain.

Tubby left us a year ago. I miss him everyday, but I still bring him along on each peak.