I understand that the Pearly Gates had been blocked by a "15-50 foot vertical step." Can any one verify the height of the step and/or give a rough comparison between the Old Chute and Pearly Gates in terms of technical difficulty, added distance, exposure, angle of incline and so on?

Furthermore, does anyone know if this step is going to melt off by late May/early June. I have heard that the FS predicts it will disappear by May, can anyone verify this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks!

-Nigel

follow the path of least resistance - that path might well not include the old pearly gates for a long time to come - go left, young man, go left

when it disappears, it will leave just scarey rock in its place

if you insist on the pearly gates, take a second tool and some gumption

The step is steep but not vertical and usually appears between Nov and December and is about 15-20ft. It then disappears under a bunch of snow. This is happening as I write this. So when are you climbing?. If ts it in April or May , it should be a non issue.

This year's line is setting up different.... the hog's is lined up left; reminiscent of what I've read ahout "the olden days" when the old chute WAS the normal route. I bet we are in a transition phase where the south climb moves around over the course of time; looks like it's on the move again maybe eventually to setup like it was in the 30's-50's.
True, it's only moved maybe 50' to the left (west) so far, but it sets up the ascent through the pearly gates all wrong. Also exposes a natual funnel down onto the unsuspecting.

I've seen most people head up the old chute so far this year. Not having done this specific route up, to me it does appear to be a slight bit tougher. I've seen a couple take a high line up, maybe too high in fact, which looks like a traverse at maybe 45 degree for about 100 meters.

Still likely the easiest way up, and not hard by most standards, but maybe just hard enough that it keeps the hordes from summitting??? Time, and I'm sure the 5 o'clock news, will tell.

I blame it on global warming

Here's what the old chute looked like today. The gates were much more vertical.



Edit for typo..

Hey, I might have seen you up there yesterday. We summited at about 2:15. I am sort of confused which shute we took. What we did is climbed the hogback and then traversed right a bit until we found a shute with about a 8 foot high step of easy AI2. Was that the old shute or the pearly gates.

that's the PG

That is what I was thinking, but the chute we did was the shute in the picture up above. Where is the old shute supposed to be located.

way left of the hogsback - the pg, right of the hogsback have 2 options, left and right (the old standard way)

Jamin, on the one hand you say that you describe climbing through the Pearly Gates, but then say you climbed the chute in the picture, which above poster clearly states is the old chute....which was it?

I'm not trying to be overly critical, just trying to get accurate updated info on route conditions.....I'm heading up there next weekend (hopefully) via the Leuthold and am trying gauge what the old chute looks like for our descent.....thanks.

We summited about 10-10:15am. We were stuffing our faces at the brew pub by 2:15

Just to clarify, the photo IS actually the Pearly Gates, aka the new chute. We (gt5816v and I) went up West Crater Rim and the Old Chute, descending the Pearly Gates (me in red in the photo). The "Old Chute" is a much more straightforward snow slope at the moment, especially for descending. Also, the shrund is starting to open, but still easily crossed. Fun in the sun!

Perhaps I mis-spoke.That photo is the left chute to the climbers right of HB. The right hand chute was quite vertical for ~20+ feet. We summited via West Crater Rim and descended that chute in the photo.

I find it amusing how much confusion there is surrounding the various finishing options for the South Side route. I must admit that I'm not 100% certain either.

However, the fact remains that the Hogsback is shaping up differently this year than it typically has in the recent past and there will be many climbers affected by this during the upcoming season. I'd hate for someone to get hurt this season because they are expecting the usual walk-up through the Pearly Gates and don't know how to navigate safely through the new terrain.

Here's what the Hogsback looked like in 2003:


and here's what it looks like this season:


I've drawn in both variations of the Pearly Gates in red as well as the Old Chute (aka "Mazama Chute?") in green. Like others have said, the standard way through the Pearly Gates is the right variation and most years the Hogsback lines up perfectly with this.

At the moment, it appears that the Old Chute is the easiest way to the summit. Just keep in mind that this option exposes you to much more ice and rockfall hazard. But it does bypass the bergschrund which seems to be opening a bit early this year.

Feel free to jump in and correct me if I messed something up.

How is the Old Chute for skis right now? The normal route looks pretty spicy!

Should be good for skiing, although could use some new snow (which we should get this week hopefully).

Cluck, nice photo essay for the masses!
A picture is worth a thousand sprays.... good job and thanks for putting forth the effort.

Did anyone take a picture of I-rock when they were up there?

Wow, thank you for the help and the photo. Now, for those of you that have climbed either the Old Chute of PG, do either routes truly require a tool or are climbers able to ascend safely with just one axe? Thanks.

-Nigel

you can climb liberty ridge w/ a single axe - when soloing i'd rather have a second tool - it's training weight for the slog and it makes everythign so much more fun when it matters

Thur was a great day to be on the mt. Surprised there were not more people heading up.

I saw some roped and unroped teams go up the Pearly Gates. It looked steep from the hogsback. I decided to check out the old chute. From the bergshrund (which is starting to open), I cut left, then up. Soft snow in the last 200 ft was tiring, but the climbing was strait forward. However, I would be hesitant to take a novice up that way on their first snow climb. Will be interesting to see what route the April/May climbing hoards will choose.

As always, climbing Hood is a lesson in humility. I was humbled by the team that had just climbed the Reid headwall, the Sandy headwall soloist, the two guys from New York going to Bend for the AAC bash who stopped to climb Hood on the way, the gnarly skiers coming down the old chute from the top, and the central Oregon school teacher on spring break who smoked my ass up and down. *sigh*

So would you need snow shoes or crampons at the moment? I was up there over X-mas and snow shoed up. It seemed there were places where I needed them and not. I just dont want to lug them up there if I can just use some crampons (or my boots) and slug my way through some smaller areas of powder, or just shoe over them? Has the powder blown mostly off?
Thanks for any help I plan on going up Monday the 9th. Good climbing to all. Steven

Personally, I'd never go up without pons; ever.

I was able to make it up without snow shoes last week, but there was soft stuff in a few areas. The morning crust helped too.

My crampons balled up so bad on the way down (no anti-bots) I took them off since that was safer.



Of course things could change at any time so be prepared.