Are You Ready to (I) Rock?

With a good weather forcast and no work until 615 on Thursday, I knew I needed to get up on Hood and get some climbing in. Everyone was busy that day. Thankfully, I got a hold of Colin and he was game to play hooky and go out. It was pretty much a perfect day with a full-moon, no wind, cold temps, and cloud-free sky. We made great time up to I-Saddle and were climbing by 8:30 a.m. after leaving the parking lot at 6 a.m.

I-Rock's east wall was completely bare. We had heard that stuff on the other side (NW?) was fun and not often climbed. With conditions on the front side, we really had no choice but to drop off I-Saddle and find something there. We picked the most obvious line/weakness on the face.

Our first belay was pretty marginal with a picket and two marginal pins. Mentally I was preparing myself for the entire climb to have poor protection. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. I found solid protection (including ice screws!) the entire way up the climb. There wasn't a lot of ice on route, but almost every tool placement was on ice with the occasional pick torque, edge, or hook. It was moderate, fun and in great shape. Honestly a top-5 alpine-mixed day all-time.



I had Colin take a picture of this screw just to prove we actually placed it.



Pitch 2. Awesome dihedrals that were ice up and actually a little burly. Thankfully perfect protection abounded.




Looking down the second pitch from the Skylight. There was a big 3/8" bolt just below this. Maybe this is Wayne Wallace's route North Skylight Direct (or something like that). There was a good #2 camalot-sized crack next to the bolt, but don't get me wrong, I clipped the bolt.

Colin pulling the final move into the Skylight. This actually wasn't a posed shot. The climbing was that good.