You should be sleeping.
But instead, you’re driving. Destination: Timberline Lodge.
Stars glimmer overhead as you pass through Government Camp, the cozy village partway up Oregon’s tallest peak, and nervous anticipation courses through your conscious as you turn toward the famed mountain lodge.
You pause for a moment before shutting off your car, savoring the heat and sifting through your mental checklist one more time.
You have your ice ax and crampons. Your helmet, glasses, extra gloves. Enough food and water to fuel your ascent.
You zip up your jacket, and you step into the cold.
Snow crunches underfoot and wind whistles in your ears as you trudge up the climber’s trail — a highway of sorts headed for the top of Mount Hood’s highest chairlift.
There, after a lengthy uphill slog, the real adventure begins.
You pull a water bottle from your pack, munch down a snack and don your crampons — spiked traction devices that affix to your boots. Then you make haste for your next destination: Devils Kitchen, where you’ll pause briefly before continuing your ascent.
There’s no trail beyond the chairlift terminus. No marked directions or hazards. Just a line of headlamps inching skyward and a rugged peak visible in the moonlight beyond.
You create your own switchbacks, zigging and zagging up the snowy slope, or follow in the steps of others who came first.
Thousands of climbers try to scale the mountain annually, after all, and most of them ascend various routes beginning at Timberline.
The jagged Illumination Rock becomes visible as you clamber on, and the upper mountain comes into clearer view.
Soon, the sun begins to rise, bathing the peak in alpenglow and motivating you to push on.
You’re also greeted by a less inspiring sensation: the aroma of rotten eggs that rules Devils Kitchen.
The unpleasant smell — courtesy of volcanic vents called fumaroles — persists as you ascend the Hogsback, a ridge that marks the start of your most difficult climbing.
From the Hogsback, many climbers choose one of two popular routes: the Old Chute, a steep snow slope that spits you out at the summit ridge, or the Pearly Gates, a more direct path to the top.
You select one, ascending by kicking steps into the snow and sinking the pick or shaft of your ice ax into the slope above you.
Kick, kick, plunge. Kick, kick, plunge.
You’re almost to the top. And in one final push, you climb until the snow meets the sky.
There, standing atop the state of Oregon, you can go no further.
A certain magic abounds as you revel in the early-morning light, looking south to Mount Jefferson and north toward Mount Rainier. You peer over the edge, eyeing the extraordinary exposure, and watch other climbers crest the peak.
You celebrate the sheer beauty of it all.
In attaining the summit, you’ve joined a distinctive club — one founded over 160 years ago, when a party of five made Mount Hood’s first recorded summit.
Rejoice as you might, you’re not done yet.
Like the many others who have topped out on the snowy peak, you still have to get down. And some would say that’s the hardest part.
You head back the way you came, sinking your crampons into the snowy slope, and breathe deeply once you reach the base of the Hogsback.
The hardest part is over. And the comforts of civilization beckon from below.
You get back on the move: plodding past Devils Kitchen and the chairlift terminus, down the climber’s trail, and, finally, to the parking lot at Timberline Lodge.
Both exhausted and energized, awash in accomplishment, you return with a new appreciation for Oregon’s highest peak.
You’re headed home, for now. But you will, undoubtedly, return.
— Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
Subscribe to The Oregonian’s YouTube page to catch every episode of Peak Northwest, and follow me on Instagram at @JimryanPNW to see more of my adventures.
A version of this essay first appeared in “Mount Hood Revealed,” a book from The Oregonian/OregonLive. Copies of the book remain available for purchase online.
More Peak Northwest
- Episode 11: Taking snow measurements with Oregon State researchers at Santiam Pass
- Episode 10: Touring Oregon’s 86-mile historic rail line that could become the Salmonberry Trail
- Episode 9: Exploring waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge
- Episode 8: Fly fishing along the Crooked River in central Oregon
- Episode 7: Backpacking the spectacular Salmon River Trail
- Episode 6: We skied to one of Oregon’s fire lookouts. It was the coziest camp night we’ve had.
- Episode 5: Climbing high at Smith Rock
- Episode 4: We tried surfing on the Oregon coast. It was amazing.
- Episode 3: We ran Portland’s Wildwood Trail. All 30.2 miles of it.
- Episode 2: We climbed Mount Thielsen, the ‘lightning rod of the Cascades.’ It was spectacular.
- Episode 1: We tried stand-up whitewater paddleboarding on the Deschutes River. Here’s how it went.