Alud

Leuthold Couloir, Reid & Zigzag Glaciers

Daniel MacDonaldMt Hood
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Quick report

On skin to IllumSad Mon 7pm, noted strong winds had sculpted prior trax. Post old snow cave bivy (perfect pro from strong w-winds), cont 8am and had mostly clear day except summit rim semi-whiteout 1pm (ie mainly southside?). Followed in boot-pack trax down to glacier, then thru avy debris and above covered bergschrund wo issue. On Leuthold apron, had to be selective on line up (very old avy bed surface I think) and employ side-step crossover to avoid punching thru crust. Despite Hourglass looking good (except start of a runnel), opted for climber’s right sneak to reduce overhead/funnel risk. Thought I was going to have to switch to skins in Leuthold proper, but surface to just below Queen’s chair provided most efficient bootpack of day w no noted rock/rime fall. Far upper Leuthold is more rime staircase than ski, but Queen’s Chair down was quality and very stable at 2pm-ish (likely due to strengthening winds keeping surface cool). Allowed (slightly technical due to runnel) Hourglass route ski wo incident.

Avalanche

Fairly recent west-facing D1-2 released from about 9.5K’ under Reid Headwall and settled debris at about 9K’ on the glacier.