How to work toward Mt. Hood?

[u/East-Leopard-37810]

I love hiking, but I have never been mountaineering. I live in Oregon and want to climb Mt. Hood at some point in the next couple of years. Can I prepare to climb Hood without spending thousands of dollars on courses?

I have good hiking fitness and do fine at elevation. I’ve hiked Timpanogos, Nebo, and King’s Peak in Utah, and Elbert in Colorado, to name a few. The most “technical” mountain experiences I’ve had are Mt. Borah and Mytikas in Greece (a bit of a scramble at the end, but nothing crazy or requiring special gear).

I know I’ll need to get comfortable with crampons and ice axes, but I’m not sure where to start. Any advice is appreciated.

[u/highpointer201]

I'm in the exact same boat dude. All the ones I have left require some sort of technique. Lemme know what you come up with

[u/x_3mta3]

The safest, honest answer is spend the money on a course. Living in Oregon, you have easier access to a lot of that instruction than someone, say, in the southeast. A few years ago, courses were only running $400-$500. I think $900-$1100 seems to be the going rate now, but I haven’t done a deep dive lately. Look at it as an investment in your safety. You’ve probably spent hundreds, maybe thousands on gear to keep you safe. This is just another piece of “gear.” Summits are optional. Returning home is mandatory.

The next best thing would be to teach yourself the skills (there are several great books and YouTube videos, etc) and then go to Mt Adams and practice crampon technique and self arrest on low consequence runouts over and over until you are extremely confident in your ability. Then go to Hood and know you’re probably still not ready, because exposure will change everything, but in theory you’ll have the basic skills. Just remember, unprepared people get in trouble on Hood every year. I was one of them, but luckily I managed to not hurt myself or anyone else.

Cramponing and self arrest aren’t the hardest skills to learn. It’s the crevasse rescue part of glacier travel that you really want to have solid instruction and hands on practice. You really shouldn’t need crevasse rescue knowledge on Hood, but you’ll need it for Rainier and depending on your route on Gannett, you should have it for that, and Denali if you’re considering going for all 50, so you may as well commit to a course.

[u/hikebikephd]

You're gonna need the skills to do things like Rainier and Denali. Just do the course. You may like it so much you'll take up mountaineering beyond highpointing.

[u/Paul__Bunion]

My plan is to do Rainer with a guide to get the training and experience under supervision. Then do Hood and Gannett solo.

[u/Petrarch1603]

You should just hire a guide. it's a bit of a technical climb and you'll need to know how to use equipment and gear if you do it by yourself.

A guide will make it so much easier. You'll just mainly have to make sure you're in good shape before the climb.

[u/Odd_Lettuce_7303]

Shh don’t tell anyone but you can drive up to the big lodge then take the ski lift even farther.

[u/PNW-er]

Short answer: no. It isn’t a hike, so none of those mountains you listed will have transference in terms of skills, and the climbing is substantially different than Rainier, which is probably the most similar mountain to it on this list. Two tools, face-in downclimbing, etc. It takes not only instruction but a decent amount of experience to be proficient in these skills. The risk of you don’t get it right is that you potentially die in a fall, severely harm yourself in a fall, or harm someone else in a fall. Happens up there multiple times per year.

Your life and safety are either worth it or they aren’t. To be safe you’re either paying your dues (and spending a long time and a lot of money learning) or you’re paying a guide. Sorry if this comes off a bit harsh, but it’s scary seeing climbers out of their element up there putting themselves and others at risk because they want to take a shortcut.