Cooper Spur, Jul 18th

100 years and 1 day after the historic first climb to Cooper Spur, I decided to take a group up there. The idea was not to celebrate the 100 years though, that happened by chance. The idea behind this trip was to train for the Adams Climb planned for the end of July. I was hoping to get most of the group that had already signed up for Adams but instead, I got a mix with some other folks that were not doing Adams. This hike, which I have done at least three times in the past, it’s a grueling climb from the Cloud Cap Inn in Mt Hood to the base of the Elliot Glacier at 9000 feet. The first part of the hike goes thru some switchbacks in the forest but quickly comes out of it and for the rest of the day; you are out in the open. This can be good and bad at the same time. As you’ll see in the pictures, the good thing is that you get amazing views that just get better and better as you gain elevation. The bad thing is that you have either the full sun on your back, cocking your brains or, on cold and windy days, the wind. Also, when you come out of the forested area, the hike is over a barely noticeable trail that goes over scree and mountain ash. This makes the hike a bit harder as every step up you take, you slide down a bit. With all that, we marched on at a steady pace towards our goal. In several places, we took the standard route doing switchbacks thru the snow but on some others we took the harder/shorter route following the ridge. The view where outstanding as we got up to the low section of Cooper Spur. At that point, we decided to stop for lunch and enjoy the views and then some of us continued a bit higher to the point where you need to put crampons on to continue. The wind was blowing hard so we didn’t stay there for long. On our way back, we stopped at the famous rock with the inscription done 100 years ago before heading down. Once we got back to the ridge line, we saw a group of people heading down over the snow field. That seems to be more fun that hiking down the scree so we traversed a bit to the east and glissaded most of the way down. After all that fun, we, the ones that were signed up for Adams, knew e were ready for that challenge.