Hood Climber Slides 500 Feet

Would have been his 98th Hood summit...at age 16. How is that possible? ..and how did he slip if he's been doing it regularly?

News Link

His father is quoted as saying, "98th summit." Doesn't that possibly mean he climbed 97 other peaks? Am I missing something?

^very well could be but 98 summits seems like an odd thing to track...I mean all 97 could have been class 1 walk ups...so I gave the benefit fo the doubt and assumed that he'd climbed Hood that many times but did find it hard to believe.

"Maybe one of those crampon shoes to keep UH: his stability on the ice"

Top notch reporting.

Interesting title:

"16-year-old rock climber survives 500-foot fall on Oregon's Mount Hood"

Maybe he had rock shoes on and that's why they went with "rock climber" and also that maybe what caused the slip. As he was a rock climber on a snow field, perhaps there was most likely no ice axe, maybe he was desperately trying to wedge a cam or a nut into a crevasse as he slid? pfft, reporters always jack up stories like this. At least "rock climber" is an upgrade from the usual "hiker" [/joking around].

[serious windbaggage] I've had the strange occurrence where you go walking up midwinter in sweet deep snow and everything above XXXX elevation is ice. You're thinking "Crap" no screws, but we're all the way up here and the weather isn't heinous so lets do it anyway". The only way to go up or down is to keep your pick in the ice when your feet move, but most people are not use to that and that's not what they do, they falsely think they can stop via a conventional self-arrest because they are skilled in it and know they can stop. Yet once you start sliding on ice if you don't slam the pick in immediatly, the pick won't penetrate at all and you'll keep sliding even if you are in perfect full self arrest postion with your body over the head of the axe and the pick if bopping off the icy bumps as you slide down, picking up speed and unable to stop. The pick won't penetrate and you pick up speed damned fast, seconds. Seen it happen and have suspected it in other cases I read of (the highly skilled expert climber Mark Cartier for instance). There would be more of it occurring except that less folks go out mid winter for ascents. All a person can hope is that they don't pile headfirst into some protruding rocks below too hard and break their neck. The sequence is simple, slam your pick in, move left foot right foot, slam pick into ice, left foot right foot: etc. Don't move your feet if the pick isn't in. And if it gets too steep climbers in the old days would cut steps with their adze (so cut step, left foot right foot cut step left foot right foot etc) and that still is effective abiet slower. Just remember that coming down is much harder and if you choose to bail you'll have had a great day out and a fine fun glissade down even if you didn't summit.[/serious windbaggage]

Regardless, that's one happy dad right there. Best damned Christmas gift for a dad ever. EVER! Warm regards and congratulations to Rishampdeep Singh and the whole Singh family. Wow.

Billcoe wrote:

 Yet once you start sliding on ice if you don't slam the pick in immediatly, the pick won't penetrate at all and you'll keep sliding even if you are in perfect full self arrest postion with your body over the head of the axe and the pick if bopping off the icy bumps as you slide down, picking up speed and unable to stop. The pick won't penetrate and you pick up speed damned fast, seconds. Seen it happen and have suspected it in other cases I read of (the highly skilled expert climber Mark Cartier for instance). There would be more of it occuring except that less folks go out mid winter for ascents. All a person can hope is that they don't pile headfirst into some protruding rocks below too hard and break their neck. 

Ha! You describe me about 3 times coming off a Sierra peak this past summer...slippery, scary shit for sure.

Honestly not making fun of the situation on Hood. Just trying to understand what the whole story is. Surely someone knows the ~100 summit kid and can provide more detail than the horrible written article.

Yes, a very happy family today!

Billcoe wrote:

Interesting title:Maybe he had rock shoes on and that's why they went with "rock climber" and also that maybe what caused the slip. As he was a rock climber on a snow field, perhaps there was most likely no ice axe, maybe he was desperately trying to wedge a cam or a nut into a crevasse as he slid? pfft, reporters always jack up stories like this. At least "rock climber" is an upgrade from the usual "hiker" [/joking around].

I don't know why one would be rockclimbing 100 yards from the summit of Mt. Hood, so I don't think he was. I think he just slipped and fell. I've done that in a parking lot before. 

Regardless, that's one happy dad right there. Best damned Christmas gift for a dad ever. EVER! Warm regards and congratulations to Rishampdeep Singh and the whole Singh family. Wow.

The kid still shattered his leg. Beats dying, but it's still a pretty serious injury.

Saw some discussion on a local fb group, apparently he was pretty experienced (can't speak to the summit number) and went over to scout the gates because the old chute had a couple parties already on it. Sounds like a slip on steep subpar snow/ice and then going too fast to self arrest, just like Bill thought.

Long Ranger wrote: I don't know why one would be rockclimbing 100 yards from the summit of Mt. Hood, so I don't think he was. I think he just slipped and fell. I've done that in a parking lot before.

I was reflecting on and making fun of the news articles poor writing as a climber would see it. The general news default on climbing stories tends to be "HIKER injured": so towards that end "rockclimber", even if it was on 100 percent snow and ice, is an upgrade by the reporter. The best damned gift ever was a reflection on the dad's feelings of joy as expressed in the article. Yeah, the son will be working through some things that will terribly suck hard, but I've been that father.....the feelings of horror and terror and outright gut sickness until you learn that your young pup is fine are not soon forgotten. Life is precious, and we note it even more when it is in doubt. 

Gravity works every time.