Summer Sunshine!

Sunshine Route (stolen from the web)

(Pre-read note: this post is the action you've been waiting for! sort of...)
Summer. That time of changing gears when cold winter fun turns into slush-busting on volcanoes and rock climbing at more than your local crag or rainy-day gym. Open the access roads and let the summer sun soak the mountains in perfect weather (except for June-uary), and let the fun begin!
For some/most of you, the fun surely has begun. Apparently, for me, it took two 12 hour round trip drives (to Dragontail Peak and Mt. Shasta, respectively) and getting rained on to subsequently fail, to start my summer!
Driving that far twice to get shut down takes a toll on the spirit; when there is no summit, the stoke starts to die...oh yeah, and another (make that 6) attempt on Hood to realize:
Maybe the North Side is Best?
My friend Conor called me Friday the 13th (ironic that success starts with such an 'unlucky' day), wanting to climb Mt. Jefferson. I initially dismissed his offer, fearing the choss summit pinnacle and late season snowpack (read: postholing). Instead I turned to my friend Brayton (the concussion kid) and inquired if he could potentially be stoked for a southside summit of Hood, since he climbs 5.12 but not mountains. He was down, until Conor called again with the Jefferson consolation- a Hood summit via the Sunshine route, on the north side. Our stoke, now three-fold, propelled us into action immediately- lured by talk of a French's Dome pre-summit summit and a hot-tub soak at Conor's cabin, we left Salem as quickly as possible and headed to Portland.
After a quickly picking up Conor, we headed to French's dome, and did a fun two pitch climb (first 5.8 second 5.easy I think) to top out, just as the alpenglow faded on the spectacular west side of Hood. Some pictures for fun (low-res from my phone):

Brayton and I bringing Conor up

West side of Hood sure is a looker

Myself Brayton and Conor stoked on the pre-summit summit

Ended up it was Conor's first time multipitching as well, even though it was a short one! First times abound, as it was my first (but seventh attempt) and also Brayton's first summit of Hood...but that's later!
Fast forward a few beers, too much milky mac'n'cheese, a hot tub soak, and two hours of sleep.
2am. Alarm goes off. "Shit. I hate alpine starts...at least I managed to sleep this time!", I think to myself. Wake Brayton up- he's disoriented but quickly gets his mind in the right place- hard not to when its your first time, I guess. Conor's alarm is going off as well- I run in and start partyboy dancing to it, to make sure he's really awake (just to make sure!).
Fast forward a muffin, a long drive to Cloud Cap Inn, and plenty of loud pump-up music, and its 3:30am- we're geared up and ready to go. A groggy mistake as to where the trail is, then later as to why we didn't drive to Tilly Jane instead of Cloud Cap (extra hiking...call it training), and soon we're crushing mushy snow at timberline, gazing at the imposing north face and moving ever-upwards.
We cramponed up (no real reason) and tied in before the start of the Elliot glacier, the lack of crevasses meant we walked right up it and didn't cross at the bench.

The north face 

Sunshine route follows the crevasse-free part to the ridge, then follows left-hand skyline to the top

Stoked fellows 

Super sick clouds, also means storm coming

 Once across the Elliot, we put the rope away and gained the ridge, working ever towards the top of Snowdome and constantly discussing the best place to cross the bergschrund.

No reason for a rope anymore

Brayton demonstrating fast and light

Myself feeling great!

Stoked on the northside

Top of Snowdome, not quite at the berg yet...

 After a few hundred feet of steep slushy snow at the top of snowdome (about 9600'), we arrived at the bergschrund; Conor and Brayton eager for the 'direct' variation, and myself vying for the obvious snow bridge on the right. After a quick realization that the glacial 'ice' was more slush than ice and climbing out of it would actually suck, we headed over to the bridge. What looked like a 5 foot wide snowbridge was actually a lump with an eroded snowbridge below, seeming to fill in the crevasse enough to cross. Brayton and Conor readied their stances, belaying me (or maybe not, since the snow was so slushy!), as I stepped down into the crevasse. A bit of knocking off mushy snow and an awkward mantle later, I was on the other side, and the two followed suit without problem.

Snack attack

Looking east, crazy clouds

The not-so-wide bridge that looked wide

Conor coming up post-bergschrund

 A few hundred more feet of steep slush led us to the summit ridge, where the slope became much more gradual and rime ice made for easy steps to the knife-edged section just beneath the top. The summit was imminent! After attempting and failing to summit Hood six times previous, I was extremely psyched to actually see the summit, and to know it was ours. Once traversing the ridge, the smell of fumaroles became all-too-present, and excessive fart jokes were made...too bad there aren't fumaroles on the north side, just for blame's sake :)

enlarge for glacial flow

Looking east from summit

7th time's the charm...

Thinking about the hot tub to come

The team that made it happen

 Once on the summit, we all talked shit about how fun the route was, how much better than the south side it was, and how terrible the ride from timberline to cloud cap would be (beats descending north side!)...not to mention the steadfast truth of how all great post-climb things start with B- I'll give you 'beers', figure out the rest for yourself! Descended south side, watched a tele dude ski the old chute which was inspiring, and met our skiing friends for the ride back (who had poached 10k'+ of vert for free on the Palmer!). I could say we went back to the cabin and passed out, but I only did (driver safety) after a beer and pizza while soaking in the hot tub. All in all an excellent first summit (but seventh try) of Mt. Hood, I couldn't have asked for better partners nor a more enjoyable experience!

Note to the crew- Nice to 1. not be in a jungle, and 2. nice to not deal with a concussion at altitude. way to crush!