Team Norris: Happy 60th Max!

It should have been my dad's 60th birthday, and no one was available to hike with me, so I decided to go it alone. Last night, I looked in my favorite hiking book and found a hike labeled "the highest hike in this book." This was just what I was looking for. It was an old trail leading to the top of Mt. Hood, but the trail stops at 8500+ feet (unlike the 8900 I say in the following video) before running into a glacier that I would not be climbing today. (Mt. Hood is over 11,000 feet)

I headed out and it took quite a while to get there (almost 3 1/2 hours!) but worth the drive. It was cloudy as I started and sprinkling, so of course I did not put on sunscreen, wear sunglasses, or a hat. I also thought I was only going to be gone a short while, as it was 52 degrees and I had nothing warmer on than my shorts and t-shirt. It quickly warmed and after climbing 1000 feet, it started getting sunny. Then, it was brightly sunny for the rest of the 5 hour climb. When will I ever learn that Oregon's weather is sunny whenever I don't put on sunscreen?

Anyway, half way up I ran into two people who took my first picture, then another couple who I climbed with, a portion of the way up, but I went further than they did. :) They also took my picture. I finished the climb by myself, only to discover that I was out of water. Luckily, I only had no water on the way down.

I met up with the couple a little after I got started and unfortunately, they were joined by a hysterical young man (about 18-20 years old). He said that he was coming down from the summit with his dad when they both fell. The dad hit his head on a rock and slid out of view as the young man tried to keep from falling himself. He had no phone or anything and continued hiking parallel to the mountain to try and find his dad. The couple had just called the search and rescue, but the young man would not go down and had no energy to go up (where I was earlier). I had not seen anyone, but didn't know to look for anyone either. The couple would go back where I had hiked and I would walk down the trail (where the two were supposed to climb down after the summit). I kept my eyes open, but saw no one. About 45 minutes later, I heard the search plane start flying over the mountain. I heard it all the way down (about 2 hours)

When I got to the bottom, I informed someone there at the campground that I saw no one on the trail and to let the sheriff know if they came by. I started to drive down the road and ran into the sheriff. He said that the plane spotted the man pretty far up the mountain and would be recovering him soon. The sheriff wasn't that helpful and didn't know if the man was ok or not. I am still waiting to hear.

What a horrific ordeal that young man had been through. I can only hope that his dad hit his head and was just unconscious, not dead. I'll write again if I can find out the details.

Anyway, it was an adventurous day. Enjoy the photos. Of course, they do not look nearly as impressive as in person. :)