Historic Hood River
American Legion Climb
11-29-2013
Notes
From the 1920s through the 1940s the Hood River chapter of the American Legion sponsored an annual climb of Mt. Hood, with guide services by the Crag Rats. The caption notes that 64 climbers are seen working their way up the mountain.
We have hundreds of photos of these climbs from accomplished local photographers such as C.S. Reeves, Alva Day, and Fred Donnerberg. I especially like this composition, but unfortunately we don’t know who took this shot.
charlott
Very apparent the conditions are not that good with only that number of climbers. Don’t know, but Bill Pattison take a gander at this, as the guy with the sunglasses looks like a young George Howard Sheppard to me. I am guessing these two might be Crag Rats up on the upper reaches, but who knows for certain. Do we have a date on this one to help figure it out…..
james
Is that the Eliot Glacier, down to the right, which puts them on the Snow Dome, a very popular ‘rat’ hang-out, or ski field. Due to the ‘fog’ it is hard to tell, could it be the South side climb?
Buzz
Did the American Legion climb ever start from Timberline Lodge, or did they always start from the Hood River side? I would think escorting that many people would require the simplest route possible. Even then quite an undertaking.
Charlott
The American Legion Climb always originated from Legion Camp. This is a very small group compared to other climbs. I don’t recall that there was ever a time that once on the summit, weather created a situation where they had to decend to Timberline Lodge. I do know that on one occasion, my Dad and his group of climbers were forced to go down to Timberline instead of returning down the Hood River side of the mountain. Don’t recall what caused it, possibly rock fall and to be safe they went to Timberline, where they called for someone to come around and pick them up.
There were occasions once the climb was scheduled that the weather was not good enough to safely summit, so they would offer a glacier trip if the weather was decent down below.
Bill P.
The area below looks like the Newton- Clark Glacier, however the morrain on the left appears to be too flat. Any photos of the Legion Climb would have Crag Rats in thier black and white shirts to distinguish the leaders from the herd. My take is that it is a Mazama organized climb "some where".
Bill P.