Historic Hood River
Climbers on Mt. Hood
7-25-2012
Notes
Here’s another view of a Legion Climb of Mt. Hood in the 1920s. I’m interested in hearing some opinions from modern mountaineers about the equipment and technique demonstrated in this image.
The History Museum of Hood River County
Bringing the Rich History of Hood River County to Life
steve
" Let’s climb right next to each other " – … so we can all fall together…
No hang overs in that crowd..? …. Simple times… Bless them as we ponder in amazment ! …. Climb On !
charlott
You better not be hung over and try to climb that mountain, things such as that only tend to cause accidents.
Safety might be in numbers. Since climbers roped into each other, had a better chance of saving someone in their "string". Granted, there have been incidents of one climber falling and taking the entire string with him.
Good case in point is recently the climbers who used poor judgement and chose to climb alone. Had they had companions roped in there might of been a chance of stopping their falls. But they made the choice to go alone and we have seen the sad results.
I notice these early day climbers used alpenstocks instead of ice axes. I can not tell, but would hope they were using crampons.
Dorothy
This comment is for Perry Richards. I wrote about this one other time, but have no idea under what picture. Anyway – my sister and I used to volunteer at the tower you were asking about when I was in Junior High and she was in High School. It was located just above the East entrance to the Latter-day Saint Church parking lot, just below the gravel pit (which is now where we take our leaves – I think it is the City Shops) and across from the West side of the swimming pool. We would report all planes flying over and sign on with "Alpha Foxtrot Zero Zero Red"
Scott Cook
Great photo!!
Margaret Schmale
My father said he climbed Mt. Hood back in the 1930’s. He wanted to join the Mazama’s and had to climb three mountains. He said he made it to the top of Mt. Hood but thought he was going to die in the Old Chute. I pictured this as like an elevator shaft with him bouncing off the side to get to the top. He never really explained what he did just that it was really hard. He had no experience just a huge amount of bullshit and guts. He said there was a book that climbers that made it to the top signed. Is this book still in existence? His name was Dewey Minkel. I would love to know more about that time when he made the climb.