SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022
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3B
Climbing could get more costly
New permit likely
required to summit
Mount Hood
beginning in 2023
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Climbing Oregon’s tallest mountain
will likely require a new permit begin-
ning in 2023.
The U.S. Forest Service will propose a
rule this month requiring anyone head-
ing above 9,000 feet on Mount Hood to
get a special permit that would cost
around $20 per person, per climb, or
$100 for a season, the agency told the
Statesman Journal.
The mountain’s summit is 11,249 feet.
There would be an unlimited number
of permits available, at least in the first
year, marking a contrast to permit sys-
tems on South Sister and Mount St. Hel-
ens that are used to limit crowding.
“This permit wouldn’t be required for
any ski area, the Timberline Trail or for
the vast majority of the mountain,”
Mount Hood National Forest spokes-
woman Heather Isben said. “This is
really just for the technical climb to the
summit.”
The new permits come in the wake of
a growing number of people and acci-
dents reported on Mount Hood, one of
the most frequently climbed glaciated
mountains in the United States.
“We are seeing a lot more people up
there,” said Nick Maslen, president of
Portland Mountain Rescue, which con-
ducts rescues on Mount Hood. “It has
kind of been a perfect storm ever since
the pandemic closed things down and
the outdoors was the first thing people
get outdoors and do, and that’s brought
the potential for more accidents.”
Ibsen said the Forest Service will
seek comment on the permit require-
ment over the summer, after they re-
lease their formal proposal in about a
month.
“We’re genuinely interested in what
people think about this proposal, what
they think needs changing or how we
could do this a different way,” she said.
“It shouldn’t just be a ‘boo’ or ‘yay’ type
of comment, but people’s experiences
on the mountain and ways to make the
experience better.”
Currently, climbers are required to fill
out a free self-issue wilderness permit
Climbers head for the summit of Mount Hood, Oregon’s tallest mountain. TYLER DODDS
at Timberline Lodge, but it’s not clear
how many actually do, while other
climbers start at different locations,
leading to an incomplete accounting of
numbers on the mountain, Ibsen said.
Why a new permit and where
would the money go?
Those planning to climb to Mount
Hood’s summit would be required to
purchase the permit before heading up
the mountain from the website Recrea-
tion.gov.
Officials are also hoping to make
them available for purchase in person at
ranger district offices and Wy’East Tim-
berline Lodge “to offer more options for
climbers,” Ibsen said.
There are several reasons to require a
new permit, Ibsen said, including:
1: The money would be used to hire
two additional climbing rangers who
could help with safety on the mountain.
Currently, there is only funding for one
climbing ranger on Hood. The money
would also go toward improved signage
and giving each climber a free waste bag
— known as a WAG bag — to reduce hu-
man waste on the peak.
“There has been an increase in peo-
ple climbing, and that includes people
with very little climbing experience,”
she said. “This would allow us to hire
additional climbing rangers who can
talk with climbers along the route and
really improve the safety experience
and reduce human waste issues.”
2: Currently, many climbers, includ-
ing those without experience, can sim-
ply show up at Timberline Lodge and at-
tempt to climb Mount Hood, without
any real idea of what’s above them. A
permit requirement would force climb-
ers to have a better understanding of the
risks by bringing them “increased inter-
action with safety information,” Ibsen
said.
3: The permit would allow the Forest
Service to gather data and get hard
numbers on how many people are actu-
ally climbing the mountain and what
times of year.
“This will get us much better num-
bers on how many people are climbing
on a busy weekend, for example, or how
many people are climbing the busiest
routes,” Ibsen said. “Right now we really
only have anecdotal information on
numbers but we do know it’s impacting
the wilderness and parking.”
Ibsen declined to say whether the
number of permits would be limited in
the future, as a tool to limit crowding,
which has occurred in a number of
places across Oregon and the West. But
it would give the agency the numbers to
make that case in the future.
“That conversation is probably down
the road but there won’t be any limit in
2023,” Ibsens said.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors re-
porter in Oregon for 15 years and is host
of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To sup-
port his work, subscribe to the States-
man Journal. Urness is the author of
“Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and
“Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be
reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal
.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on
Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
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