Mount Hood’s historic Cloud Cap Inn is hard to reach but rich in history

As the 2024 climbing season begins, search and rescue efforts on Mount Hood will rely on a historic old building high on the mountain that most of us will never see: Cloud Cap Inn.

Cloud Cap was built at 6,000 feet in 1889, as the first permanent resort on Mount Hood. It offered fine dining, flushing toilets and room for 30 guests, who arrived via horseback after taking a train from Portland to Hood River.

“It’s a pretty special place,” said Christopher Van Tilburg, an avid climber and Cloud Cap regular. “Last night, there were five of us here, and we had a delicious dinner, and the wind was howling. We knew it was going to be good skiing. We sat around talking and playing games.”

Related: How the Cloud Cap Inn has endured for more than a century 🎥

Most Pacific Northwesterners know about Timberline, the magnificent ski lodge on the south flank of Mount Hood. If you stood at Timberline and drilled north, right through the mountain, you’d come out at Cloud Cap Inn. But there’s no electricity at Cloud Cap and no paved road to get you there.

“This is much more rustic than Timberline for sure,” said climber Paul Crowley.

The inn is more like a large mountain cabin. The walls are simple rough-hewn planks. There’s a workshop for fixing climbing gear, mountaineering equipment is stored in every nook and cranny, and memorabilia hangs from the rafters.

There’s also a large rock fireplace and graffiti – names left behind from long-ago climbs – dating back to 1889.

But 135 years is a long time for a wooden building to cling to the side of a mountain, and maintenance is a constant problem. Even supplying food is difficult.

The Cloud Cap Inn shut down just a few years after Timberline was built in 1935. It couldn’t compete. The Forest Service bought the building, and by the 1950s it was in such disrepair that there was talk of burning the inn to the ground.

That’s when a mountaineering group called the Crag Rats came up with an unusual plan. In exchange for using Cloud Cap Inn as a search and rescue base for mountain rescues, the Crag Rats would maintain the building for the Forest Service.

“We strapped it together with chewing gum and bailing wire for the first few years,” said Bernie Wells, a 78-year-old who has been coming to Cloud Cap to fix things and climb since he was a boy.

Now the repairs are more serious. The new roof just cost $230,000. It had to be top quality wood shingles for both historical accuracy and longevity reasons.

The love of Cloud Cap Inn runs deep in Hood River County. A fundraising drive and a government appeal raised twice the sum needed to fix the roof, thanks to the Crag Rats, the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon’s Congressional delegation.

Crowley said there’s more work to do, though.

“We have outside decks on two sides of the building, both of those need to be replaced. We have shutters on all these windows. They all need to be replaced. They’re old and warped.”

They’re also hoping to reglaze the windows and add another toilet.

But maintaining Cloud Cap Inn is not just about being on the National Historic Register. The Crag Rats are looking for recruits to build up their team as there are more people on the mountain than ever before.

“When I joined in 2000, we were going on eight missions a year,” said Van Tilburg, who is writing a book about the Crag Rats and Cloud Cap Inn. “In 2022, we went on 60 missions.”

Mount Hood is the world’s second most climbed mountain, behind Mount Fuji, mainly because of its proximity to a major metropolitan area and the road that takes climbers all the way up to Timberline Lodge.

The Crag Rats used to be an insular group, consisting mainly of orchard growers out of Hood River. Membership was by invitation only.

But over the last decade, as the demand for mountain rescues has increased, the Crag Rats have opened up. Paul Crowley said new members need a solid mountaineering track record.

“You need to climb Mount Hood and Mount Adams. And you need to be sponsored by two members. You present your climbing resume, your background and what your abilities are.”

Applicants also need search, rescue and medical certifications as well as other classes that take close to a year. There’s also a two-year probationary period and vote among club members.

Membership is not a casual commitment, either. Crag Rats are expected to roll out of bed and into their rescue gear at a moment’s notice, regardless of the time or weather.

“We are helping people on their worst day,” said Lisa Rust, a professional guide and Hood River High School teacher. She has climbed Mount Rainier 74 times.

She said they don’t get annoyed with those who need to be rescued off the mountain: “We’ve all had tough days on the mountains,” she said. “And it can happen to any of us.”