Thats right more government always fixes everything.

Per capita climbers are some of the most self sufficient and safe outdoors folks around. Most climbers adhear to a "self rescue" philosophy. Less climbers need to be rescued each year than either hunters or hikers. We don't need no stinking badges I mean climbing licences.

Climbing in winter can be dangerous but as some have previously noted it is also a safe time to climb on "loose" routes; the ice and snow glue everything together. In fact last I checked you can't climb Hood after the middle of July due to rock fall hazards. That is why climbers get up so early; to get the climb done and to get out of the "bowling alley" that happens as the mountain warms up.

Climbing Mt Hood in winter would be a very reasonable way to train for climbing a larger mountain in a colder climate like Vinson or Elbrus which are each one of the famed Seven Summits.

Traveling light and fast is a proven method that almost all modern climbers use. Yes you have to leave some otherwise essential survival items behind sometimes but that is part of the reality and even the chram.

I climb a lot in the Sierras during spring, summer and fall. If you want to move efficiently you cannot carry much in the way of gear. In summer when the night time temps can still get real low I carry a light windshell, an Emergency sleeping bag like an AMK Heatsheet bivy, a lighter, tinder, MP1 tabs, a SAK and a whistle in a small Camelback. Yes if I get stuck on a legde overnight it will be long and cold but I can't carry any more and be able to lead through offwidth and chimeny sections. Even with the Camelback sometimes I have to trail it below me on a piece of webbing. Many other climbers including the older school ones don't even carry that much. I have climbed with friends who leave the car with "a rope a rack and the shirt on their back" that is all. That quote is from some pioneering American climbers from a few decades ago.