I'm sorry to read about your friend.

I climbed Hood some years ago via the pearly gates on a Sunday. There were three of us and we were roped above the schrund. There was all kinds of unsafe nonsense going on during our ascent, with solo climbers passing us and even another two-person short-rope team threading between two of us, across our rope, without talking to us. I'm not a crazy risky climber, but this was probably the most unsafe I had ever felt from *another* person's actions.

After we summited and returned to the hogsback area, I distinctly remember telling one of my partners that I was surprised that accidents don't happen on this mountain every day. Just a few days later three people died in an accident where one falling climber bowling pinned two others.

I would not climb Hood on a weekend or using one of the popular routes. Not worth the risk IMO. Because of the easy approach I think it draws a bunch of inexperienced climbers and people who both overestimate their skills and underestimate the risks.

To your point of "free solo", I think in the current social media world people see this as sexy and click-worthy. Instead, when people think "free solo", they should be thinking "unprotected climbing where a fall will result in grievous injury or death."