OlympicMtnBoy

Nice TR, I've wanted to get up on that ridge but haven't gotten around to it yet! I think the best time to be up Crystal Creek is late spring when there is still a bit of snow and/or water in the tarn. Then it is pleasant camping. It faces sort of south so the rock dries out earlier in the season. It's a bit of a hike in though, if you find it there is a reasonable climber path with only a tiny bit of bushwhacking near Ingalls Creek. The creek bed has always been wet and slippery when I've been there!

Nice pics, looks lind of fun to be up there with less snow, plenty of water up there at least to drink!

Hehe, sounds a bit like the Disappearing Floor on Mt. Hardy next door. Good adventure!

Nice work and good pics! I need to get back in there and finish the ridge from Terror where we stopped a couple years ago.

Thanks for the TR Josh! Dammit Tom, now how am I gonna follow you up this if you are done with it. With all the darn weekend weddings, a honeymoon, and not enough climbing I'm in great tender shape for some alpine thuggery!

Looks like you had a good day out! Thanks for cleaning out some rap trash. That's one of my favorite Olympic rock climbs, although maybe I took the harder more solid lines (it is the Olympics though).

Nice one, that's a great climb and you had some great weather for it! You are going to have to redo your shirt to have Olympus in it!

I'm up in Anchorage for work and I get the weekend off! I don't know any climbers up here anymore but i wanna get out and do something at least one day. Sunday looks like the best weather. I couldn't bring much gear but I have my harness and shoes and helmet and some boots if it's alpine. I don't know the area at all but am happy on most anything up to 5.10 or easy 11. Some people think I like bush whacking and chose Open to any other adventures or beer as well. Cheers, Stewart

Trees are on route, climb them with the rock. They make great pro too!

Cool, thanks for sharing!

I haven't been to the top of Thin Fingers lately but I like those trees up there, they are part of the Index experience. Please don't cut them down!

Pobst, did you go up there again? I think the OP was referring to May 16th, the week after our climb. I remember you pointing the flake out to me though when I climbed up. It sounds like if no one was hurt then a service may have been inadvertently done. Keep an eye on your anchors though folks, just because it's been used before or it "seems" solid, doesn't mean it doesn't warrant thought and inspection of the surrounding rock. Just my thoughts from on high having pleasantly not had to lead that pitch.

Trip: Mt. Jefferson - Jefferson Park Glacier Date: 5/24/2014 Trip Report: Ok, so I’m way behind on TR writing, but this seemed sort of timely, if not too late given the snow year. Last memorial day my buddy Chad and I decided to take a little road trip down to Oregon as the weather looked bad for our originally planned Glacier Peak ski (I think someone posted a wet TR of that trip anyways). It looked like a bit of a window for Mt. Jefferson and neither of us had been there before. We piled all the gear in my 1977 Chinook and cruised on down the road. We got our permit and a map at the ranger station and decided that based on the snow pack we might have a better start via Woodpecker Ridge than Pamelia Lakes. I'm not sure why this approach isn't mentioned more as it got us higher with the snow conditions and worked well. We drove 90% of the way there before hitting a decent sized snow patch in the road that I was sure the little Chinook wouldn’t make it through. We had time though and two shovels so after 45 minutes of digging and putting the chains on, we were able to make it all the way to the trailhead to spend a drizzley night. We woke to clearer skies and began hiking with the skis and boots on our back. After a couple miles we hit the PCT and some more snow, but the aspect and the trail side slope made for somewhat annoying travel and we decided not to ski yet. We continued hiking north past a small tarn originally heading for the Russell Glacier but at Jefferson Creek we saw a great snow field heading straight up so we stashed our approach shoes and started skinning. It was a beautiful but hot 3000 ft climb up to a bench around 8500’ where we found snow melt puddles and a wonderful spot to pitch the megamid. We decided to chill there and climb the next day, enjoying an amazing sunset. In the morning we skied onto the Russell Glacier and then booted up an icy slope and over the shoulder to the Jefferson Park Glacier. After some more skinning we ditched our skis at the bergschrund and continued up the final 1000’ or so. We hit the rime covered ridge and roped up for a couple of pitches of fun scrambling in deteriorating conditions. The crux was a single ~8’ step of gently overhanging rime that I somehow overcame to reach easier slopes above. Without the rime it’s probably 3rd class but I was glad I had a second tool. Chad followed and we celebrated the summit in a whiteout. After a short break on the summit we reversed course and rappelled off a horn in the gulley to avoid reversing the ridge. Some steep downclimbing brought us back to our skis and we clicked in for the fun part. The upper part of the glacier was still scratchy but we had a few good turns lower down and were able to nearly ski all the way back to camp. We broke camp quickly and continued our ski down with a wonderful 3000’ run back to our shoes. We managed to leave the skis on for some of the PCT section back and made a final camp just for fun near the junction with the woodpecker ridge trail. We could have gone the last two miles but we had food and didn’t need to be back so soon. In the morning we made the final hike in a drizzle and then cruised on back home. Although there was a little bit of hiking with skis on the back, I thought this was a great ski adventure and worthy of more attention. The little bit of climbing to the summit added that perfect spice too! Gear Notes: Light skis, a few nuts, 2 link cams, 2 screws, 1 picket, ice axe and short 2nd tool. Used the axes, picket, one nut and one cam. Approach Notes: Woodpecker Ridge worked given the snow at that time.

The Scarpa Crux has worked well for me, pretty cheap and a good balance between hiking and climbing. For the north ridge of Stuart though I'd take rock shoes too. It just makes it more fun for me.

Cool, wish I was up there then!

Looks like a good day out anyways!

Nice pics, looks fun!

Cool, great job guys, thanks for the TR and pics!

Nice pics. Thanks for kicking steps in spots, Tim and I were about 4 hours behind you (left Seattle at 4:15 am). We made it back to the car without headlamps but only barely. I too tried to head down to the wrong side of the false summit but Tim pointed me the right way and I regained your tracks in the flat light. We leapfrogged with a group of snowboarders on the way down (while walking) and eventually passed them on the trail which made me feel good about not taking my skis up. Hehehe.

PM sent.

Cool, sounds like you had fun!

We were up there Sunday too. I untied the knot from your rope and freed it from the top frozen section as i climbed up. There was a tiny bit lower down still frozen in but I tossed the rope down and it looked like a good yank from below (easily grabbed from below the bergschrund) would free it. I wasn't sure as we walked by on the way out, but it kind of looked like maybe the party ahead of us may have grabbed it when they went back to near the base to retrieve their trekking poles. So it might have made it out? Hope your partner heals fast and you get back on the route, it's in good shape.

Hahaha, thank for that. I'm turning 35 so it's pretty close to the downhill slide anyways. :-p

Hmm, yeah, that sorta sounds like me. I guess I gotta get old some day. Thanks for the links! Anyone had any success with any treatments to slow it down?

How about a little medical advice from the internets? I can't recall any particular incident or any painful moments, but I have been bouldering a couple times a week in the crappy weather and I noticed a new swelling in my palm a few weeks ago. It's below my ring finger and is sort of a lump roughly between the two crease lines in my palm. It doesn't really hurt much or affect my climbing, but it has started to feel a bit odd when trying to press my palm flat to the floor in yoga, or doing a pullup from a bar. I also notice it sometimes in my commute holding on to the steering wheel. I took ~10 days off climbing and didn't notice much change. FWIW, 19 years of climbing and I haven't really had any of the usual tendon/pulley injuries, but maybe I do now? Ideas? Worry, don't worry? I should probably find a real doctor, but that means finding a real doctor which I haven't had for some time.