OlympicMtnBoy

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.

Sweet, it's a good day out either way!

Now that you mention it, it looks a lot like the conditions I had on an early May climb of route 1A several years ago. Perfect neve!

What a great looking climb, adding another area to the tick list for sure!

Great work! I've done that hike out in the dark too and it kinda sucks. It's fun when you hit the mountain in conditions though! I need to get back in there.

That's awesome. Yes, we've thought about it, haven't done it yet although I've been to the top of 6 or 7 various points along the way.

My fiancee made the same choice a bit ago after going out with skiing friends and trying to keep up on a splitboard, and not enjoying the splitboarding as much. She still boards on good powder days but enjoys touring with the rest of us now, although her skiing is still improving. She's skied a couple of volcanoes and done some other good stuff. She's been pretty happy with her K2 Talkbalk/Waybacks and I have a pair as well that I use for spring ski mountaineering, fairly cheap and versatile. Fora quiver of one I might got a bit wider though, around 100mm underfoot maybe? I have a pair of K2 sidestashes that are decent but a bit heavier than I would like. There are more wide stiff boards on the market if you have the dough. I think for versatility you want just a bit of tip and tail rocker and some normal camber, but I'm not an expert. Check out www.wildsnow.com for some good reviews too. Have fun!

Thanks for the tips, ended up being kind of crappy conditions for touring, next time I'd leave the gear at home down there without a snomobile for approaches. Good XC skiing though!

I put this on TAY but figured there is some good community knowledge here too! I thought I would draw on the collective knowledge since most of my ski experience is in WA, aside from skiing Hood and Jefferson in Oregon I don't know the area well in winter. I'm heading down from Seattle tomorrow with my fiancee to be at Mt. Bachelor by Saturday for a dog sled ride (her x-mas gift). I was thinking of a good backcountry tour somewhere down that way for Friday but I'm not sure where the good snow will be at. I got the Backcountry Skiing OR guidebook from the library here but any personal recommendations for the current snow pack? I love getting to high peaks and skiing down but she is a more moderate backcountry skier so maybe something with some nice mellow (but not flat) hippie pow and good views? A summit is nice but not required. We'll have a full day since I'm bringing my camper down and we may just sleep in the sno park lot. Cheers everyone and thanks!

Wait, what, a climbing report in mid-december, with a crappy snow year too. Nice work!

Cool!

Put it on craigslist, $350 OBO for the lot.

Looks like fun, I need to get back to that place! Did you get up Ivins?