markv

Could anyone give me an idea of how much snow there is at the upper PCT elevation levels (~6500') on the west sides of Hood, Jefferson, or 3FJack? Especially the latter 2. Sno-tel and NOAA isn't especially helpful for up that high. I'm hoping to be up there mid-week next week, and i'm trying to gauge just how much snow would need to melt off or consolidate for it to be ok travel without skins or snowshoes. thanks!

Could anyone give me an idea of how much snow there is at the upper PCT elevation levels (~6500') on the west sides of Hood, Jefferson, or 3FJack? Especially the latter 2. Sno-tel and NOAA isn't especially helpful for up that high. I'm hoping to be up there mid-week next week, and i'm trying to gauge just how much snow would need to melt off or consolidate for it to be ok travel without skins or snowshoes. thanks!

Hey, i'm wondering what we might expect if we go up this thing in a week or so via the standard route. Able to drive to the trailhead? Glissading possibilities? Ok without snowshoes? Trail still followable without GPS or anything? Mosquitos hatched yet? any info would be great. thx!

Hey, i was planning to do the circuit in a few weeks (8/6 or so) and was wondering about the slide too. Would you be willing to update us (or me at markvotapek "at" netscape "dot" net) on how you decide to detour and how it turns out? I checked one other site, and nobody had done it yet, but there were 3 different opinions on whether it would be better to climb down, pick your way across, or go up to the glacier ice.

Has anyone had any experiences with this guide group? Thanks!

Has anyone had any experience with this guide group? Thanks!

The subject pretty much asks my question already. Will be in Seattle in early October, and wondering about Glacier...road access likely to still be snow-free? Approach trails buried under 10 feet of snow already? Avalanche conditions? I wish i could get out there a month earlier, but this is my only chance.

i saw a bolt at the bottom of the pinnacle. it actually was helpful to me in marking where to start the ascent. ok great....NOW i see pictures of it with people roped up! why didn't anyone tell me that beforehand!

Well we did it yesterday. Thanks for all the hardcore climbers here who made me feel like i'd be a wuss if i chickened out! If you're the type of climber like my partner Emma who likes dangling off of a nearly-vertical cliff face with no rope and a few thousand feet of air beneath you, Thielsen is your mountain. For me, all i can say is i did it. A long, lovely, but unremarkable ~5mile walk through an Oregon dry forest trail and scree slope brought us to the scariest looking summit pinnacle i've faced. Apparently most people climb Thielsen with no rope or protection, and that's how we did it. Emma helped me with suggesting holds and the route, and 2 climbers did the same for her (and in turn me) on the much more difficult DEscent. The books and reports rate this climb as everywhere from Class 3 to Class 5.3. I'd have to rate it a 4, but with extreme exposure. For me it was like Idaho's Chicken-Out-Ridge, but chopped to 1/4 its width, and then rotated so it's up and down instead of side to side. It was a rush, but i'm not hoping to go back anytime soon. I think nwhikers.net is more my speed!

Hmmm...still hedging on Shasta. If i could only be sure i'd make it back some year in June, i'd skip it now. Thielsen's pictures have me nervous. I'm not as comfy on rock as i am on snow...i don't do any tech rock climbing at all. Is the route obvious on the pinnacle? I might get caught like a cat in a tree.

Hi. Time for my annual visit to the northwest, and my annual vague and stupid questions! This early August i'm in southern Oregon for a change. (curses on the people at Olympic for not hiring me back...maybe they figured out i was using their "work" pretty much as a base camp. ) I gather i'm a bit past ideal season for the 3 volcanoes i mentioned, but i'm looking into climbing them anyway. Does anyone have any advice? Is Clear Creek up Shasta going to be as miserable as the guide book suggests? Will Avalanche Gulch be a bowling alley? Are there other viable 1-day routes for semi-experienced solo glacier climbers. (have done Hood and Rainier by the standard routes, but not solo.) Any tricks to climbing the Thielsen pinnacle without flying into a vertigo-induced panic? Any other things absolutely NOT to miss in the area? I have plans to spend a little time around Crater Lake, but all in all i'll be limited to about 3-4 days of fun. Thanks! no real reason, but i always wanted to do this one...

just going to miss you by a week...no chance you'd be wanting to climb August 10-13 sometime?

35 y/o former Portlander here...I'll be flying in to the NW for business with a chance to get there a couple days early. Ho hum for you probably, but i'd like to do the S. Side of Hood. Even if unroped, company would be great. My dates are July 16/17 before i have to get to work on the 18th. email me? markvotapek@netscape.net

I will be in Quilcene (right by the Olympics) with the evening of 7/25 to the afternoon of 7/27 free. That would be a decent window for doing something like Mt. Dececption, no? I know that's planning way ahead for you locals...but, interested?

Thanks for your reply...i sent along an email, so let me know if you don't get it or anything....

I just found out today my last remaining team member for Hood has dropped out on me. So now i'm stuck with almost immovable plans for July 15-16th (maybe could swing it to the 17th) and no team. Who wants to do Hood? I'm probably marginally-experienced by the standards of this board. I've summitted Rainier with RMI, done a winter ascent in Rocky Mtn NP, and a couple of smaller snow climbs...but Hood would be my first glacier climb without a guide. Safety first...i wouldn't hesitate to turn back for weather...but i'll be prepared so that weather would be the ONLY reason i'd need to turn back. Contact me if you're as experienced or more experienced, and interested. markvotapek@netscape.net 'night! p.s. i'd be up for getting up there the day before the actual climb to practice/camp...