Mike_G

Wow, there's a lot of snow up there this year! We did this route about three or four years ago on the exact same date you did, and had virtually no snow or ice on the knife edge ridge. Conditions were excellent, and we managed to summit. Thanks for the report and the great photos!

Anyone been up there recently? What are the falls looking like?

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, sorry about the super-long Mountaineers meeting beforehand. I'm not actually part of the Mountaineers group, so I had no idea that they had official business to conduct before the show. It was definitely a slow start to the evening. Thanks for hanging in there... Mike

This Wednesday, Dec 12th, three of us will be presenting a couple of different slideshows/movies of climbs on Mt. Jefferson's Jefferson Park Glacier route and also on Three Finger Jack. They'll be from 7-8pm in Bend at the Environmental Center (16 NW Kansas), free of charge. Any Oregon climber or outdoor enthusiast will enjoy the stunning imagery presented by local photographers Brent McGregor and myself (Mike Geisen) as we documented one of the finest alpine climbs in the state. Our 40 minute show is a creative mix of photo, video and funny stories, and is definitely not one to miss. As a prelude, Greg Ouelette and Brent will present a 20 minute show that will detail the 'crawl' and the summit chimney on Three Finger Jack with a high-definition video camera. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Check your PM's

When melting snow or ice for drinking water, how many of you also boil it to kill microorganisms? How necessary is this, because it takes at least twice as much fuel to raise water from 0 to 100 degC as it does to melt the snow or ice in the first place (depending on the snow or ice temperature)? I'm assuming, of course, that you're not carrying a filter. I'm also assuming that you're actually interested in treating water for common disease-causing microorganisms to a reasonably safe level (as opposed to folks who just sip from the creek like Grizzly Adams did).

Here's another one with free downloadable USGS maps of the whole country. Searchable database, too! Libre Map project

Here's the south side from Sparks Lake as of Tuesday morning, July 10th. It's losing snow fast, but there's still a bit up there...

Pretty simple. Make a post that says lets go drink at xx:xx PM at such and such location, and maybe the bend contingency will represent. I'm down for a revival of the original pube club. Uh... what exactly is a pube club? I'm not sure I really want to know...

I did throw in a few pieces of pro along the knife edge ridge, probably about 8 or 10 of them altogether (a few nuts, a couple of hexes, a tri-cam, and a few slung blocks). The ridge was longer than I had expected, and we ended up breaking it into about 4 or 5 shorter pitches, averaging probably 2 pieces of pro per pitch. If I would have led much further on any of the pitches, communication would have been more difficult, rope drag would have increased, but most importantly, there wouldn't have been as many photo opps! As for the pro, it wasn't too bad if you looked around a bit, but next time I will probably just leave the rack at home and bring several long slings to save weight. I had 3 or 4 of them, but felt like I should probably place some gear since I hauled all that metal up there. So it wasn't psychological pro, it was mostly obligatory pro. I think you could actually protect the whole ridge fairly well with just slings and have it be pretty effective if you did manage to fall. I think it would be tough to fall there when it's dry, though, unless something broke loose or popped off, which is definitely a real possibility. I also ended up going back and forth across the knife edge (left and right) a few times, which acted like putting in another piece of pro each time I crossed the top of the ridge. So all in all, a walk in the park. As long as you don't mind crumbling rock, extreme exposure and strong winds, all combined with high altitude. Oh, and the sun in your eyes, too.

Best of luck and enjoy your trip! Be careful up there. Post some pics and a report if you can (or at least let us know what conditions are like on this post). Thanks!

Yeah, the rock in that photo actually looks pretty good. But it's not. Most of the knife edge ridge is held together by... I'm not sure what. Desire?

Thought I'd post a few more photos for y'all. This route really is a gem, I highly recommend it for anyone who is up for the challenge. It has a nice mix of many disciplines; glacier, rock, snow, ice, ridges, routefinding, mellow, intense, remote... nice. Doing the circumnavigation of the mountain was a great way to see all sides of it, and not terribly tiring. It would have taken much more mental effort to descend the route, I think, and we found all kinds of unique things on the east side. We didn't see a soul on the mountain in three days. I recommend it. Brent working his way over to the snow bridge in the middle of the berg. Brent high on the Jefferson Park Glacier, nearing the col. A good view of the right side of the bergshrund. The snow bridge over there should be there for a little while longer, although it's definitely steeper over there! We crossed probably just off the bottom of the photo. Not sure how long our spot will last... North ridge looking at summit pinnacle. Looking straight down the east side from the summit to the Whitewater Glacier. Easy walking once you're down there. Rock tracks on the Whitewater Glacier. Cool. Looking up at Smith Rock (right side of Jeff Park Glacier) Enjoying the sunset over the western Cascades...

Great trip report, Dino. I was laughing out loud to myself kinda like someone who laughs out loud to themselves while watching TV alone. My friend was the guy leading the group of 8 that you ran into. I talked to him tonight and he said that all 8 summited, which is pretty impressive, kinda like 8 people summitting North Sister in so-so conditions.

One time, we actually caught a few zzz's in the ticket area by the climber's register. We were in there cooking up some grub (precip outside) and noticed that the floor is heated. Never been so comfortable on a cement slab...

April is a great month to be there, indeed, but temps can vary widely. Have you climbed at JTree before? The first time I went I was pretty solid leading 5.10 (sport, mostly at Smith), but got freaked out leading 5.6 and 5.7 at Josh. It's a different beast than what we have up here. Slabby, no holds, super run out, etc. Following or TR-ing was a blast, but leading "sport" routes took more cajones than I was used to. The trad there is amazing, and we've been exclusively bouldering the past couple of times we've been down there. It's an awesome place.

We just used daisy chains as umbilicals, and leashes as leashes. Is it pretty standard to only use umbilicals or leashes? I was just pretty much going with what my buddy Troy did, but he's not super experienced and hasn't been out in quite some time. All I know was that I wasn't planning on dropping a tool 'cause there wasn't much for easier ways out of the canyon...

Yeah, G-spot, I figure if they get in the way I can just sever them with my frontpoints. Did I mention that I'm a newb? BTW, there's an article in the Bend Bulletin about ice climbing today. Nothing too exciting, but alright. I actually read the sports page!

Trip Report: Trip: Paulina Falls Ice - Right Side of Main Falls Date: 1/15/2007 Trip Report: Not sure if this would be better in the Oregon forum or the Ice Climbing forum, so I put it in both. Hope that's alright... We skiied into Paulina Falls on MLK day to check out the ice after a few days of cold, and it was pretty nice! This was my first time on waterfall ice, and it had been a few years since my friend, Troy, had climbed ice, so we just TRed the right (south) side of the main (north) falls. Insane landscape! Troy rapping down in. Not being an ice climber, I'm not sure of the quality of it all, but we had a hell of a good time! It was fairly easy climbing, I assume, felt like about 5.8 on rock (if that's even a valid comparison). Anyone know about what this climb might be rated on the WI scale? Me topping out. Jen looking solid. Ruth gives it a try! The ice was wide enough to allow two different routes squeezed in there, although the routes were pretty short. It was quite dry for most of the day, drier than I had anticipated. The smaller south falls looked in, too, although it wasn't as convenient to set up a TR there. The four of us climbed until about 4:30 when the warm sun left us, then we boogied out under the crimson sky. I think Jen and I are hooked, although we kind of live in the wrong place to enjoy it very often... Anyone been up this week after a bit of warmer weather?

Great report, good photos to illustrate, and inspiring to everyone to responsibly go look for ice (or rock, for that matter) in new places. Thanks!

Trip: Paulina Falls Ice - Right Side of Main Falls Date: 1/15/2007 Trip Report: We skiied into Paulina Falls on MLK day to check out the ice after a few days of cold, and it was pretty nice! This was my first time on waterfall ice, and it had been a few years since my friend, Troy, had climbed ice, so we just TRed the right (south) side of the main (north) falls. Not being an ice climber, I'm not sure of the quality of it all, but we had a hell of a good time! It was fairly easy climbing, I assume, felt like about 5.8 on rock (if that's even a valid comparison). The ice was wide enough to allow two different routes squeezed in there, although the routes were pretty short. It was quite dry for most of the day, drier than I had anticipated. The smaller south falls looked climbable, too, although it wasn't as convenient to set up a TR there. The four of us climbed until about 4:30 when the warm sun left us, then we boogied out under the crimson sky. I think Jen and I are hooked, although we kind of live in the wrong place to enjoy it very often... Anyone been up this week after a bit of warmer weather?

Four of us are without kids tomorrow (MLK day) and are hoping to get a bit of a xc-ski and ice climbing outing in. Only one of us has some ice climbing experience (although he hasn't been out in a few years), but all of us are experienced rock climbers, so rope mgmt, anchors and belaying are not an issue. We're planning on toproping, obviously. Any thoughts on whether Paulina Falls or Tumalo Falls would be a better choice for us? Are there any other options? Anybody been out this weekend to either and have conditions reports? Thanks!

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for posting! We climbed Washington a couple of years ago with a 25m rope, which was actually long enough (and light enough). I think we rapped 2 or maybe 3 times, but we also did a bit of downclimbing. I know some folks don't bother with a rope at all, so it depends on your comfort level. Also, for protection, you're probably better off just bringing plenty of webbing and slinging horns and other large pieces of loose cat litter. I don't think we even bothered bringing any gear. Just my two cents...

We were up there a couple weeks ago and did both Prusik and Witches Tower. Prusik is definitely not to miss! Incredible! As for Witches Tower, here's my two cents: * Longer, but beautiful approach through the upper basin * A bit tedious to get to the "inside col" mentioned in Beckey's book, but probably less so if you ascend to the snow covered pass west of Lil' Annapurna on easy granite slabs from the east, then contour roughly N or NW to the inside col. * The 5.7 NW Buttress was unreachable for us because we didn't pack crampons and axe to reach the start (Beckey didn't mention the moderately steep glacier you would need to ascend or descend to get there). We didn't see any other way to reach the base of where the first pitch seemed to be, so that was out... * There is a 5.8 route on the NE, but the line wasn't terribly obvious from the route description, and we got a bit of a late start, so... * The option we decided on was the 5.4 West Buttress, but we made up an alternate first pitch (probably about 5.9 or 5.10-) to reach the "80 ft chimney" instead of the 4th or easy 5th scramble. * The rock is certainly nothing to write home about, but the climb was enjoyable, especially because of its position above the col and the glacier. When you reach the bulbous summit, you feel like you're floating above the whole upper Enchantment Basin with lakes and tarns to the east, Dragontail and ridge to the West, Annapurna to the SE, and Aasgard to the North. Outstanding! * There is a 3rd class downclimb that spirals around the South side back to the col, so no real need for a rap. * Chances are probably pretty slim for running into other parties compared to Prusik I would recommend it as an easier climb up there in a different part of the range with incredible views. Enjoy your trip!

I saw a mtn lion several years ago while driving home from a fire in the middle of the night in the Okanogan highlands (between Tonasket and Republic). He crossed the road in front of my engine and just looked at us like "yeah, you're going to slow that big truck down and wait for me to saunter across the gravel". He was one cool cat. Also heard one just outside of Grants Pass, OR one night. My wife saw reflections of its eyes in the brush with her headlamp. Luckily, she was on the front porch of a house...