TR: Jeff Park Glacier

[ckouba]

The TENTH Time's the Charm: Jeff Park TR

 

The summary: The route is in REALLY FUN shape right now. The glacier is in good shape and not very melted out. There is a large crevasse below the schrund that extends from the base of Smith Rock well over to below Mohler's Tooth, so stay off to the left when climbing. The schrund has a passable discontinuity of ~5', all snow (no ice), which we crossed climber's left. Knife-Edged Ridge has the potential to be a nightmare, but when we got there, it was still very well consolidated. The ridge itself is probably 80% covered in a rime ice/snow mixture that was stable (or stable enough). Carefully swinging two tools and deliberate work with hands/feet made good progress possible. We only had to make one rock move on the ridge. We finished the KER staying below the high point on the North Ridge with a traverse toward the two small gendarmes, crossing mid-height on the first and directly over the second, pulling up below the summit. The pinnacle's east side was completely dry and the west totally rimed-up. Again, these gullies made for excellent tool-swinging as they were stable enough when we arrived to still hold picks. We cleared one gully and then ran into tracks (from jlag?) about halfway to the summit and followed them to the east side rock. One awkward move up a step, and then a brief snow ridge to another rock face ~10' high got us to the summit. For the trip down we down-climbed a series of ramps around that vertical step back down to the snow, rapped ~20m off a slung rock, down-climbed another gully, and traversed off the pinnacle proper and back over to the North Ridge gendarmes. From here we rapped off a horn down the east face. On this aspect, snow conditions were HORRIBLE (soupy, mashed potatoes- it was after 4pm), but we weren't going back from where we came... We strung together 3 raps total off of slung horns (uh, a little marginal though) and a whole lot of step kicking to get us to the Whitewater Glacier. Easy traverse back to Jeff Park from there.

 

Timetable:

0715 - left Jeff Park

0830 - arrive at moraine, gear up

1030 - cross schrund

1100 - top out JPG

1215 - hit North Ridge

1300 - base of summit pinnacle

1358 - SUMMIT

1600 - start rap down E Face

1730 - flat ground of Whitewater G

1830 - back on JPG

1900 - back at camp

2000 - camp packed up

2135 - TRUCK!!

 

Gear:

4 2' pickets

4 med length screws

set of Tri-cams

3 Metolius cams (1-3)

Placed the pickets all over, screws never, and the rock pro occasionally. Would leave the screws home for a while still and take less rock gear.

 

The LONG version:

 

I have wanted this one for a long time. All my normal partners were flaking out or couldn't take the time so I took advantage of the CC.com website, posted for a partner and wazzumountaineer (Kurt) wrote back. We decided on a Friday approach with an alpine start Sat am and said we'd play weather by ear.

 

As the week rolled around the weather looked like crap. The only glimmer of hope was the weatherman said things would clear up Friday night and Saturday should be clear. We decided we'd hike in just in case and made plans to meet for breakfast at the Cedars at 9:30.After a meal we were off to the trailhead and hiking in by 11. In the rain. UGH!

 

I'm not sure if we were suffering from over-motivation (being rained on with the thought of a tent and food), but we made excellent time in getting to Jeff Park, arriving in exactly two hours. The trail in was fairly clear, with consistent snow pack starting at the crossing just prior to the PCT junction.

 

We set up camp fairly lickety-split and sat around waiting for the weather to clear up that evening.

 

It didn't.

 

We chatted up previous climbing trips, joked about not having anything to pass the time and occasionally stared out the door. No dice.

 

Around 5p, we started dinner, filtered water from the lake and got ready to sack out, still with little change in the weather. We set alarms for midnight and 0100 and called it a night.

 

Kurt woke at midnight to crap weather. I slept through my alarm but woke randomly at 0115, again, to crap weather. I announced this and accepted the fact that we'd probably have to try again next weekend. At least this way I was getting some sleep though.

 

At 0630, we both woke up as it was bright outside: the weather had cleared! Or more correctly, had cleared enough. Now we're in the predicament of what to do. It's way later than I wanted to start the route, but we're here already- why not see how high you can make it? The fact it only took us 2 hours to get in to Jeff Park made me think that Kurt had the wheels and could keep any pace that I could set. A quick discussion got us going, leaving camp at 0715.

 

We slogged up the snow bowls to the moraine, arriving at the glacier's edge at 0830. We geared up with the clouds below us occasionally washing through Jeff Park. Moving out onto the glacier, we hit the first portion just left of center and angled left-ish as it steepened. We could see a large crevasse extending across the glacier all the way from Smith Rock (on the right side) to well under Mohler's Tooth. We aimed at the notch in the North Ridge to clear the crevasse, then swung hard right to traverse over to the bergschrund.

 

There was a small step to get to the upper slopes and the saddle, and Kurt lead up and over it. We topped out the glacier at 1100 to great views to the south. We shuffled gear, ditching the screws and grabbing the rock gear, and scarfed down a snack. I was last on the ridge in December and we had a fairly warm stretch, so I expected there'd be some rock placements available. I was wrong.

 

We made our way over to the catwalk and it was covered in rime. It seemed stable enough to hold crampons as I kicked into it to start the Knife Edge Ridge traverse. With our late arrival, I had not anticipated this, but was certainly very excited to discover it. I edged my way out onto the faces and found them plastered with rime, from feathery to consolidated and stable. With careful selection it was possible to get the tools and front points to stick in nicely.

 

And this was how we made our way across the ridge for the next hour and change, one careful step and swing at a time. There was a single awkward rock move to clear a small face, but a little hooking and camming got through it. All told it was awesome and way more fun than my try in December. I loved climbing on the snow, and Kurt was following with vigor.

 

We eventually made it to the slopes leading to the North Ridge and I welcomed the fact of being on relatively flat and easy ground. We skirted the first gendarme without going too high or too low on it, but ended up going directly over the second one, both without difficulty. From here we could see boot track on the summit pinnacle, and Kurt lead out a traverse to find a way up it for us.

 

At a point where we'd have to descend a bit, he found a gully to get us up and stuck a lead up it. I followed him to the base of a small rock splitting the ridge- to our right snow and the low clouds over the west slopes, to our left the dry rock and sunny skies of central Oregon. Kurt was clipped into a slung horn and we swapped the lead for the last pitch. I ran around a corner, threw in some imaginary pro and stepped up on some rock. This lead to a small snow ridge to the base of another small (~10') face. I placed another piece here and climbed. From here I slung a horn, belayed Kurt up to the summit and then finished it myself. It was 13:58.

 

Finally, a summit 9 tries and 6 years in the making, I made it. Rock on! Just had to get down now...

 

We downclimbed a ledge system that bypassed the rock step (which we didn't see from the way up!), worked our way back to the slung rock and rapped down onto the snow. We pulled the rope, roped back up and downclimbed a gully to traverse to the North Ridge. We headed back to the closest gendarme and found a horn to sling for a rap. My brilliant plan was to downclimb the east face.

 

We had a snack, packed gear and set the rope. Kurt went first, and boy-howdy was the snow soft. I had expected it, but not to that extent. We'd sink in to our knees without even trying, but we could kick in some mad steps. If we cliffed out, I dreaded the thought of having to go back up it.

 

We pulled the rope, traversed over to another set of rocks and found another horn, reset the rope and rapped again. This one ended out in the middle of nowhere, so we resigned ourselves to kicking steps in again. A little further on the descent, we found another horn, slung it and rapped again, leaving us on stuff that we almost felt comfortable enough to face outward and plunge step. From here, the runout was not quite as immediately life-threatening as well, which was a welcome lowering of stress level.

 

I pulled the rope and packed it while Kurt kicked off down the slope and in about another 15 minutes we pulled up onto verifiably flat ground on the Whitewater, and I finally felt somewhat safe. As soft as it was, the snow held when we kicked in our steps and plunged our way down it, but if it had been sunnier, there was certainly potential to have it slide.

 

We broke the rope out one last time and geared up for the walk across the Whitewater. On getting closer to the North ridge, we came across a party who were planning to do the East Face in the morning. We told them to just follow our tracks right to the face, and START EARLY!!

 

After a little more hiking and some glissading, we managed to pull back into camp around 1900. We (make that I) was a little slow to get gear packed up but we managed to leave camp right at 2000, catching a few quick glimpses of the mountain as we hiked out under a beautiful sunset. Then it became socked in with clouds and we hauled out.

 

Back at the car in an hour and a half(!), we tried to get to Detroit before the Cedars closed, but we missed by about 10 minutes. That was the ONLY thing that came close to going wrong the entire weekend! What a trip. Many thanks to Kurt for making the trip, and for having the wheels and skills to make it up with me. It was a pleasure sharing leads.

 

Some pics are still to come, but I have a few compressed ones I'll try and post in the gallery. Buzz me for beta if you want more boring detail...

 

Chris

[ivan]

[kurthicks]

Ckouba...what a great trip. Going back to work was such a hard thing to do come this morning! I really don't have a lot more to offer about the TR, but do the route now because it's in really fun shape!

 

Ckouba finishing out the Knife edge ridge:

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=1100

 

Jeff Park Glacier: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=1099

 

The whole trip just

[ckouba]

I posted a few pics, more to come later:

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?thumb=1&stype=2&si=ckouba&cat=500&sort=1&ppuser=339

 

The first 6 are from Jeff, the rest are 3C's on Dragontail. It's been a GREAT year so far...

 

Chris