Jefferson Park Attempt-TR

[Zenolith]

Sunday the 20th we started out at 4am after spending the night wondering if the wind would slow down enough to let us go up. We had camped at 5900' on the right lateral glacial moraine so we just followed that up to where the glacier widens and becomes heavily crevassed. There were two of us climbing together above camp and we decided to stay on the lower slopes of the N Ridge to avoid roping up. This worked well and we got to the 'shrund (9800') at 6:00. I don't usually travel that fast but we had great conditions and were anxious to get past the Mohler Tooth before the sun hit it. We crossed the upper 'shrund by climbing 8' of water ice between it and Mohler Tooth. We then climbed up steep slopes to the base of the "5.1" ridge. The wind was howling up there so I racked up in the shelter of a giant ice fin.

I stepped up onto the ridge and got quite a shock. I stood on a hump and looked down at the exposure on both sides. I was standing on a crusty ice ledge about 2' wide looking down at a drop of hundreds of feet on both sides when a big gust took my balance. I dropped to my knees and regained my center of gravity. I backed down to look for a belay and to survey the route. The start of the ridge was too hard for pickets and too soft for screws so I looked ahead at what I would be climbing.

The ridge has a long (3-400') series of very sharp pinnacles. After this the ridge flattens and widens as it stretches off to the summit (which was completely covered with ice). We could see that if we got past the pinnacles we could get to the base of the summit pinacle. These begining pinnacles are steep enough to make me want two tools but totally unprotectable. My partner suggested we traverse on rotten rock ledges on climbers right (SW). It looked really scary b/c of the enormous exposure and the wind was coming up that side. With no feasable belay available, the strong gusts, lack of pro, etc we decided to back off.

Note: It occured to me that "5.1" rock when covered with ice, unprotectable, in a driving wind...is a lot harder than 5.1 in crampons and gloves.

Later I spoke to an accomplished climber who has done that route in like conditions.

He said that the pinnacles are "impossible" when iced up like that and that even when

dry they are passed on the SW side. Apparently the traverse is very sparsly

protectable in winter/early spring, and belays are a little better than "imaginary".

Hmmm

Warm temps are coming and may remove a lot of that ice. I would go back and try

again in a week if I could (I'm going again on June 2-3). I reccomend using the N Ridge

as a backup plan. If you get to the ridge and have to back off you can descend to the

glacier the way you came and go around the base of the N summit and climb up to the

N Ridge crest. The N Ridge route bypasses most of the worst difficulties (except the

summit). This plan should be attempted early since the guidebook says the rockfall

can be rather bad until you get on the ridge crest. The route is spectacular and, like

Mt Washington, it has a remote, big mountain feel that the rest of the High Cascades

lack.

[ckouba]

What was your descent route?

[Zenolith]

The way we came up.