[TR] Mt Jefferson - South ridge 10/11/2009

[Water]

Trip: Mt Jefferson - South ridge

 

Date: 10/11/2009

 

Trip Report:

took the woodpecker TH to the shale lakes area. tried to get up on the first southwest ridge a few creeks past milk creek, but it was heavily wooded and lots of manzanita so we just scraped that and went to shale lake area for a quick evening.

 

started up at 3am, snow through the trees...scree slog 90% once we got onto the south ridge. traverse looked a lot worse than it was to be on it. we roped up and at the start right by the red saddle with the lowest risk the snow was crumbly powder, but as we continued on quickly got better and better. placed a single picket midway across. didn't rope up for the return trip as it was later and we were aware of how the slope felt to be on. The snow seemed to have set more since the sun hit it so it was in great shape for the return. as the day went on it got clearer and clear. didn't see or hear any rock fall during the traverse either way but obvious signs of it in the snow. the 25 foot of getting over the rib 2/3rd across the traverse was the only sorta sketchy spot with red frozen mud and an inch of snow..however I don't think the air temp ever got over freezing at the top.

 

we didn't go all the way to the north ridge and climbed a bit steeper (5.1?) area instead of the ledges.

 

protection seemed fine in some of the big blocks, falling rock kicked by one of us seemed the biggest risk. Since we had assumed we'd do a 4th class scramble up this burnt a lot of time-but it was fun.

 

hence the arrival at camp at 6pm, ate a quick hot dinner and packed up and back to the car at midnight-we're slow but we had a good time.

 

next time anyone goes up there this year its going to be vastly different after the system coming through this week.

 

we attributed our good fortune of success on our first attempt of jeffers to the raspberry crumble from the night before. in consuming the red crumble, symbolic of the mountain at sunrise or sunset..we took on its strengths. i'll spare posting my friends crumble faces just throw my ritual consuming shot up.

 

Gear Notes:

crampons, helmet, ax, rope, one picket, 2 small cams and a stopper or two. could have been fine with cramps, helmet and ax, but take your preference

 

 

Approach Notes:

couldn't get up onto the SW ridge due to thick brush. 5-6 ft of snow would have taken care of this, unless there is a better way

Edited October 15, 2009 by Water

[benb]

That is a long slog, but so worth the view. Nice work!

B