Mount Jefferson Route Info - Wanted

[MrGecko]

I am looking for a most recent conditions report for the summit pinnacle and/or the Jefferson Park Glacier route.

 

Anyone want to give up the goods?

 

Thx

[merganser]

 

Climbed it two weeks ago, via the east face. Thought the summit pinnacle was in good shape - there was a fair amount of snow on the west side, so after ascending about half of the pinnacle's north ridge, mostly on rock and some snow, we crossed to the east side, traversed south, and climbed a short chimney directly to the summit. We rapped off the notch south of the summit pinnacle and traversed snow back to the red saddle..

 

I've not been up Jeff Park Glacier, but viewed from the trail, there were two giant bergschrunds near the top that looked difficult to pass..

[MrGecko]

I have been hearing that the traverse from the Red Saddle around the west side is icy at this time and not very protect-able.

[iceaxe23]

I have been hearing that the traverse from the Red Saddle around the west side is icy at this time and not very protect-able.

 

 

yea that I would like to know also

[PuckerJunkie]

I ran into a (reasonably sane) guy at Smith this past weekend who said he "heard" that the west branching knife ridge is all rock and the biggest issue is the schrund. I would love to get some confirmation on this as well as how gnarly the schrund crossing is right now...

[cemmes]

I was up about a month ago on the West Rib. We got to the summit pinnacle late in the day and it was still looking fairly iced up on the north side and mostly clear on the west. It's probably all clear now.

 

As for the traverse to the red saddle, we decided to descend the southwest ridge, so we made the traverse. It was definitely icy in parts but was warming up significantly as we were on it. It was also pretty steep in parts. All and all it was pretty doable though, we just brought some snow pickets (3 i think) and used our axes as well for anchors and roped up. Worked fine and I felt very comfortable.

 

Hope that helps.

[Lafayette]

I gave the J-Park a go on Wednesday night (9/22). Just a quick conditions update for ya...

 

Went straight up the middle to 9200 feet. The bridges were sphincter tightening, but the snow was steep and solid.

 

The first Bergschrund can be passed on the climbers left through a patch of snow that shows some signs of rock fall. We didn't do this, instead going directly through the first berschrund zone. This is around 8800 ft if I remember correctly.

 

The second bergschrund is where we met our match. It is possible that another team, with a different skill set can still make it up and through. There's a wall of solid glacier ice, with a snow cornice overhanging the top. It looked like you might be able to traverse it all the way left to negotiate around the cornice. I gave it a try, but no luck.

 

I don't know if it goes, but it might be possible to get onto the rock ridge on climbers right and traverse above this upper problem. There is a pretty big moat/ice/rock chute on this side but there could be a bridge across.

 

It was a solid hike, fun times, but no summit. So it goes...

 

 

Edited September 24, 2011 by whoiswillhockett

[iceaxe23]

I gave the J-Park a go on Wednesday night (9/22). Just a quick conditions update for ya...

 

Went straight up the middle to 9200 feet. The bridges were sphincter tightening, but the snow was steep and solid.

 

The first Bergschrund can be passed on the climbers left through a patch of snow that shows some signs of rock fall. We didn't do this, instead going directly through the first berschrund zone. This is around 8800 ft if I remember correctly.

 

The second bergschrund is where we met our match. It is possible that another team, with a different skill set can still make it up and through. There's a wall of solid glacier ice, with a snow cornice overhanging the top. It looked like you might be able to traverse it all the way left to negotiate around the cornice. I gave it a try, but no luck.

 

I don't know if it goes, but it might be possible to get onto the rock ridge on climbers right and traverse above this upper problem. There is a pretty big moat/ice/rock chute on this side but there could be a bridge across.

 

It was a solid hike, fun times, but no summit. So it goes...

 

 

 

 

me and a friend scrambled up a week prior and also turned around at around 9K. We went up that ridge line to the left of the jefferson Glacier. Nice trip and could see the smoke from the fires. My crappy "photo" as my camera was on video of the glacier from maybe 8k?