[TR] Mount Jefferson - Jefferson Park Glacier 8/9/2014

[Dylan Colon]

Trip: Mount Jefferson - Jefferson Park Glacier

 

Date: 8/9/2014

 

Trip Report:

I'm going to open myself up to some criticism here. A couple of friends of mine and I tried to climb Jefferson Park Glacier last August. This is on the heels of a succesful climb by two of us of North Sister last May. As most of you here have already guessed based on the phrases "Jefferson Park Glacier" and "August," we didn't make it. That said, aside from a quick crossing of a slope that was exposed to rockfall, I believe we did so in safety.

 

The main rub is that none of us had been on a crevassed glacier before. I had read the entire Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue book by Andy Selters and the relevant Freedom of the Hills chapters, however. Feel free to tear into me for that, I understand it was a risk, but felt that I had at least learned all that I could without having someone with me. See the post for a bit more about my thoughts on this matter.

 

I'm actually hoping that some of the people here can point out things that I did wrong or should do differently on future trips, aside from the things I identified at the end of the following blog post. I consider myself to be an experienced rock climber, but snow, ice, and particularly glacier travel are pretty new territory for me.

 

Long story short, we spent a day approaching and practicing crevasse rescue techniques, and a day trying to summit. The attempt was stopped by our slow progress over unexpectedly icy and technical terrain, and by a bergschrund that you could toss apartment buildings into.

 

Once again, criticism is encouraged, even harsh criticism, as long as it is constructive.

 

Practicing crevasse rescue.

 

Gorgeous view from the campsite.

 

 

Base of the glacier at the crack of dawn.

 

The lower glacier was very gentle and crevasses were open and avoidable.

 

Higher up we started running into stuff like this. We had to belay and it slowed us down immensely.

 

Crossing a solid snowbridge.

 

The (completely impassible) bergschrund.

 

Bailing climber's left off the glacier below the bergschrund.

 

Our route.

 

 

Detailed blog post:

https://dylanontherocks.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/n00bery-on-the-jefferson-park-glacier/

 

Gear Notes:

pickets, a fluke, skinny rope, prussiks and pulleys, ice screws, rock pro that was never used, crampons and axes

[ScaredSilly]

All in all I think you did fine scratching your way up and taking they time to learn what you could before hand. My only comment would be the selection of the hole you practiced your crevasse rescue. Having lost two friends to crevasse / serac collapsing one needs to be very selective. What you went into looked a bit dicey.

 

Here is what the glacier looked like a month earlier:

 

http://mountainproject.com/v/109514242

 

Next time get up earlier and go earlier. That said do realize the ridge after the glacier is the real business part of the climb. The summit pinnacle is no picnic either. Nor is the descent once things get sloppy.

[Ben Beckerich]

Can't read your TR... Scared made it too hard.

[Water]

great before/after shot between yours and scaredsilly.

 

had you posted this TR without the caveats and invite for crit I don't think it is that terribly damning at all--nobody would know your background (or lack thereof) about glacier travel. August on JPG yes is probably out of season (just as about any glacier route on Jeff..whitewater might still go?) but it isn't stupid crazy (like NF hood in august) imo. I simply enjoyed the TR and the pics of Jeff-some of our non-hood Oregon 'canoes don't get enough TR love. After this trip guess what isn't brand spankin' new to you anymore? Glacier travel. Just keep after it and those skills. Continue to glean information from your sources and test as necessary (ie...do you prefer ascenders to prussiks, like to use a self-tending pully or to throw a biner in there to keep it clear, etc)

 

At some point if you don't have a person to learn the glacier stuff from you've either got to pay for a guide, a climbing intensive, or wade through a lot of nonsense in a basic course from one of the non-profit climbing clubs to gain a few glacier travel morsels of information--or you do what you did, at some point the theory and book learning gets applied. Being as you spent a full day before scouting/practicing, what more can you do. All things equal, the very best training for an activity is actually doing the activity, everything else is just a substitution of lesser adequacy.

 

How did the CR practice go, did you feel like setting up a simple Z rig worked with two helping up top and one down in?

I do agree with what SacredSilly said about getting after it earlier. Unless it is all rock, get on that snow under dark, like hitting the berg at first light. But given your glacier background maybe truly the more prudent choice for ya'll was to wait for light to step foot on the glacier.

 

one comment, absolutely up for debate, looks like ice axes girth hitched to harness (can't see for certain)? Maybe just did that to secure them during a rest break (smart). But I see that done lots in general. Makes it easy to change from side to side depending on uphill slope. I don't know there is any official consensus, unlike that your crampons should fit securely to boots, but i personally have misgivings about having an ice axe tethered to my core. In the event of a non-arrested fall, I am not sure i would gain control of it while secured there any more than if it was attached around my wrist. Maybe on my wrist it would come off in an uncontrolled slide? it could still come in proximity of my head but i'd like to think my arms would be outstretched? Somehow being so securely attached to my core it seems like in an uncontrolled fall it becomes an uncontrolled weapon bouncing, impaling around my most vital areas, until one would stop. maybe at the end of the day it really doesn't matter, if you're in a fall like that in the first place something or someone fucked up.

 

cheers

 

 

[Alex]

just as a basic remark, you gotta start *somewhere* right, there has to be a first glaciated thing you do? This isnt the worst choice you could have made, seems like you learned plenty from the trip,...

[Ben Beckerich]

Not a passive-aggressive criticism (like one would expect on this board [and would usually actually be what I was doing]) but genuinely just wondering what your take was: why do you say the upper schrund was impassible? Looks like there was a few places where it was continuous frozen water... just too overhung to give it a go?

[Dylan Colon]

To reply to a few comments:

 

ScaredSilly: Thanks for the comment about the crevasse. We did lower into the side, not the more complex center of the thing, and did not lower past any significant overhangs. Nonetheless, I'll be more cautious in the future as I definitely plan to practice that stuff more in the future.

 

Water: a 3:1 was actually totally adequate to haul someone heavier than me in the given conditions. I did practice heading out to the lip to pad the lip with my ice ax also. I agree with you that we should have started earlier, but also you are correct, we decided to have light for our first time on an active glacier. Finally, my friends used hitches and I used spinner leashes, so yeah, we were definitely firmly attached to our gear. I've thought quite a bit about what that might mean in a fall, but I also have a possibly irrational level of fear of dropping my tools, as I'm kind of a klutz.

 

Ben: The 'schrund may have been passable, actually, but the snow was deteriorating and trying for the summit would have pretty much guaranteed that we got benighted on the descent on the Whitewater, which we didn't want given our unfamiliarity with that side of the mountain.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I was mostly wondering if there was anything majorly dumb that I did but didn't know I did, and I am happy that that seems to not be the case.

[Dylan Colon]

Another question, any comments on the use of prussiks or ascenders to belay the 2nd person in a party of 3?

[ScaredSilly]

I think with time you will get more comfortable with knowing when to belay vs simul climb. As such with three people the person in middle will stay in the middle and not muck around with the running prusik belay - that said doing what you did is basically like jugging a fixed line.

 

Something else perhaps to note regarding the bergshrund. You may have been able to pass it but as you said had to forgo the summit or get benighted. On my first trip up the JPG my partners got to the ridgeline and said no way did they want to climb the chossy ridge. So we went down the ridge and came back on the Russell which was very easy.

 

I mention this alternative because you might have poked around a bit more knowing that once over the bergshrund you could have retreated via another route with ease. So always think about alternatives (On my trip there this summer we did the lower part of JPG then finished on the north ridge so I have yet to do the choosy ridge - we also came back via the Russell).

 

 

Also another good place to practice crevasse rescue is the Elliot Glacier on Hood. That makes for an easy day trip in the fall before the road closes.

[Ben Beckerich]

Yea... the Whitewater descent just seems like a sloggy hell.. I've read accounts of people spending HOURS out there coming back around. Plus, it adds at least an hour or two on the trail also. Last time I was up there I couldn't even find a reasonable exit to the Whitewater from the knife-edge, but I didn't actually look very hard, as I descended the Milk Creek ravine to the Russel. I great approach/retreat is to take the Russel's drainage up to the moraine from the PCT- I believe it's the only spot where the PCT breaks the treeline on Jeff herself- so it's a very obvious ingress and egress. And greatly simplifies descent.

 

The only issue I see with this is the fact that the Milk Creek drainage is sustained steep snow for a couple thousand feet, which some folks find intimidating for descent.

 

Speaking of the Milk Creek thing... is that an established climbing route? It's not particularly interesting climbing, but it's got to be the single most straightforward and least technically demanding routes to the summit, no? If one was looking for a quick and safe bag of Jefferson, I'd think it'd be just what the doctor ordered. I've never seen any report of anyone ascending that way.. just descending.

[ScaredSilly]

The only issue I see with this is the fact that the Milk Creek drainage is sustained steep snow for a couple thousand feet, which some folks find intimidating for descent.

 

Speaking of the Milk Creek thing... is that an established climbing route? It's not particularly interesting climbing, but it's got to be the single most straightforward and least technically demanding routes to the summit, no? If one was looking for a quick and safe bag of Jefferson, I'd think it'd be just what the doctor ordered. I've never seen any report of anyone ascending that way.. just descending.

 

Yes descending Milk Creek can be intimidating - we ended up doing it on the hottest day of the year. We finally said screw it and bum slid the first 1000 feet then started a downward traverse to the Russell in very sloppy snow. Lots of wet slides.

 

That said people do go up Milk Creek from Pamela Lakes. On good firm snow it is a straight shot up the hill and a great skis descent. Oregon High lists the routes. The FA were done a hundred years ago.

 

FWIW a few days before our climb in early July a couple of guys went up Milk Creek. They got to the summit pinnacle and got stuck in the rime. The last 100 feet should not be under-estimated.

[Water]

Ben,

 

For sure there is no quick and safe of jeff. When flanks and glaciers are solid the pinnacle can be unprotectable rime. A friend used a bollard to rap off the top once.. oh boy

 

I think the least technical way might be the S. Ridge as that gets you to the red saddle. If the traverse is melted out, then one could technically climb the mountain without ever donning crampons or using an ice axe. It is never more than 3rd class (? occasional use of a hand?) to get to the red saddle by that way. I've not seen/heard of someone attempting via west rib/milk ck without snow cover but guessing it is not nearly as 'safe' as the s. ridge in that regard. Though it does by-pass the traverse.

 

I've taken a stab at the west rib up through milk ck--didn't top out (very very hot day..things got soft too quick, should have left earlier but it wasn't possible due to schedule). There is a solid climbers path that veers to the NORTH milk ck drainage before it enters the main stem of the creek. (that emphasis for anyone who might ever read this..as I see reports of people go right up the gut with less than thrilling results as it is a horrid terrain trap from natural and goat induced rockfall on either side, stream-undercut snow/bridges, and massive avy run-out exposure.)

 

Scared have you ski descended it? as we came down I thought how beautiful much of the lower rib would be for a ridge-line ski descent..in the right conditions.

 

 

[ScaredSilly]

Scared have you ski descended it? as we came down I thought how beautiful much of the lower rib would be for a ridge-line ski descent..in the right conditions.

 

No but my thoughts were exactly like yours. What an awesome descent it would be. I would think a late spring ascent would prime time.