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[TR] Mt. Jefferson - West Face/Jeff Park Glacier 1/31/2015


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Posted

Trip: Mt. Jefferson - West Face/Jeff Park Glacier

 

Date: 1/31/2015

 

Trip Report:

Ascended and skied the West Face of Mt. Jefferson on Sunday, 1/31. While I stopped at the summit ridge, I took some photos of the Jeff Park Glacier climbing route that might be of interest to some folks. If our winter stays so Spring-like, it seems like a great time to be up there.

 

I'll just say a few things about conditions on the West Face. With the warm temps, clear skies, and light wind, I was blessed with a nice, firm climb up and some great corn on the way down. Timing is a bit hard to manage on that thing; by the time the snow's warm and ready, cliffs are starting to release ice grapefruit death-rockets. With careful terrain selection and a quick decent, I felt ok. Finally, the snow line is around 6K, which is unfortunate when you park at 3. Sometimes it's best to forget certain parts of the day. There may or may not have been rock climbing around waterfalls, and sinking ice picks into dirt and very large trees. I don't remember.

 

Looking down onto the glacier:

IMG_15021.jpg

 

The summit ridge and pinnacle after topping out the glacier:

IMG_14892.jpg

 

Looking down the West Face. Ridiculously good spring skiing conditions, though it was tricky to balance all the sun, aspect, wind, and elevation factors needed for a perfect descent:

IMG_15102.jpg

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Posted

:rocken:

 

winter jeffers ascent? wowza. Congrats. How was the summit block? gear used?

 

Sorry for 50 questions.. but few more. West Face.. did you go up milk creek/n. fork climber trail? And thus ascent the gully to the north of the West Rib? Ski down same gully? From pics looks almost like you went up from woodpecker ridge TH.. that's an interesting route I wonder..sticks to a ridge the entire time from a TH...

 

cheers!

 

 

Posted

No worries.

 

- I didn't summit the pinnacle. When alone and clueless with steep alpine climbing, I usually stop where the skiing does. The pinnacle is a rime ice-cake; to be honest, not sure how you would protect it. I'd imagine you'd want sharp things in both hands.

 

- I went through Pamelia Lake, though unless one is set on skiing that line, I would never recommend the western route. Getting from the PCT to treeline involves punching up steep dirt through forest for a very long time. I tried the S. fork of milk creek in hopes of avoiding the bushwhack, but that gully appeared a choss/mud waterfall death trap. "Oregon High" recommends the ridge between the two creeks, which is how I got up and back down. The N. fork looked less gnarly, but still very unappealing.

 

- I skied from the gully just north of the west rib, though headed over to the sunnier slope that makes up the gullies northern wall.

 

- It's interesting, I think a summer ascent of Jefferson would be the burliest thing ever. I find climbing in the Cascades quite punishing and scary until you reach snow or ice, then life is so good.

Posted

gotcha. hah, well the one time I've made it to the top was in october. Only had to contend with snow at camp down by shale and coyote lakes and then on the traverse from the red saddle over to the west rib.

 

Though I've climbed the west rib to about 500ft shy of the pinnacle (june, got too hot/slushy, bailed). That said the north fork of Milk Ck actually has a climbers boot track that at least in june had flagging. It wasn't bad really, just a short rough/stout hiking trail that involved keeping a keen eye between obvious sections. My take away is I would love to ski the majority (maybe not the upper-most section) of the west rib if it was in good shape.

 

thanks for the questions answered. congrats on getting high on jeffers none the less, not so common this time of year.

Posted

:rawk:

 

Thanks for the TR! Climbing Hood and looking at Jeff on Saturday had me thinking it might be the best winter window you could ever expect to get high on this one. Way to make it happen! The pinnacle looks interesting...

Posted

Nice job on getting up there in the winter. Not many folks visit Jeffereson then.

 

- I didn't summit the pinnacle. When alone and clueless with steep alpine climbing, I usually stop where the skiing does. The pinnacle is a rime ice-cake; to be honest, not sure how you would protect it. I'd imagine you'd want sharp things in both hands.

 

When dealing with rime you are correct two tools are helpful. Especially, as the last bit is pretty steep. Sometimes you might be plunging your tools, other times swinging them. Rime is probably one of the harder mediums to climb.

 

As for pro - while we got a few marginal screws in I used my ski poles as a picket. Not recommended but we thought there would be better ice so we left the pickets at home.

 

Posted

Thanks Water, awesome to know there's a better route up through the lowlands. Can I ask on which side of the creek was the N. Fork approach route?

 

While we're talking approach, I believe that after a regular/big snow year, the S. Fork waterfall-death gully fills in with avy debris and makes for an awesome approach well into the Spring. It just needs to snow...

Posted

Nick,

 

It's on the North side (climber left) of the N. Fork ck. Coming from Pamelia, we crossed to the N. side of Milk ck on the PCT, then went up stream, possibly crossing a time or two more, before veering off north. The 'trail' was before the N. fork milk joins the south.

 

 

You got that right about waterfall-death gully, hah. I probably will never go directly up the gut that way. I have read too many TRs about heinous experiences-no less than 6 or 7 waterfalls undercutting the snow, goats kicking rocks down from cliffs to the south, and ever present hazard if something high on Jeff let go. There were some great pics a few years back from some monster avy debris piled 20ft+ high well into mid or late June at the PCT crossing. I suppose if you hit it fast during the right time it is super direct. That N. Fork way keeps one free of any undercut snow/rock fall..and most avy hazard as it tends to ride up closer to the avy-scoured tree line than down by the creek itself-it would take a monster release to get you--though looking around the evidence is present it does happen.

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