[TR] Three Fingered Jack, Mt Washington, S Sister

[Alisse]

Trip: Oregon Volcano Fest - Three Fingered Jack, Mount Washington, South Sister

 

Dates: 5/28 - 5/30/2016

 

Trip Report:

Check out a few of the key/useful/interesting photos from the climbs here: https://goo.gl/photos/PMaLJQpKZq5MKNKk7

(Look at the "info" for each photo for details)

 

Over the Memorial Day weekend, a truly fantastic human being named Andy and I had our first-ever OREGON VOLCANO FEST. We climbed Three Fingered Jack, Mount Washington, and the South Sister. I think our times are probably average.

 

Three Fingered Jack -- South Ridge

Times:

7:15 am - Left trailhead/car

12:00 pm - At summit

4:30 pm - Back to TH

 

There is already a plethora of beta/information on this route, but I'll add some personal touches:

- On the route, remember to stay climber's left (west) and go up the scree-y ledges. There was still some rime ice and patchy snow, but all of the rock that we wanted to be snow-free was indeed clear.

- The "crawl" section felt fine to us and we did not protect it. We did see one pin (down low) on the descent.

- The shallow chimney crux is pretty short (I placed one cam and slung a horn) and easy; the rock looks absolutely terrible (more terrible than the rest of the route), but I found it to actually be pretty solid.

- There are several rap stations with decent-looking webbing. There is one station at the top of the chimney, and there is also a station from the summit block. From the top of the chimney to the actual summit there is a bit of an exposed scramble on very terrible quality rock.. it sketched us out a bit to downclimb. So if you aren't up for that, I'd recommend just rapping from the summit block to the bottom of the chimney.

- We saw only one other party, who was approaching as we were on our way out.

 

 

Mount Washington -- North Ridge

Times:

7:30 am - Left trailhead/car

1:30 am - At summit

6:00 pm - Back to TH

 

- The climber's trail is marked very obviously with a giant cairn; right now, discontinuous snow starts a bit before it

- There was some steepish/exposed snow we took on the ridge

- Rock quality is ridiculously bad. Bring all your good luck charms on this climb.

- After the first pitch, we traversed right around a corner and went up that way, which worked for us (I got a couple hand jams!!)

- Andy signed the summit register -- first entries of the year, what?

- Several rap stations with lots of OK-looking webbing and rings/quicklinks.

- The NW bowl looks "AWESOME" for skiing right now, said Andy.

- No other parties on route! Just some skiiers.

 

South Sister

Times are embarrassing so I'm not publicizing them. My fault, not Andy's!

- We opted to carry our skis through the woods instead of trying to skin, I think it was the best choice (snow was icy and discontinuous + there are some steep steps)

- Skiing was AWESOME, great snow!

 

All in all, a fantastic holiday weekend!!

 

Gear Notes:

For Three Fingered Jack and Mt Washington:

Cams- .75, 1, 2 [only used 3 cam placements total]

A few larger nuts [never used]

3 single, 3 double slings [most useful]

1x60m twin-half rope [necessary]

1 picket [never used]

Crampons, axe

 

Approach Notes:

We found that for these three climbs, the snow level was around 5,200'.

 

Edited June 1, 2016 by Alisse

[ScaredSilly]

Nice, three days, three peaks,