[TR] Jack Mountain - South Face 8/13/2016

[skjos]

Jack Mountain 3-Day from the Canyon Creek Trailhead

 

The Canyon Creek trailhead parking lot is on the left hand side between mile marker 141 and 142 as you travel east on highway 20. You will need a National Forest Recreation Pass to park your car here.

 

The Pasyatan Wilderness requires a permit, but luckily these are free and are self-issued a little ways up the trail.

 

After you get your wilderness permit you have 62 switchbacks before the Crater Mountain fork, then some more trail before you finally get above the tree line and into the Crater Lake basin.

 

Crater Lake

 

We cut from the Crater Mountain trail at about the 7,100ft level and traversed northwest to the saddle.

 

Traveling to the Saddle

 

We crossed the Jerry Glacier avoiding the higher crevassed areas, then stayed high on the rock and snow slopes to avoid having to regain elevation. The steep side-hilling was not worth it; go a little bit lower for mellower side-hilling and climb up to the Jerry Lake's saddle. We did not use a rope here, the glacier looked pretty benign, however on our way back we did see a pretty deep hole punched through the snow. Proceed at your own risk.

 

Jerry Glacier looking back from the Jerry Lake's Saddle

 

There are a lot of flat campsites to pick from at Jerry Lakes; we stayed just off the northeast shore of the southwestern most lake.

 

Jerry Lakes and the route out the next day

 

The hike out of Jerry Lakes goes up a grassy slope between the lakes and then turns west on a rising ledge to the make the top. After getting to the top you will need to head just a little more west to get on a nice ramp down the other side heading north.

 

First view of Jack after climbing up from the lakes

 

This will get you to a row of trees; you can either find a path through the trees up high under the cliffs and side-hill through heather on the other side, or continue down adjacent to the trees and cut through at a lower elevation for milder heather side-hilling.

 

Continue north up a small bolder field into a flat area that has a small pond (5960ft).

 

Pond at 5960ft

 

Then climb a short dry drainage to the very large flat area (6000ft). Stay on the south banks of the flat area, until you need to start climbing up the ridge.

 

Flat area at 6000ft

 

Once you get to the true slope of the south ridge, keep to the west side of the cliffs for a short bit and obtain the top of the ridge or stay on the west slopes all the way up to the base of Jack's rocky southern face.

 

On the south ridge below the cliffs

 

Here you will have some step side-hilling until you reach the snow. There are some ledges above the snow, but they eventually run out and the moat gets too deep to make it a feasible route. Just bring crampons and hit the snow, in fact the crampons are great for side-hilling too (bring 12pts, 10pts are not so great for side-hilling).

 

Side-hill to the base of Jack

 

The first feasible route to get on the face of Jack is just a little west of the rock protrusion at 7,200ft (the one below you when you look down the slope), this route was being pounded with water and looked very slippery, we picked the next entrance which had a very small ledge, but was doable (and later we found out it was right under the rappel).

 

The route on rock

 

This picture makes it look steeper than it really is

 

After hitting the ledge from west to east we got onto the main slopes of Jack which initially were quite simple, but the route does get steeper as you gain more altitude (or maybe it just seemed like it did).

 

Starting out ascent after getting onto the face

 

We stayed east of the main drainage until about halfway up and then we cut across it and climbed to a snow field, here we donned crampons and headed up. We got a little higher than the summit pyramid on the snow patch and had to down climb a little bit to get under the base.

 

Crossing under the summit pyramid

 

Once under the pyramid we stuck to the right side (and moat) of the first snow field until the top of the ridgeline, then we crossed briefly to the back side and then headed east to the summit.

 

Moat Climbing (photo was taken on the way down)

 

Last bit to the summit

 

Summit photo for my kids, who are big fans of Batdad

 

On the way up the rock fall can be managed to a degree, but on the way down all bets are off, it is a full-fledged shooting gallery. A party of two is ideal, three is OK, four you are pushing your luck. If there is another party on the climb, you might want to try a different day. The rock, when not covered by crap tons of smaller rocks, is relatively supportive. That being said I did have a large flake give on me on the west side of the summit pyramid leaving a couple large gashes in my shin.

 

Tons of loose rock on top of better rock

 

The exposure on the route is pretty manageable, they only real nerve racking spot is just above the rappel, the terrain here is no different than anywhere else, but there is nothing below you making the exposure a little intense.

 

Setting up the rappel

 

The anchor here is a rock knob that seems relatively sturdy for Jack, and it had wire and a couple biners backing it up. We added a couple slings and headed down, a 30M rope will get you to a ledge to down climb from (the same ledge you came up on), a 50M or 60M rope might be able to get you to the snow field (no promises here).

 

Rappelling down

 

The route we took on the face

 

GPS route

 

 

Here are our stats (Garmin 64s):

 

Waypoints:

Leave Crater Mountain Trail: N48.73176, W120.92059

Rappel Knob: N48.76958, W120.95376

Summit: N48.77285, W120.95625

 

Tracks:

http://www.skjos.net/reserved/climbing/jack/GPS/

(after downloading the file delete the .zip file extension from the file name; for some reason I could not get them to download with the .gdb and .gpx file extensions.)

 

Distance, Times, and Vertical:

Day 1

Canyon Creek Trailhead to Jerry Lakes:

Miles: 8.3

Time: 5:53:33

Vertical: 5,305

 

Day 2

Jerry Lakes to Summit Round Trip:

Miles: 5.7

Time: 10:15:04

Vertical: 4,705

 

Day 3

Jerry Lakes to Canyon Creek Trailhead:

Miles: 8.0 (shaved .3 from our route in)

Time: 4:24:45

Vertical: 1,460

 

Total

Miles: 22.0

Vertical: 11,470

Edited August 20, 2016 by skjos

[mchuckp]

You have the same issue I had yesterday on my first TR. Someone was kind enough to send me this, so I'll do the same. I still had issues with the converter and ended up just linking my trip report from an external source (See my Forbidden Peak post for example if interested). Good luck!

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1149152/Trip_Report_Issue#Post1149152

[skjos]

Thanks for the help, that fixed it.

[olyclimber]

Great TR! Looks like an awesome adventure. Thank you for sticking with us through the TR posting issues. We ARE working on a solution.

[kukuzka1]

never been there, looks cool. how difficult to get to jack in winter? road is closed near?

[luvs2climb]

Might be heading up this weekend. Was there water on the route from TH to Jerry Lakes or do we need to carry several liters due to the heat?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Love Jack Mountain. Such a cool scramble!

 

[skjos]

never been there, looks cool. how difficult to get to jack in winter? road is closed near?

 

Highway 20 is closed in the winter at milepost 134, that would add about 8 miles each way to the trip.

 

 

Might be heading up this weekend. Was there water on the route from TH to Jerry Lakes or do we need to carry several liters due to the heat?

 

There where three or four stream crossings on the trail, one stream on the traverse to the Jerry glacier saddle, another stream or more on the way to Jerry lakes. You could get by with one liter in the heat if you topped off at all the stream crossings.

Edited August 20, 2016 by skjos

[skjos]

Added waypoint coordinates and GPS route to download.