Sugarloaf Mountain Climber's Log

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Brian Jenkins

Brian Jenkins - May 1, 2012 2:08 pm Date Climbed: Jan 26, 2014

Hmm  Sucess!

2/19/12 Tried with Karl but too much snow and we were not prepared for a technical summit.

4/29/12 Went back with Karl and Dian to try to climb the rock but it ended up being drizzly and the rock was wet. Karl explored about 20 feet up aiding with cams but from there it looked even worse. This one may need more drastic measures to reach the summit.

1/26/14 On an odd sunny day in January, Karl, Emma, Mark, Natasha, Sue and I set off to do this. Again. Armed with a Bosch electric hammer drill and aid gear, we were first surprised to find the gate open and we wondered if we could drive up to the bushwhack part and drop off the heavy gear. Well this was a 4 mile drive in and by the time we got up there within a mile of the bushwhack and were met by an other logging gate, we really didn't want to drop gear, drive back and rehike this. So, we parked the cars and set off. The bushwhack was in a word, very Karl-like. We call him Cross Country Karl for a reason. Once up at the base of the summit pinnacle, we sat in the mossy meadow in the sun in about 65 degree weather. It was ridiculous.

Anyway, Karl led the first pitch to a nice mossy ledge where we surveyed the rest. There was a gap between pinnacles that Mark tested first. Hearing him call back that he wasn't sure the moss he was standing on was actually attached to anything let us know that way was not an option. We were faced with a diagonal crack heading up right between two spherical bulges so the first couple moves were going to be in rock that wanted to spit you out right. This is pillow basalt, a conglomeration of volcanic rock glued together by softer other volcanic junk. Some of the chicken heads held and some just wobbled out. Mark stemmed up and then lunged forward jamming a big cam in. He got out the aiders and worked his way up even using the big #6 camalot. Once up over the bulge, he found his way to the summit where there are the remnant of some old platform used maybe in fire watches?? No idea how that got up there unless there used to be some sort of ladder system. Natasha went next and jammed the crack for the first crux move and then found her way up the chickenheads. I went next and yarded up on gear. No idea how Natasha jammed that as it was two forearm widths wide. Sue went next, then Karl. Afterwards I think we all admitted to using some gear to pull up on. The consensus was that it was awkward 5.9 or A1. Fun time with a great group on a bizarre almost 70 degree weather day in January in Oregon.

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