"Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks. Great success shooting the knife into the piano. The woodworms are so bad and eat hell out of all furniture that you can always claim the woodworms did it."
--Ernest Hemingway
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bedellympian - Aug 22, 2013 1:08 am Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2013
choss pileEasy but loose... worst I've seen yet in Oregon, land of choss piles.
Nick Turtura - Sep 22, 2012 11:10 pm Date Climbed: Sep 22, 2012
Three WordsEx-Pose-Sure!
Holy crap that was awesome! It wasn't too technical but every step had wild possibilities of plummeting to your death. It was great. The crawl wasn't bad and the chimney was cake. We had perfect weather and sat on top ogling the Cascade line. Definitely one of my favorites yet.
SKI - Sep 6, 2011 10:44 pm Date Climbed: Aug 3, 2011
Trembling what?Solo moves on a gigantic chosspile.
RetroGear - Jan 9, 2011 11:27 pm
Regular RouteBack in high school I climbed Jack with buddies from Explorer Post 999. The fella with the rope was way out ahead. I remembering scrambling through the Crawl thinking "this sorta feels like where a person should rope up..."
iquest4it - Dec 25, 2010 5:38 am Date Climbed: Sep 14, 2009
He's Got the JackThis was one of the funnest climbs in all the Cascades. We came in from one of the backside lakes on the west side, so we didn't see a soul all weekend. The summit pitch is a blast, and actually easier than it looks to lead, or should I say the rock is more solid than it looks. I want to come back and do this in the winter when it's iced up.
Karl Helser - Jul 19, 2010 4:10 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2010
Second time...Dian and I had a great day climbing 3FJ. Still a lot of snow from about 5200' and on the south ridge to just below the summit block. We jumped off the PCT and took the south ridge from the beginning...good thing, from above we could see that the pct from the bottom of the scree was still deep snow. The crawl and the summit block are snow free. The weather was perfect. Only a few other climbers...including a dude that we helped to the summit so he could release his buddy's ashes. The ashes were of a guy by the name of Norman Lee, a very well known member of The Obsidian's...an alpine climbing group. I guess he'd spent a lot of time on 3FJ. What a cool place to rest.
millsb40 - Jul 16, 2010 12:02 pm Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2010
South RidgeThe rock on this 3FJ is probably the best of any volcano in Oregon, I was pleasantly surprised. That being said, it's still poor rock for climbing. I personally wouldn't solo this Mountain. The rock is not so technical, but if a hold or holds failed (which seems likely) there is a real possibility of a fatal fall.
A friend of mine witnessed a woman fall to her death from the crawl in the 1970's.
We used a fixed pin, a couple slings, and a stuck tri-cam on the crawl. And a couple medium to large hexes for protection up the chimney (only placed 2).
Left at trailhead at about 6 am, on top about 10:45. Dinked around a little, out to the car at 2:30 pm.
Snowslogger - Dec 28, 2009 12:46 am Date Climbed: Oct 30, 1993
Oregon ChosscadesAnother one of the classic Oregon "chosscades", although better than some. A good day with a full moon, and almost Halloween.
alpinedon - Nov 23, 2009 12:49 am Date Climbed: Aug 10, 2004
Fun ClimbHad a fun, successful trip with the Obsidians, camped out at the trailhead, headed out early, made quick work of the traverse and the summit block. Smallest summit I have seen yet on a mountain.
rpc - Aug 23, 2009 7:18 pm Date Climbed: Aug 22, 2009
fun.Shirley, Blondie (though she sat it out just above the saddle) & I had a good day out on Oregon volcanic granite. It's been 7(??) years since we've done it's neighbor Mt. Washington.
JGHarrison - Aug 9, 2009 9:16 pm Date Climbed: Aug 9, 2009
South ridgeGood weather, went up in the mid-morning. An Outward Bound team was on the mountain and graciously allowed me to use their ropes, making a sketchy solo into a super-safe weekend outing...my girlfriend will be pleased.
I would be careful soloing this one, def at least take a rope to rap the summit bloc. very bad rock, high exposure, much better to have a partner
Pallando - Jul 4, 2009 10:17 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2009
Route Climbed: South RidgeFourth of July, but the only climbers on the whole mountain! I expected to share it with at least another group.
Hiked out from Carl Lake to my car at 4:00 a.m. to meet my group at 7:00 at the trailhead. The night before I hiked the five miles in to Carl Lake to deliver food to some camping buddies. I hadn't known that they had camped so far in, otherwise I wouldn't have done the 5 miles in and out the morning before I climbed Jack...
I showed up a little late because of an alarm that didn't go off at 3:00 when it was supposed to. Hike in pushed me pretty hard, and I didn't bring enough water (I only had one full nalgene after my morning hike). I borrowed water and melted snow.
I was the only one who had read enough about the route to know what we were doing. Only spotted one pin at the crawl, never saw the other one. We brought rope but no one felt the need to protect the Crawl. The rock was a lot nicer than I expected.
We had no trad gear, but the climb was simple enough for my friend to climb up and top rope the rest of us. I had just gone off belay and was just thinking about how the rock was much nicer than any reports I had read when I grabbed a chickenhead that picked off the rock like a cherry. A definite shock, but it was the only hold that didn't stay put on the mountain. Scramble to the summit was not just a little bit exposed; I truly got shaken up a little bit a couple times. Our friend top roped the scramble again. Only two of us went to the actual summit, everyone else stopped short right before the spine (about a foot lower than the true summit). Would NOT want to be up here on a windy day! Extreme exposure on at least two sides.
Rapped off the top. Downclimbing the Crawl was a bit closer to nerve racking, but no one asked for it to be protected. In hindsight, one of my friends should have asked for a belay, he was visibly shaken a bit.
The hike out killed me. I consider myself in fairly good shape, but as I was putting in my 20th mile of the day, I was slowing down significantly.
Made it out, went to a friend's house on Blue Lake and jumped in. Fireworks in Bend tonight, and hopefully beer. Church in the morning.
patmay81 - Jun 28, 2009 7:04 pm Date Climbed: Jun 20, 2009
A little help from my (new) friendsGot up the ridge, great hike. I was very fortunate to run into a party, since my route finding abilities and partners confidence were not up to parr with this mountain. I really owe them a huge thanks, If any of you are reading this I owe you a beer and a belay any time you want/need one in the Portland or Eugene area.
It was a really fun climb, I particularly liked the quality of the 5th class pitches and the exposure on the 4th class ridge line. A lot better climb than any one leads on to believe.
We climbed through the clouds, so I can't comment on any potential views from the summit, but the views from the ridge were pretty impressive (hoodoo to black butte).
oregonmtnman - Dec 11, 2008 12:18 am Date Climbed: Jul 18, 2004
South RidgeMade summit with Chemeketans out of Salem, Oregon. Scary mountain with big exposure. Horrible rock.Would not want to climb it again.
Fred Spicker - Sep 15, 2008 8:09 am Date Climbed: Sep 8, 2008
South RidgeClimbed with Moni. Great weather - crappy rock.
Moni - Sep 11, 2008 7:20 pm Date Climbed: Sep 8, 2008
South RidgeMajor air on very crappy rock! What holds this mountain together? The Crawl is the only decent rock on the whole route. With Fred.
cascadetraveler - Aug 24, 2008 2:30 pm Date Climbed: Aug 23, 2008
South ridge( only reccomended route)A great day for a rock climb!
We started out at 4:30 a.m and reached the crawl at 8:00 a.m. we put the first climber on summit at 10:30 a.m. and we were back to the trail Head at 3:15 p.m.
It was my second summit of TFJ. The exposure delivers a slam dunk! Standing on the little knife edg summit priceless. The down climb is one sketchy adventure.
Larry.
Diggler - Aug 11, 2008 4:34 pm Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2008
Another one bites the dustLeft TH @ 11.46. Was happy to finally make it out of scorched forest into greenery again. Crawl had a little exposure, but really not that bad (4th class). Summit block chimney thingie was easy enough, but rock of course garbage- didn't use the rope. Summited at 15.56. Views would have been great, I'm sure, but forest fire(s?- there was at least 1 S of Mt. Washington) destroyed that- could barely make out Jefferson (bummer!). Ran after the live-dead forest junction, & made it back to the TH by 20.39 (& more importantly back to Deschutes brewpub in time to get beer & food!). Quite an enjoyable day.
Steve Rydin - Jul 8, 2008 12:21 pm Date Climbed: Jul 7, 2004
South RidgeA beautiful day for climbing! I found the crawl and chimney climb much easier than I anticipated. I found myself sitting for a while at the base of the chimney due to a large group that got ahead of us, but the summit was incredible, and it was a great weekend with friends!
Dan Winter - May 1, 2008 9:20 pm Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2005
South RidgeVAMPIRE MOSQUITOS FROM HELL! The route itself was interesting and the summit was pretty cool. However my parter and I were literaly eaten alive by more mosquitos than I have ever seen in my life.