| Gettin a whuppin on Jefferson Trip Report |
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| Gettin a whuppin on Jefferson   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Oregon, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 44.67440°N / 121.7978°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jun 15, 2000 | Page By: zzril Created/Edited: Nov 20, 2002 / Object ID: 168773 Hits: 1050 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Ah yes, Mt. Jefferson. I had saved this peak for last. I had climbed the other major volcanos in the Oregon Cascades and had heard that Jefferson was the most difficult. We decided to try the Jefferson Park glacier route since it was purported to be the most aesthetically pleasing route on the mountain and one which offers rock, ice and glacier climbing. Yum!
We started up the trail in the afternoon, planning to bivi beneath the Jef Park glacier on one of the moraines. Our filtered views of the peak on the approach revealed a stunningly beautiful northern aspect with many route variations possible. The bergschrund at the top of the glacier appeared to be steep, but navigable. A couple pesky clouds were cruising around the summit and my barometer was dropping steadily, but hey, we were going fast and light and it didn't look like any heavy weather to the west (foreshadowing).
We made it above the treeline and broke out our bivi gear and began to melt snow and eat. By this time, the wind had picked up considerably and was spraying sand and ash over the arm of the moraine. Clouds moved in and soon, the peak disappeared. The temperature dropped and it began to rain. So much for hanging out plotting our route for the morning.
We crawled into bivi sacks and tried to find sheltered spots behind rocks. This proved to be an exercise in futility. The rain began hammering down, then it started to freeze. I zipped my bivi completely shut save for a quarter sized hole from which to breathe. The sand seemed to find it's way into every possible crevice, my ears, nose, mouth and eyes being sandblasted throughout the night. The storm was relentless.
Amazingly, no one got up at 3am to roll us out of our bags to climb! While typically being a glutton for punishment, even I can recognize when a trip won't be even retrospectively enjoyable. We grudgingly crawled out of our cozy coccoons at first light, scraped the dirt out of our bodily orifices and chipped the eighth inch of rime ice off of everything. Visibility was about 30 feet, the freezing rain had turned back into not-quite-freezing rain and the wind was still howling. We descended with our tails between our legs, but with excellent stories to tell each other about our subjective experience over beer and Mexican food.
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Cascade Volcanoes
