Climbing and Skiing Mt. Jefferson Cascade Range Oregon

 

 

Description: 

A couple friends and I have an annual pilgrimage into the mountains.  It seems like each year we try and maximize the pain to reward ratio. One year we hiked 8 miles into Mt. Deception for a 2000' ski run in isothermal slop.  Well in 2018 we set our sites on Jefferson.   a 16-18 mile round trip with a solid hike in. Compounding that and unlike many of the other volcanos in the cascade range, the beta online about climbing and in particular skiing Mt Jefferson is quite lacking. So we had a vague idea of the route and summit block, but weren't entirely sure what to expect. 

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The Route and Important Details: 

Time: Early May 

Trailhead: Pamela Lake

Left Cars at 4:45 am 

Time to High Point:~8 Hrs

Car to Car: 11 hrs

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From Pamela lake we followed the Pamela lake trail past the lake, and then took a left on Hunts creek and a right on the PCT.  We followed that to the first set of switch backs a few miles in and then ascended up from there through the trees and into the first bowl ( tops out around 7800').  We did have to contest with some tree carnage from a prior avalanche. 

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We ended up stopping at the top of the upper most bowl as we both ran out of time and couldn't triangulate the right way to approach to summit, just 300-' shy of the summit. In getting back home and doing research, what we learned is that from here you continue to follow the south ridge and then wrap east around the summit till you have a gully up to the summit on the north side.  Now We know!  But the traverse along the west side looked daunting and long.  

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GPS: