Mt Jefferson summit: The South Ridge (4K) 

Thanks!

Its a good one! good luck!

yea, it was a blast!

yea, it was a beast, in my opinion the hardest mountain in Oregon!

Yea, that final 300 vertical feet is no joke! first time I went up I also stopped at the red saddle as I wasn't prepared for the technical bits, but I had to return. took a few years to gain the skills and experience needed. Thanks for Watching!

Probably the best choice. Not sure I even have aspirations to climb Jefferson, but I did enjoy the video.

Thanks! She is pretty incredible on every level!

Yes! I plan on it someday. I think it would be in some ways safer, but others, more challenging. Getting good snow and ice conditions would be very important, and likely difficult to predict.

There are pros and cons to each, I would like to try in the spring, but we were only the 2nd ppl to sign the summit log this year so I don't think many made it up this spring.

It really is! It takes a lot of the spontaneous trips out of the question, but even planning climbs in certain weather windows, etc. It's a frustrating process.

It's hard to say what is average, as everyone has different levels of experience and comfortability with risk. I know a lot of people opt to protect the traverse, at least while on the snow/ice, it's really hard to protect much past that on the way up as the mountain is so rotten. There were several rap/belay stations on the north ridge though. I think choosing to repel is pretty standard, but I know people do free solo it all. Again, it really just depends on your personal comfort level with exposure and risk. It is a dangerous mountain.

Haha yea, that mountain is no joke!

That's a good question, and I've been thinking about that a lot! They are both very difficult, in some ways similar (lots of sketchy loose rock) but other ways different. Jefferson is a longer climb with more elevation gain, it requires a steep ice / snow traverse pretty much year round, which means extra gear, and that traverse is no joke. Both mountains have difficult route finding, and supposedly have a 4th class option to the top, but on both, I ended up on 5th class terrain. On paper I'd say that Jefferson is harder, my personal experiences with the mountains, N Sister was harder for me, primarily because of getting off route and also doing it as a single day push, coupled with the conditions we did it in. It all added up to a less enjoyable climb then Jeff.

Thank you for your response! Going for Mount Jefferson this weekend. One last question if you don’t mind. The steep traverse, would you say it’s along the lines of Mount Hoods Old Chute? Or is it a bit steeper?

@@TVinmyEye its steeper, and more exposed. its about 60 degrees on average where old chute is about 40-45 degrees. you definitely want 2 axes / tools and plan for some painful front pointing. Its an epic mountain! good luck

@@MountainMontage Thank you! I just summited yesterday afternoon. Grueling but amazing ascent up!

@@TVinmyEye Congrats!!