Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1979)
Climbers find passage to serenity Mt. Jefferson provides respite By JEFF PETERSEN Of the Emerald There was the sun, wind and big sky, and in the middle of it all there was the mountain Tons of rock, snow and ice anchored the horizon and made man small Central Oregon's Mt. Jefferson was big, im mensely big. Its 10,495-foot pinnacle poked at the hazy evening sky, and gusts of wind buffeted the mountain and the two men who stood and stared. The men were wind-burnt, darkly tanned and sticky with sweat. Fingers of wind caressed their tangled hair. One man — lean and sinewy and clad in shorts — turned away from the mountain and looked about He saw glacier-carved lakes and ponds, beds of red and yellow flowers and wind-sculptured groves of trees. On this par ticular evening the wind was playing havoc. It rushed in swift gusts through the narrow, hanging valley of Jefferson Park, which was in long shadows just north of Mt. Jefferson. As the sun dipped lower in the west, wind began to blow stronger. Soft yellow light poured in from above and behind the men and mixed with shadows, transforming the park in to an eerie, inspirational, almost magical place. Silhouettes took the stage. The next morning the men would perform on a stage of their own: Their stage would be the hazardous, perilous and tricky Jeff Park Glacier, which has been called one of the most challenging snow routes in Oregon. If a route up the glacier could be forged, the men would continue clinbing until they reached the vol canic remnanf's summit. At ? a.m. they leave the tent's warmth and comfort and scramble under the starlit sky toward Mt, Jefferson's north face. Clouds of steam issue into the night. The men s breathing and the crunching snow underfoot are the only sounds that break the silence An hour slips by. Above the timberline the men clamber over a rock moraine — a gouge in the rock created by the crawling glacier. A streak of yellow light begins to illuminate the eastern horizon and, although dimly, the grotesque monster — Jeff Park Glacier — begins to take form. Rapid thawing and freezing has changed the glacier's face. What once was a smooth complexioned child has now become a pocked and pitted monster. As the men struggle to attach crampons — spikes that help the climber stick to ice — to their boot-bottoms, a chilly breeze rushes off the glacier and cuts to the bone. Tying into the safety rope with numb and spasmodic fingers becomes a painful activity. Then come the first steps onto the ice. Crampons crunch and ice axes jingle. One man makes a roke and they laugh tensely. A gaping crevasse intercepts the path, but after some difficulty passage is made via a "Bridge" of snow. The crevasse cuts far into the glacier’s entrails: it is a “bottomless" blue hole of dripping ice Beyond the crevasse, a steep ice fall makes climbing hazardous. The men take turns leading pitches (one pitch is a rope length of 150 feet) and belaying (securing the safety rope in case of a fall). Crampons barely bite into the strewn ice blocks, and attempts to cut steps in the blue ice prove futile Upward movement comes to a grinding halt. To the right is a maze of snow cracks, fractures and splits. Because the way left looks more docile, the climbers make a forced traverse in that direction, moving off the hard ice onto softer ice Here the ice is less steep, but steps must still be cut because footing is treacherous. The lead climber strikes vigorously with his ice axe, causing an ice sliver avalanche to cascade on his belayer. Tiny cups are carved and then stepped into with as many crampon points as possible Making his way methodically up the glacier, the lead climber carves one step at a time. Up ?00 steps, then up ?00 more - at each step the crampon points gouge the ice Two hours slide by Finally, the head of the glacier is reached and the climbers can rest in relative safety. Fallen rock from towering pinnacles lit ters the snow. The climbers look at lake-dotted Jefferson Park far below To the north, Mt. Hood reigns over a sea of clouds. At 9,000 feet the oxygen is much thinner. Breath comes in shallow pants. After a long rest, the climbers traverse on crusty snow to the lower lip of a yawning "bergschrund" — where the glacier's weight has torn the ice body apart from the mountain, leaving a chasm 50 yards long, 10 feet deep and 40 feet across Making a reconnaissance cneck or tne bergschrund's west end. one climber is startled to hear a sharp crack deep within the ice under his feet. Unknowingly, he has ven tured onto a cornice that hangs serenely over 1,000 feet of thin mountain air. The climber carefully,quickly and quietly retreats to safety. An airplane circles Mt. Jefferson and dips its wings: the pilot swoops so close the climbers can tell he is wearing sunglasses. They wel come this intrusion because it breaks the ten sion. The airplane roars out of sight, its shadow slipping silently across the grotesque icy ex panse of Jeff Park Glacier. The sound of the lonely wind returns. The wind is blowing sand loose from a trio of nearby pinnacles. One climber yodels. He has found a route to negotate the bergschrund. "I think it will go," he says. They go for it. Then there is the jump 10 feet down to the crumbly red rock. After that up the loose, rocky talus slope of glacial debris they scramble until a snowy headwall is reached Next is a scratch, claw and bite section of vertical ice to an exit crack which leads up and out of the snowy prison. The crack points to freedom. What a relief it is for the climbers to relax on red saddle knowing that Jeff Park Glacier, the grotesque monster, is behind them. Tension and fatigue finally overwhelm the climbers' bodies and they begin to shake and quiver — withdrawal symptoms. From red saddle a relatively easy scramble r _ _ Photo by Dan Muir The Jefferson Park Glacier in Central Oregon has been called one of the most challenging snow routes in Oregon, and is on the trail to the summit of majestic Mt Jefferson. traversing pink cliffs leads to the summit ridge Climbing the summit pinnacle during summer season is an easy as climbing a ladder to pick apples, and at least as rewarding. On top of the 10,495 foot pinnacle the climbers lay back to enjoy the sun and wind. Climbing Mt. Jefferson has not made the mountain an inch smaller, but the climbers have become bigger, immensely bigger They wish they could stay among the gods forever, but realize man is only a temporary visitor here. 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