90% of Mt. Jefferson

Date(s) Hiked: Saturday, March 5, 2005

Trails(s) Hiked: Castle Trail

Total Distance: 8.6 miles

Difficulty: 8 or 9 on a scale of 1-10, not a beginners winter hike!

Conditions: Temp in teens, 20 mph wind, drifted snow

Special Required Equipment: Snowshoes

Trip Report: Well, the object today was to summit Mt. Jefferson and check one of my "final four" off the list. I didn't quite accomplish the task, so I'll have to return for another shot.

I started out via the Castle Trail at 7:45 AM. There were one set of tracks ahead of me. I bare-booted it until the stream crossing, then put on the snowshoes for the climb. At the 3.5 mile point I caught up to the guy in front of me at the junction of the Link Trail. I took over the trail breaking from that point as he was stopping to change clothes. That's about the point that the hiking got serious. Scrambling up the steep ledges was pretty tough. Once onto the Castles, it got even more difficult. It was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. Leave the snowshoes on and avoid the spruce traps and chest deep drifts, but suffer while scrambling over the rocks, or take them off and move quickly across the boulders yet curse the heavens every time a drift looms. I kept them on.

I plugged away until just a short ways below the Cornice, perhaps .2 miles short of that junction, and then just ran out of "gas." I think it was a combination of only 4 hours sleep the night before, plus not being fully recovered from last Sunday's Hyannis marathon. With the wind whipping up and my glycogen stores becoming depleted, I took the noble route and headed back down. A couple hundred yards below, the other hiker was slogging towards the summit.

Perhaps in retrospect, I should have gone up via Lowe's Path, as the open boulder field on the Castle Trail really sapped my energy. Ahh, it'll be there still and after coming down and seeing how wiped out I was, I'm glad I didn't push the extra .7 miles (and back), since that part would have been as difficult or more so than the Castles section below. It was a lovely day up there, though the high summits were getting socked in a bit and the wind was a bit brisk, but not so much that it was energy draining.

Max

After thinking of your hike for the past two weeks, the winds starting just below treeline from the Castles on to the Cornice must have been fierce to uncomfortably brutal. I've had a few turn backs myself, I still have to bag Jefferson in the winter. One of the toughest winter hikes out there. Thank you for your terrific trip report. See you in the mountains!

Well, as an update to this, I made it to Jefferson on the 2nd try. I went up Saturday and climbed with friends via the Valley Way up to Madison hut. They were headed for the summit of Adams, a peak which I already had in the bag. So I headed off solo from there, across the Gulfside trail. After passing Thunderstorm Junction, I made good time all the way to Edmands Col. Had to struggle a bit up the steep snowfield coming out of the Col. In retrospect, I should have swung around the west side and come in via the Israel Ridge approach. Too late, I was committed to doing the steep snowfield. I kicked in a lot of steps, inching my way upwards until reaching a rock outcrop, where I could see a group descending via the line that I should have used. I hiked over to that, and summited from there pretty easily. I headed down via the Randolph and Lowe's path. The Link wasn't broken out, so I descended to Lowe's store, hoping to find a ride back to Appalachia. After no such luck, I ended up trudging the 2 miles to the parking lot, in my plastic boots, down the roadway! Not a lot of fun, but I got one of my final 4 in winter. Plans are to finish up next year, getting Tecumseh, Cabot, and finishing on Isolation!

So happy to read you made it to the summit of Jefferson. You *want* to finish your winter 48 on Isolation?! Very interesting indeed. Good luck & go for it!

Hi Max, take my compliments on a very fine hike. Is Catle Trail relate to the Badlands National Park? I must confess it is my favorite place in the whole country.