Mt. Jefferson - Russell Glacier route

August 14-16, 1998

Truly a group effort put the four of us on the summit of Mt. Jefferson. Each climber contributed when the going got tough, and the result was a very hard-earned summit. The Russell Glacier route is a true adventure which apparently is rarely done. We left camp just below the end of Russell Glacier at 6,300 ft. at 3:45 am under head lamps and moonlight. The top of the Russell was reached about 7:00. Scrambling over rock up the ridge past the ‘Prehistoric Monster’ and ‘Smith Rock’ brought us to three roped pitches near ‘Mohler Tooth’. Continuing on the north ridge brought us to the summit pinnacle. Steep ice prohibited us from starting the pinnacle route from the normal fourth class route. Instead, Chris Miller led an exciting pitch up the north ridge to put us back on route to the top, which was achieved at 2:00 pm. To avoid the technical pitches of the ascent route we descended from the north ridge into the North Milk Creek Cirque over scree and snow and made our way back to the top of Russell Glacier by 6:00. As darkness and clouds closed in we stepped off the glacier and back to camp at 8:00. On the 10,497-ft. summit were Steve Goins, Doug Nelson, Chris Miller and Harold Thompson (leader). Jeff Boersema spent the day in camp with a bit of flu keeping him from climbing.

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