Forum Index > Trip Reports > ~*Oregon Choss: Mt. Washington & Three Fingered Jack 9/23 & 9/25 + a wedding~*
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~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess



Joined: 08 Jul 2019
Posts: 58 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess
PostSat Oct 19, 2019 9:53 pm 
This is the tale of how CutebutChossy had her first taste of Oregon choss... and climbed something other than a bulger in ohhhhh i dunno how long Sean and I headed down to Oregon for a weeklong road trip. Just like the good ol' days (like think back to about 2 months ago when I was still livin the funemployed life). We had our thighs set on Jefferson but I came down with something and was still feeling sick when we left for our trip, so we "scaled back" to climbing two Cascade volcanoes: Mt. Wa and 3FJ. We loaded up the hotel Highlander, dropped off Mr. Meowgi at grandma's house, and we were on our way. Sean told me enchanting tales of Oregon choss, and me being me, I was intrigued. The trip was set up around some friends' nuptial activities, my friends were getting hitched in Smith Rock that weekend and his buddy was having a bachelor party in Bend... how coincidental. Mt. Washington N Ridge 9/23 In true Rikki/Sean fashion we got an exceptionally late start to Mt. Washington on Monday... we didn't end up leaving Portland until ohhh I dunno 11a, noon? Which meant we left Mt. Washington TH at 2:45p... "Summitpost said its like a half day trip sooooooo..." "yea we have like a third of a day left so we're probs good right?"
I was eager to be on the trail again. We made quick work of the couple miles to the cairn marking the climbers trail up to the ridge. I was feeling pretty good... until I wasn't. As we made our way up along the ridge I started to feel like sh##. "Uhhhh I think I need to eat something or something, I feel nauseous." I ate half a PBJ and sat for a bit. "Ok I think I'm good." I was most definitely not. I slowed pace as we made our way across the ridge, stopping to breathe heavily every few minutes, "uhhhh you don't sound so good..." "Yeaaaaa I don't kno...." Until finally I called for a break after a photo opp, "Ok you're gonna run ahead a bit and I'm gonna go back there and be sick," I shouted to Sean. "Really?!?!"
Me 2 seconds before barfin Under the witness of the late afternoon sun and a very large raven flying above, I desecrated the ridge with the contents of my stomach. "So much for eating that sandwich! Dammit wasted a whole snickers! Sheesh!" JFC what is going on???? I felt a bit better, swished some water around my mouth and composed myself enough to complete the rest of the climb.
"Ok I'm back!" "Did you seriously throw up???!" "Uhm... yes." "Are you gonna be ok to finish this?" "Errrr I'm not sure but I think so?" We headed onwards with Sean checking in on me every few minutes, "You sure you good?"
"When u just upchucked on a climb and ur homie asks u if u good" We crossed some talus and made our way to the base of the scramble.
We were keeping an eye out for the ledge that led to a "rotten chimney." We ended up going for the most obvious ledge which leads you to a VERY exposed scramble, "Uhm I think this is the first ledge that leads you to the massively exposed bit and we need the less obvious ledge that leads to the moderately exposed bit." Sean had already ascended some of the massively exposed bit, and I hollered back, "Uhm ya I'm just gonna go over here and see if there's another ledge..." I found the better ledge, just above the one we were on, and found the rotten chimney. "Oh yea this looks rotten, found it!" Sean scrambled over to the base of the rotten chimney from where he was with some ridic scramble moves. I made my 'yikes' face. "Soooo uhhh I don't really see anywhere to anchor a belay... or place any gear... or see much that doesn't look like it's gonna crumble at any moment..." We looked at each other, looked at the position of the sun getting lower and lower in the horizon... "We aren't gonna have another Tower mountain." I said. "Agreed." (I never did get around to making a TR for that climb back in August... long story about down-climbing Tower mtn gully in the dark...) We decided that 1. the climbing was well within our ability 2. placing gear and roping up might increase our risk and provide a false sense of security given the quality of the rock and the factor of dragging the rope thru loose rock 3. we don't have time for that shizz.
concetrating face So we solo'd it. 5.3 rotten chimney in trail runners yeeehawww. It wasn't so bad, just a couple committing moves, took a little self talk and I was up and over the hardest bit in no time. We made note of the couple of rap stations as we scrambled up. Towards the summit is some low fifth slabby stuff, but other than that all pretty easy scrambling. It was getting v cold, I could hardly feel my fingers and we knew we had a sunset to beat. First day of fall! We didn't spend much time on the summit, and I felt like I was gonna barf again, so we headed down quickly. We rapped (using a 60m rope) down to where the rope ended. We scrambled a few feet down to the next rap station but decided to scramble the middle section because it was easy enough. We set up the final rap on what I would describe as a rap anchor that makes you go "hmmmm." The horn it was set up on was a little shallow, so someone had placed a large boulder up against the horn, on top of the slings, to ensure that the slings didn't slip up and off. "oh okay wow."
summit sillies
40% sass Rapped down to the base of the rotten chimney JUST as the sun was setting. We high fived each other proud of our feat to get off the technical terrain before dark.
Sean on the last rap Sweeeeet. We went down the loose gully and aimed for the shortcut through the scree and talus that we had seen coming down from the gully when it was still light out. We were able to find the beaten path with headlamps with ease thankfully. After some nice scree skiing and talus plunging we were back in the trees. On and off a climbers trail at first, but the trail became more obvious as we got lower. Made it back to the cairn off the PCT as the stars were showing off. Back to the cars pretty late at night, and drove a bit farther down the forest road for a sweet camp site. Made a fire, ate some dinner (which I managed to actually keep down!) and went to sleep. Slept in quite a bit after seeing how cloudy and socked in the day was. "We can save 3FJ for tomorrow, let's hit up the hot springs today." Rest Day: Terwilliger Hot Springs 9/25
The hot springs were lovely, but we did notice afterwards that we both had flea bites all around our ankles. After several minutes of finger pointing that night back at the hotel highlander, "No you have fleas, YOU'RE the fleabag! No your cat gave me fleas, NO my cat doesn't have fleas it was probably YOUR cat!" We settled on: it was probably from some hippie fleabag at the hot springs. Relationships ya kno, they're all about compromise. 3FJ 9/27 The next morning we set out at a kind of reasonable time, for 3FJ. It was so sunny and warm. We followed the trail for a few miles, and then headed up what we thought was the proper climber's trail (it was not) and followed a faint trail until it petered out and we were left wandering through the woods. "Woops I think we left the trail too soon.... yeaaap." We managed to intersect back with the proper trail and stayed on it until we found a very obvious cairn and trail leading up to 3FJ.
saw some goats
swooooon
Scrambled through the choss til we got to, "the crawl," the famed exposed traverse with the pin to clip. We opted to rope up for this, my head wasn't quite in the game this day. We made it to the base of the low fifth class chimney (unprotectable) that leads up to just under the true summit, and Sean scrambled up to the rap station.
"aye throw da rope down thx" "Hey uhhh wanna throw the rope down for me kthx." What a doll. We left the rope at this rap station, and scrambled up to the true summit. As I sat on the summit I grimaced back at the final scramble bit, "Uhhhhhhhmmm I do not want to down climb this," I muttered as my body went into a scared kitten pose and I gave Sean the 'yikes' face.
yikes face on summit
sean cool as a cucumber on the summit Sean scrambled back down to the lower rap station, got the rope and brought it to the summit for me. I set up a rappel and was gone in a few mins, “Kbaiii.”
A forest fire had started in the distance near Black Butte, we later learned it was a prescribed burn. It made for a beautiful sunset!
Really progressed throughout the day
You can barely see it, but the crawl is on the left of this gendarme, we are about to descend the crawl here. We opted to rope up and I "lead" out, clipping the piton along the way. One of the best parts of Rikki/Sean climbs? Epic sunsets from late starts.
life imitates art
Smith Rock Cragging and Nuptial Festivities 9/28-9/30 Spent a day at Smith and learned why you should not shittalk stick clips, karma it’s a thing ya know? One minute you’re laughing at stick clips and the next you’re wondering how ur ass decked before clipping the first bolt. Had a good laugh after confirming no injuries other than ego.
u think its this praying mantis' first selfie?
Finished the Oregon trip off with Hot Mess & OMG’s beautiful wedding at Smith Rock <3
What a week!

Choss is a girl's best friend
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Michael Lewis
Taking a nap



Joined: 27 Apr 2009
Posts: 629 | TRs | Pics
Location: Lynnwood, WA (for now)
Michael Lewis
Taking a nap
PostSun Oct 20, 2019 2:28 pm 
Quote:
I desecrated the ridge with the contents of my stomach. "So much for eating that sandwich! Dammit wasted a whole snickers! Sheesh!" JFC what is going on???? I felt a bit better, swished some water around my mouth and composed myself enough to complete the rest of the climb
Astounding stamina. My funemployment is running out soon so stories like these will fill the void while on the grind.

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Blowdown
Sawin' Logs ...



Joined: 24 Aug 2011
Posts: 375 | TRs | Pics
Location: On the Summit
Blowdown
Sawin' Logs ...
PostSun Oct 20, 2019 4:22 pm 
"Yikes Face" is right! I got one of those just looking at this photo! eek.gif Those rappel slings are WAY up there. Hmm ... We might just have to scratch 3FJ off our "to do" list. Nice climbs and great narrative and photos! up.gif up.gif

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zephyr
aka friendly hiker



Joined: 21 Jun 2009
Posts: 3361 | TRs | Pics
Location: West Seattle
zephyr
aka friendly hiker
PostSun Oct 20, 2019 7:05 pm 
~*CutebutChossy69*~ wrote:
Great report with excellent story-telling and photos. Strong climbing skills indeed, CBC69. This rock formation is striking. Looks like a Javanese temple. Maybe one of our resident geologists could describe what we are seeing. Layers intersected by dike intrusions, perhaps? ~z

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~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess



Joined: 08 Jul 2019
Posts: 58 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess
PostTue Oct 29, 2019 11:19 am 
Blowdown wrote:
Hmm ... We might just have to scratch 3FJ off our "to do" list.
Don't write it off just yet! I encourage you to go see it for yourself, it is easy climbing for sure, but obvi when given the choice I would use a rope on this section... besides you could always "lead" it by slinging some of the shallow rocks sticking out of the wall, knowing full well it would be mostly mental pro :P.

Choss is a girl's best friend
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Bosterson
Member
Member


Joined: 12 Sep 2019
Posts: 291 | TRs | Pics
Location: Portland
Bosterson
Member
PostWed Oct 30, 2019 8:51 am 
~*CutebutChossy69*~ wrote:
Blowdown wrote:
Hmm ... We might just have to scratch 3FJ off our "to do" list.
Don't write it off just yet! I encourage you to go see it for yourself, it is easy climbing for sure, but obvi when given the choice I would use a rope on this section... besides you could always "lead" it by slinging some of the shallow rocks sticking out of the wall, knowing full well it would be mostly mental pro :P.
That picture also makes the final chimney look steeper than it is - it's under vertical and has big cobbles for holds. You can also throw cams into the crack at right - I don't recall the exact size (this was 7 years ago), but I'd guess somewhere in #1-3? My recollection of the chimney was very low 5th. That said, regarding those of you from Washington where there's granite, I'm astonished you'd bother driving down here to climb the piles of rotting kitty litter masquerading as "rock" on the Central Cascade volcanoes! wink.gif

Go! Take a gun! And a dog! Without a leash! Chop down a tree! Start a fire! Piss wherever you want! Build a cairn! A HUGE ONE! BE A REBEL! YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! (-bootpathguy)
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