[ozzy]

Monday had a warm clear forcast so i decided to head over to the Cushman area in the Olympics. I coaxed two buddies,Steve and Keaoni, to tag along with me. God bless there souls lol. Ive seen Jefferson from a few other peaks and wanted to get on it. We drove up the hamma hamma river road then split off on FS roads up past jefferson lake and stopped at Goober pond. From the pond you get a clear view of the east summit, so we bushwhacked half a mile or so towards the NW. The forest opened up for another half mile, then a shorter bushwhack put us in a bouldery little gully. We followed said gully all the way up to the east pk. I had intended to make towards the saddle dividing main and east peak but decided just to go for the east summit first. Steve went up ledges earlier than myself, about 1/4mi east of the east pk. He had a better time than me. I ended up getting to the base of the east pk and worked my way up crumbled ledges. The ledges became downsloping rollers with no holds and sand/pebbles covering most of them. I froze up twice and was just being held on by the friction of my boots. I found the few moves to be had and got the hell off asap, feeling stupid for taking that way. Anyhow Keaoni ended up on the same face and got cliffed out, wasting most of his stamina(his legs were cramping) he decided to head back down. Steve and I met on top of the ridge and finished our way to east pk.

Keaoni schwackin

Finally outta the bush

The boys in gully

Toppin out in gully

First snow, steve ascended the ledges from here

After i was off the sketchy slabs

Looking down from east pk

Washington, Elinor, Pershing

Main pk with cruiser behind

Skokomish right

Towards the sound

Steve finishing

Cheers

After the east peak we made the ridge traverse to the main summit. We made it in about 45mins stoked as hell! The views from both summits were amazing! We found the register but is was soaked, still this peak is seldom traveled! Finally getting this one was sweet, god i love this area! We ended up taking the west ridge down and skirting E under cliff bands to link back up with our route. We met Keaoni back at the truck where he was fishing and landed a nice cutty. It was a sweet ass day for sure, thanks Steve and Keaoni for coming along. Cheers fellow hikers!

Skokomish and Stone framed

Steve on the ridge traverse

Negotiating

Steve gettin the last bit

Washington and cushman

East pk from main pk

Comin down the west side

Only nasty part on the downclimb

Steve

Glissade

Below the main pk

Steve off the last of the snow

Tree and steve

The final schwack

[awilsondc]

Hell yeah Ozzy! I've had Jefferson on my wish list for awhile, but I've never seen a report. This will come in handy if I decide to do it. I think I'll take Steve's route.

[RichP]

Awesome. Looks like a typical Olympics peak with lots of brush, questionable rock and a killer view.