One of the things I love about Mount Thielsen is that from afar, it looks
like such an improbable climb. And its steep imposing spire is part of what
keeps drawing me back.
Shall we? At least try to go climb a mountain?
So I'm heading out to pick up my buddy Frank and we're going to try to climb
Mount Thielsen down by Crater Lake.
How you doing?
Wanna go climb a mountain or something?
Let's go do it.
Alright.
We're driving about four hours to a campground where we'll be staying overnight.
When I talked to the ranger earlier this week she said, maybe like three to five
inches of snow at elevation, but, so we'll see.
I will give us a solid 40% chance of summiting.
I think that's fair.
I mean the snow just adds a different
It's just more risky.
I mean the spire on top is, I think it's, what it's like 80 feet of basically pretty good rock?
It's the only good rock on the mountain.
The only good rock on the mountain, so they say.
I'd really like to get up to the top tomorrow but ...
we'll just take what the mountain gives us you know?
We're doing all right here, oh yeah,
We have an open campsite.
It's like the roomiest campsite ever.
I know.
There we go.
Socks and Crocs, baby.
Can see it [the mountain] poking out.
Yeah, barely, just a little bit. I mean, the ridge is definitely,
Snowy.
Definitely snowy.
Mount Thielsen towers over the popular Diamond Lake, where we're staying for the night.
Thielsen is a 9,182 foot extinct volcano known for its dramatic spire
and reputation as the lightning rod of the Cascades.
Oh, cooking up a world-class camp meal — doing a little ramen times two here.
That looks pretty good. Looks pretty ready.
Looks like ramen.
Good morning. We ended up sleeping in the car last night because
an animal of significant size was rustling about in our campsite.
We got a little spooked, so now we're gonna break camp, pack up and
get out of here because its pretty much time to climb.
Uh, we're at the trailhead right now and we have approximately between nine and ten miles
round-trip, and if I remember correctly what was it Frank? Elevation gain?
3,800 foot elevation gain. So, let's give it a shot.
Ready? Let's go.
The climb begins gradually, meandering through dense forest before getting
steeper above the tree line at about 7,200 feet.
It's one of those things where you just don't know 'til you go, so we're gonna keep going.
The first snow we encounter is far from ideal and we hope it softens up in the
sun above treeline.
Got my silly GoPro strapped to my chest and gonna get the footage we can from here on out.
So bear with us, folks.
Stylish and functional?
The climbing gets harder and more dangerous farther up the mountain.
Climbers need to scramble carefully and look out for loose rock.
Woooooohoooo.
Man.
Top of Mount Thielsen, baby.
So this is a summit that has eluded Frank and I once before.
We got turned around because of snow, in what February?
But this year, it feels mighty good to be on top.
For such a straightforward and relatively short climb, the views from the top are pretty spectacular.
After taking a few minutes to soak it in, we begin our descent.
That was a heck of a jog you led me on there for the last little bit.
The climb was really good though.
It was great. This is take two for me, so it's nice to get up on top.
The snow did make it so roping up was gonna be rather
difficult, um, so left the rope in the bag, but other than that it wasn't too much
of an issue, it softened up for us.
Yeah, yeah. And the actual, you know, last little bit of climbing — that last 80 or hundred feet
um that's kind of the Class IV scramble, so the hardest climbing on the mountain,
or on the route that we were doing, was manageable climbing up and coming back down.
I felt like we kept our safety margin really good and didn't do
anything that we were uncomfortable with, so.
Let's load this puppy up and get the heck out of here, eh?
Hey there, folks, I'm Jim Ryan.
Thank so much for watching our latest episode of Peak Northwest.
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