7/20 Mt Thielsen

[TheOtherBob]

It's midweek and I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I'd throw up an omnibus update with some delicious imagery to help stoke everyone's weekend ambitions.
I'll structure the report proper around Mt Thielsen and then include some other recent images from Hood and from up near Muir on Rainier.

I drove down to Mt Thielsen on Sunday. The opening picture was taken on my way back down when the lighting was better--it's a pretty wicked looking peak. By the time I pulled in to the TH it was almost 10:00 and the lot was nearly full.
I left at the same time as three ladies from Bend--if anyone knows a woman from bend with a lovely pair of blue eyes and a dog named "June Bug," please tell her I say hello and that I hope she made it the rest of the way up.
On the way up, I passed several of the early parties leaving, only one of which had any climbing equipment. The initial view one gets from the trail looks like this.

In the back of my mind, I knew it would get steep sooner or later, but the majority of the trail scoots along at an average 10% slope. As a tip to others: once you pass the junction with the PCT, the trail keeps tending off to the right. Resist the urge to go there and keep to the left on the middle of the ridge, so you keep the good views. This is much more obvious on the way down if you miss it on the way up.
Once I cleared the trees, I finally found out what I was in for when the trail went from a 10% slope to a 40% slope. Trekking poles can still be used for the first bit of that, but eventually it gets steep and rocky enough that hands are preferable to poles.

A humorous elevation profile

Google Earth botched their topography, so my overlay looks funky. Just imagine that the curve goes right up to a point.

Google Earth needs some love from its engineers.

Once I was on the rocky portion of the ascent, I stayed on the ridge and followed the track up--in many places it is easier to follow on the way down than on the way up, but I highly recommend sticking to it because deviations can become tedious quickly, especially given the slope.
These two images are examples of the surroundings on the way up.

Eventually, there is a reasonably flat spot to take in the view and take a break while pondering whether or not one wants to climb the remaining 60 or so feet of rock to get to the summit. It is imposing.
There was a fellow named Paul (also from Bend) up there with his son and daughter and they were gracious enough to wait for me to climb up, take pictures, and then climb down, in case something happened--thanks, Paul!
I always appreciate it when there's a trophy at the top.

Token trophy shot

Looking one way

Looking the other way

Mt Bailey

Mt Bailey and Diamond Lake

South Sister, Broken Top, Bachelor

Some geology

Some more geology

[TheOtherBob]

*looks mischievous* I need a watermelon, STAT!

The trip down was much easier than the trip up, especially once I was down past the upper, rocky portion of the trail to where there is soil and poles can be used again. As a parting FYI, there were mosquitoes on the lower regions of the trail, but they were not horrible. I caught two of them and ended up with five bites.
One last panoram from the way down.

Now let's rewind to the weekend of the 12th and 13th. I needed some paradise in my life, so I went up to Paradise. (yes, I'm about to include easter eggs in a TR)
I left late, so I was only up to 8500' at my turn around time, but here are some gratuitous panorams for the everyone's general enjoyment. There were a LOT of people up there.

Fast forward to last Saturday, and I was up poking around on Hood to get some elevation. There were quite a few parties still going up to the summit--the first party coming down I saw reported 6-9 groups up there.
I noticed one group heading up from the hogs back at 10:00, and was able to resolve from the parking lot other folks still up very close to the summit at 12:30.
Here was the view from 7 a.m.

Good morning

The fires were very obvious from the slopes.

sadness

View at 12:30.

See the three little climbers up there?

midday sprawl

That's all for now. Happy Hiking!

[kepPNW]

Wow, that may be the first report I've seen here on Thielson! It looks terrifying from afar.

You mentioned the lack of "climbing gear" in one party, but didn't really say you used anything other than your hands yourself. Was this at all technical, or did it actually amount to a walk-up?

Excellent photos! Really appreciated reading this one, thanks!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

The final climb to the top of Mt. Thielsen is probably class 4. Some parties rope up for it, some don't. I've done it, solid holds and fairly obvious route, but it's definitely not a walk up.

[Bosterson]

Fast forward to last Saturday, and I was up poking around on Hood to get some elevation. There were quite a few parties still going up to the summit--the first party coming down I saw reported 6-9 groups up there.
I noticed one group heading up from the hogs back at 10:00, and was able to resolve from the parking lot other folks still up very close to the summit at 12:30.

Yikes!

Nice photos of Hood this late in the year. It looks quite horrid without snow, can't imagine why anyone would want to climb it now, let alone think it was safe to do so...

[kepPNW]

The final climb to the top of Mt. Thielsen is probably class 4. Some parties rope up for it, some don't. I've done it, solid holds and fairly obvious route, but it's definitely not a walk up.

Sounds about how the photos looked. I guess if I find myself in the neighborhood, I may wander up for all but that last push. I'd be good with that. Probably.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

The final climb to the top of Mt. Thielsen is probably class 4. Some parties rope up for it, some don't. I've done it, solid holds and fairly obvious route, but it's definitely not a walk up.

Sounds about how the photos looked. I guess if I find myself in the neighborhood, I may wander up for all but that last push. I'd be good with that. Probably.

I used to do some technical rock climbing, both road side cragging and alpine routes up in the mountains. Plus quite a bit of solo scrambling on peaks with anywhere from class 3 to low 5th class terrain. At the time I thought Thielsen was fairly easy and ropes were unnecessary. However I've found my risk tolerance has changed considerably and a few things I've repeated years later weren't as "easy" as I remember them being. Kinda funny how perspective changes.

Anyway going most of the way to the top of Thielsen is interesting. There's some steep scree to deal with but some fascinating weird volcanic rock formations, some of the OP's photos definitely capture that.

[Roy]

The last bit up Thielsen is fun the last time I was there some idiot painted bright orange spots where they thought the best holds were. Nice scrambles is the one thing thats missing around here. I put a lot of miles on my cars going North and East of here over the the years.