A second shot at the tricky Milk Creek route on Jefferson
Took a Mazama party on the route I worked out a couple years ago up Milk Creek on Mt. Jefferson. As everyone will attest, it involves a short stretch of delicate (and not so delecate) 'high angle snowshoe bushwacking' to gain a ridge between the two branches of Milk Creek, which you can follow safely even in bad avvy conditions. Which we concluded we had, seeing all the pinwheels in the middle section of Milk Creek, a foot of unconsolidated snow on a firm layer, and several older slides, on a warming day. So instead of traversing off the ridge into the firing zone in the main Milk Creek drainage, we continued up the ridge with some nice cramponing to the 8400' level, taking in amazing views of the west side of Jefferson.Thanks to Rico Micallef, Michael Austin, Roger Wong, Jonathan Myers, and Sathe Chatania for a fun and challenging weekend! Now to go heal up those 'veggie belay' scratches...