Oregon Hikers

Looking for some beta on this winter climb, going down in a few days, starting from Willow Prairie cabin on west side.

Have you climbed it in winter?

removed

Here's a Medford Mail Tribune article about two people who skinned up and skied down McLoughlin in January 2017. A little short on detail about the upward slog.

https://mailtribune.com/oregon-outdoors ... the-summit

There are a number of other ski-mountaineering reports if you do an internet search.

Have a great time!!

Burnside

Not me, it's been on my to do list FOREVER and I'm going to try and get up there this spring.


Looking forward to your report.

Also this is what I've found on a winter route: https://www.summitpost.org/winter-route ... uth/284268

Have not seen anything about going up the West side. Enjoy!

Great, thanks for the tips!

We will have XC skis, and will try to cover some of the low ground with them on our approach. Seems like approach from west is feasible. Same terrain as the the route from the south.

Jen

We parked on Rye Spring Road(FS 37) and stayed at the nearby Willow Prairie cabin(about 1.6 miles west). Skiied out the next morning and changed gear at our car at 4400ft, then skiied east up some logging roads about 4 miles to an elevation of 5300 feet.

I was having a major bronchospasm/asthma flare triggered by a mishap with the woodstove, and struggled to keep up. I realized I would not be able to climb the remaining 4000 feet at a fast pace with my friends so I sent them ahead and followed slowly behind. Traveling through the forest was easy with lots of open snow covered lava fields to ascend. Snow was consolidated and we did not need snowshoes. It slowly got steeper and we put on crampons at about 6500. I stopped below the "South Tip" saddle at 7200 feet, but my friends successfully summited. They said the last 2K ft was relentlessly steep and the summit was cold and windy. The views however were incredible, and it was a bluebird day. The descent was fun with some glissades between 6-7000 ft, and then a quick ski out from our staging area at 5300 ft. The complete summit RT was 9 hours (9.5 miles, 5000 ft eg).