After talking about making a trip down to McLoughlin for several weeks, Joe and I decided it was finally time to pull the trigger and see if we could score some corn on his namesake mountain. Joe had plans to get some additional turns in after our trip, and I had a work meeting I couldn’t get out of, so we drove down separately on Wednesday. I put in a full day at work, and headed out around 4:00 pm, opting to drive over via highway 97. After a quick pit stop in Chemult, I found myself in the familiar and beautiful Fort Klamath country.
An hour or so later, I pulled into the trailhead and found Joe, as well as another group of climbers who were making the trek through the cascade volcanoes on their bicycles. I found the most level spot I could, got my gear organized, and a short time later it was time to hit the sack. We awoke early, around 4:30 am the next morning, and hit the trail by 5:00 am. After a couple of miles of walking, the snow became continuous enough to skin, and we worked our way up through the forest.
Climbing higher, the views opened up, and we could see Brown Mountain and Mt Shasta to the south. It was hard to believe it’d been six years since my last visit to McLoughlin, and I made a mental note to make sure it’s not nearly that long before I make a return visit….
We climbed higher, eventually switching over to booting as the slope steepened. The snow was a bit punchy and the climbing a bit tedious, but we made progress, eventually working our way up towards the summit.
Somewhere around 10:00 am, I think it was a bit before but honestly can’t remember, we arrived at the summit, and took in the views. I got my beer on ice, put my board together, and just enjoyed being on top of one of my favorite peaks.
After about 10-15 minutes, my beer was ready to go, so I pulled it out and enjoyed it. My beer of choice for the day was a definite new favorite — a Joy Pale Ale from Block 15 Brewing Company. I have to say, it was one of the smoothest and best tasting beers I’ve had in awhile!
While I was enjoying my beer, we talked over options, and both of us agreed we wanted to give the north side a go. After looking at it over the years and spending a lot of time fantasizing about it, today seemed as good as any to slay it, and I was stoked on our choice. Both lines to skiers right and left looked clean, so it was only a matter of which one was the nicest.
Before we strapped in, I headed out to the summit proper, a few feet from where we had our gear, and snapped a couple photos of Joe looking back to the south and east. I love these views from the top of McLoughlin — so iconic and a prime example of why southern Oregon is so awesome!
After snapping several photos, we strapped into our bindings and readied to shove off. The north slope is pretty steep off the top, and neither of us were sure if it was corning yet. I dropped in first to setup below and take a few shots of Joe, and after my first turn I knew it was going to be great. I headed down a few hundred feet, then captured several shots of Joe as he ripped up the slope…
We skied down further, and Joe tested out skiers left. It was a bit firm still, so we opted for skiers right through the pinnacles, which was just fine with me. I think skier’s right is the marquee line on the mountain, and I was super stoked we were able to get it. Joe grabbed the camera from me, and took some shots as I headed down over the rollover and through the throat…
I found a nice spot to pullover and wait for Joe after sliding through the steeper pitch, and yelled back up to him that the snow was pretty nice. In reality, the snow was pretty good — not great, but pretty good — but it was the aesthetics of the line that made it so great. Joe dropped in and I snapped some pictures as he skied down to me and then on by….
At the bottom of the chute we just skied through, Joe took the camera again and snapped some photos of me as I headed down and then skied out across the main bowl. We wanted to hit the saddle that would afford us access back to the east side, so I worked my way out across the bowl and headed that way…
It was a lengthy traverse, but at the the end of it we got a great vantage point of the line we just skied, and it looked pretty awesome. Looking back at the terrain in the north bowl, both of us agreed we needed to come back again and spend some more time — there’s plenty of lines to be had.
We made the short hike up and over the saddle, and got a view of the east bowl from a different vantage point. It looked like it would be a long flat traverse from our current elevation to get to our exit point, so we decided to climb up and ski a line on lookers right of the bowl, closest to where we were.
The booting was pretty easy, but the climb must have been a bit farther than it looked, because it took us some time to top out, but eventually we made it and got a pretty decent view of both the east bowl and the line we just skied in the north bowl to the west…
We enjoyed the views from the top of our line for a little while, and refueled with some water and food. Soon, it was time to drop in again, and I snapped a few photos before we clicked into our bindings. Then I headed down, harvesting the ripe corn, before stopping to setup and snap a few shots of Joe as he skied down…
The turns down the east side were good, but a bit over softened given the time of day and the amount of sun exposure on the slope. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the turns through the steeps, and then made the long, angled traverse over to meetup with our uptrack on the east ridge…
We were able to link back up with our ascent route without issue, and from there it was a nice ski out through the trees in the forest below. We milked the snow for as long as it would go, and then switched to booting when it ran out. A couple of miles of trail walking later, we were back at the cars, stoked after a great day of turns with a couple of excellent lines.
Once at the car, it felt great to change into flip flops and shorts, and I pulled out a couple of fresh garden salads and we feasted like kings. A short time later, I bid Joe farewell and hit the road, taking a different route home up I-5. As I’ve done in the past, I stopped around Medford and snapped a few pics of Mt McLoughlin from the west,which affords a great view of the mountain. A few hours later, I was back at home in the southern Willamette Valley, and already planning for the next time I visit my favorite southern Oregon volcano!
