Granite on the summit

Unexpected location for great climbing

We recently moved to Oregon from Colorado and were finding ourselves missing climbing terribly. It seemed like everything within 2 hours was either buried in snow most of the year, closed for peregrins or just way too chossy to consider. The granite on top of the ski hill at Mount Ashland was a pleasant surprise. There are a couple of routes on the summit block past the Dopler Radar ball. I suggest hiking the ridge as far as you can across the top and then scrambling down on the left to access the routes. The Rogue guide book suggests to follow the base of the rock on the right but the bushwhacking is terrible especially if you have dogs with you. The next day we walked down to the bottom of the snowfields directly below the parking area. We went around to the right of them and descended below the Dopler Radar ball again. We hiked up to the bottom of the grafitti wall on the snow. The only obstacle was getting down off the snow and into the gap between the snow and the rock. We climbed the gully route to get up to the chains on the obvious face. After we had a great time sliding down on our butts to the bottom of the snowfields. I really recommend this area if you are in S. Oregon and missing some solid rock. There is quite a bit of lichen growing on the rock but the climbing was still pretty good.