Skiing Mt. Thielsen's Lightning Rod Couloir

 The Line: Lightning Rod Couloir*, ~45° max

The Mountain: Mt. Thielsen, 9,184', "The Lightning Rod of the Cascades"

May 2025

*This name is one that Julian and I created, and it has stuck for us. We asked in several community forums whether anyone knew of a name. We received just one response with a name, from someone who said he called it the East Face (boring). We feel that Lighting Rod Couloir better captures the topography and or personality of the route. We are sticking with our name, but feel free to disagree. 

Driving west on OR 138 a few years ago, en route to skiing Thiely Dan for the first time, something caught my eye. The long fin of earth running north-south through Thielsen, culminating in the summit, appeared to be an impenetrable cliff for over a mile. Impenetrable, except for the possibility of a path offered by a long, rock-choked strip of snow just south of the summit. Would it go? Internet and guidebook research in the intervening years did not offer many clues. The slope angle map shows a red tube on the middle and lower sections, but the top was a jumbled mess of blue, purple, and black. 

The answer was not much clearer this spring, looking at it dead-on from a pull-out on 138. There appeared to be a continuous line of snow from the ridge down into the Cottonwood Creek Drainage, but from our angle it appeared to be quite thin and potentially hard to pick out from the top amongst other options that cliffed out. This, combined with knowing the angle was likely quite steep above the choke, gave rise to some light butterflies in my tummy. 

Pine needles in your glue season. 

Julian and I set out from the Mt. Thielsen TH, west of the mountain, where spring was beginning to take hold. There was the occasional dirt patch to dodge, but the skis stayed on our feet right off the pavement. It felt good to be back on the wetter side of the mountains, dominated by mossy firs. As if to emphasize this, a sooty grouse decided to regale us with his gentle hooting. Ol' boy was ready to make himself known to all the lady grouse after a long winter under the snow. 

A boy with a plan, a natural man, wearing a white Stetson bucket hat.

Julian and I cut a more-or-less straight line for the bottom of Thielsen's SW bowl. Once we popped out above treeline, we made for a flat, bare section of ridge just north of the saddle between Thiely Dan and Pt. 8457. Anticipation grew as we threw skis on our packs and scrambled up to the ridge on loose scree. 

On top of the ridge, it seemed that we were on the right track, in that we were able to locate a big ol' cornice and not just more rock. Julian and I walked back and forth across the snow, trying to find a way to peek into what lay below us without getting too close to the edge. We walked all the way to the end and were starting to feel dejected. Once we walked back and past our starting point, I found a spot that offered a view down.  What we had feared might be a classic Cascades east-facing giga-cornice was little more than a small lip of snow. Phew! From here we could also see a clear route to the scree patch, which from earlier we knew there was a clean line of snow below. We'd found the Lighting Rod Couloir, even if it wasn't called that yet.

The most aesthetic feature of the couloir was the left-hand wall, a solid chunk of igneous rock rising all the way up to the summit pinnacle. From there, things got more cluttered, with a right side made up of patches of cliffs and snow, and a boulder-strewn chute. Interestingly, there was a long patch of scree in the middle. I assume that this occurred as the result of rockfall off the left wall at some point during the winter, as I doubt that an east-facing chute would have melted out that badly by early May. 

Julian was the guinea pig. He dropped in and wove his board through the largest boulders, and took a break to wait for me. 

The author, wishing he hadn't forgotten his helmet. Photo: Julian Heller.

The top of the line was steep, but the snow on this aspect had been catching the sun all day and provided a reassuring bite for my ski edges. The steep section was over after a few turns, then the angle mellowed out before it was time to dodge boulders. I met up with Julian and he took the lead again. This lower section was even more fun; we were able to just open it up and rip without any obstacles. 

Very pleasurable!

The mysterious Cold Eye of Sauron on the east face.

At the bottom of the line, we were thrilled to have successfully explored some unknown territory, but the question remained of how much more territory we'd have to explore to get back to the car. Booting back up the line certainly seemed viable, but with the rockfall a strong possibility we opted to head south towards Pt. 8457 and skin back to the west side. We made for the first break in the cliff, about 1/2 mile southeast of Pt. 8457, and then sauntered northward up the ridge to the top. 

Looking back at The Rod, as her friends call her. 

The NE face of Pt. 8457 is a jumble of craggy chutes, none of which are all that steep or long. The fun here lies in trying to figure out from the top which ones don't cliff out. I sideslipped down some icy, chunky chunder until I had a clear view around the dogleg of one chute, yelled up to Julian that it would go, and then skied down. The sun had started hitting this face maybe 30 minutes previously, which was not nearly enough to unlock the corn. Even though I may have rattled a few fillings out of my teeth, skiing new ground is always worthwhile to me. In order to salvage a few more good turns, we skinned back up the SE bowl of Thielsen, passing through a nice little quarter-pipe feature that promised some fun slush slashes on the way back down. 

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After enjoying some creamy snow on the SE bowl, we continued on through the trees, dodging an endless minefield of deep spring tree wells and downed logs. We were able to ski all the way to the parking lot, where we were greeted by some lovely black-and-blue Stellar's Jays. I hope they were enjoying the beginning of parking lot crumbs season. 

-WCG