I'm the blackish blob under the wall in the upperish rightish corner, snacking n rehydrating whilst me partner caught up
Were gonna do Jeff Headwall on Mount Jefferson, but forecast cold temps suddenly changed to warm temps the day before... climbing spring rime in above-freezing temps doesn't work - so last minute plan change to Illumination Rock's West Ridge. Temps were a few degrees colder, and the climbing was actually pretty super, for the most part.. still plenty of soft spots, but if you hunted around a bit you found solid ice right where you needed it before you got desperate.
I've climbed the route before (I've also done Jeff Headwall)... but the point was to get my partner, young Clark, up on some legitimate alpine ice, pulling on his tools... he's a pretty strong rock climber, but this was his first time on ice.
We did bail, barely 12' below the summit ridge, due to an essentially unprotectable over-hanging rime bulge... could have burrowed through it, but it would have been another hour burning under a hot sun on the ridge - another hour of snow softening.. and given that our descent meant rappelling into steep, sun-affected snow, time was a luxury we had not.