Trip Report: Mount Adams Summit Climb
When: 07/06/2017
Location: Mount Adams
Conditions: Sunny but windy!
Duration: Roughly 9 hours
Difficulty: Difficult
Kid Friendly: No
Pet Friendly: Yes BUT heavily depending on conditions and on confidence of your pup.
Useful links:
oregonhikers.org
summitpost.org
usda.gov
wta.org
The Full Report:
After little real preparation and much anticipation, my coworker and I decided to do the south climb of Mount Adams! Adams is Washington’s second tallest peaks just outside of a town called Trout Lake.
With him having no real mountaineering experience and myself having only very beginner skills in the sport we asked around for more info on the climb and found a few of our coworkers had recently made the trip up! They gave us lots of good information, we rented our gear and we felt confident in our assent!
The plan was to climb up to lunch counter the night before to get accustomed to the elevation and wake up very early on Friday to summit this beast. We left Portland around 3pm figuring we could get to lunch counter before sunset if we just hustled up.
We got out to Trout Lake, grabbed our permits from the Ranger station and headed out! We left Trout Lake and took a wrong turn right off the bat instead of following the very clearly marked road to the South Summit....Turned around and got onto the correct road but not arriving at the trailhead until 7. We had yet to fully pack our things up and wanted to eat some food so we didn't start hiking until around 7:30. Before you head out, make sure to tear off the bottom half of your permit and leave it on the dash of your car. The trail up is beautiful and has amazing views of Mt Hood behind you once you start making your way north.
I wasn't super confident on which way to go with the fleeting light so we hiked up to the end of the tree line until about 10pm. We found a little camp spot tucked away in the trees that gave us some much-needed relief from the mountain winds. After we set up camp, cooked a super late dinner, met a mouse friend who reminded us to hang our backpacks with food in them and went to sleep around 10:45-11.
We set an alarm for a very early 3am to get going sooner than later. I ditched my huge pack with the tent, sleeping bags and other none necessitates for the summit. I loaded up my much smaller day pack with snacks and water. We finally got started around 4am and headed straight up the snowfield where we stumbled upon Lunch Counter a few hours later. We stopped for snacks, sunscreen, and obvious photo ops.
We headed up the hill to the summit at 6:15... a GRUELING two hours later we got to the false summit. Such disappointment over that first hill. But with the real summit in sight, we kept marching and a little under one hour later we finally arrived at the true summit! Just stepping up over the top you are instantly rewarded with one of the most amazing views of Mt Rainer. Though we were worried about our later start it worked in our favor. The snow conditions were ideal for our crampons and we missed the majority of the crowds, only sharing the summit with three other climbers (and a four-legged one named Trout). It was a super windy day (you could lean on it!) but other than that it was sunny and wonderful!
We started our decent around 9:30 hopping right on the first little glissade path we found and SOARED down with much excitement and enthusiasm. Gino wants me to mention that the tracks were so distinct and deep you could practically fit a bobsled into them. We bought Tyvek for glissading purposes but found our butts were still painfully numb though partially dry.
We walked a bit back to the false summit and got to the next glissade path. It was like sitting in one of those super tall big kid slides at a water park, unable to see over the edge knowing in the back of your head it will go fast and probably scare the crap out of you.
The three guys ahead of us dove down and I decided to go last. Never have I ever had so much fun in just sliding down a hill of snow. I got tons a lot of speed but I was able to slow myself and regulate it with the ice ax I rented from Next Adventure and simply lowering my heels in the snow.
We got back to the lunch counter in a mere hour, if that! We stopped, reapplied our sunscreen, delayered and carried out across the snow fields, walking on and off on boulder fields and slushy snow.
We attempted to glissade a few more times but it was too warm by this time and the snow was too sticky and our butts simply would not move. So, we slid, stepped, foot skied? down from lunch counter to the backpack spot. This took roughly another hour so. We quickly gathered our things, delayered even more and headed out.
At this point, we just wanted to be down to the car so we booked it down the hill. Glissading here and there. However, we did get lost.... luckily, we were in good company and three other climbers were also vaguely disoriented but knew we needed to cut right and stay that way for a while. We stuck right, bushwhacking a bit until we ran into the trail. Smooth sailing down the dusty path to the parking lot where we sat down in my car and finally relaxed.
Gear we rented:
Ice Axe
Mountaineering Boots
Crampons
We got out to Trout Lake, grabbed our permits from the Ranger station and headed out! We left Trout Lake and took a wrong turn right off the bat instead of following the very clearly marked road to the South Summit....Turned around and got onto the correct road but not arriving at the trailhead until 7. We had yet to fully pack our things up and wanted to eat some food so we didn't start hiking until around 7:30. Before you head out, make sure to tear off the bottom half of your permit and leave it on the dash of your car. The trail up is beautiful and has amazing views of Mt Hood behind you once you start making your way north.
I wasn't super confident on which way to go with the fleeting light so we hiked up to the end of the tree line until about 10pm. We found a little camp spot tucked away in the trees that gave us some much-needed relief from the mountain winds. After we set up camp, cooked a super late dinner, met a mouse friend who reminded us to hang our backpacks with food in them and went to sleep around 10:45-11.
We set an alarm for a very early 3am to get going sooner than later. I ditched my huge pack with the tent, sleeping bags and other none necessitates for the summit. I loaded up my much smaller day pack with snacks and water. We finally got started around 4am and headed straight up the snowfield where we stumbled upon Lunch Counter a few hours later. We stopped for snacks, sunscreen, and obvious photo ops.
We headed up the hill to the summit at 6:15... a GRUELING two hours later we got to the false summit. Such disappointment over that first hill. But with the real summit in sight, we kept marching and a little under one hour later we finally arrived at the true summit! Just stepping up over the top you are instantly rewarded with one of the most amazing views of Mt Rainer. Though we were worried about our later start it worked in our favor. The snow conditions were ideal for our crampons and we missed the majority of the crowds, only sharing the summit with three other climbers (and a four-legged one named Trout). It was a super windy day (you could lean on it!) but other than that it was sunny and wonderful!
We started our decent around 9:30 hopping right on the first little glissade path we found and SOARED down with much excitement and enthusiasm. Gino wants me to mention that the tracks were so distinct and deep you could practically fit a bobsled into them. We bought Tyvek for glissading purposes but found our butts were still painfully numb though partially dry.
We walked a bit back to the false summit and got to the next glissade path. It was like sitting in one of those super tall big kid slides at a water park, unable to see over the edge knowing in the back of your head it will go fast and probably scare the crap out of you.
The three guys ahead of us dove down and I decided to go last. Never have I ever had so much fun in just sliding down a hill of snow. I got tons a lot of speed but I was able to slow myself and regulate it with the ice ax I rented from Next Adventure and simply lowering my heels in the snow.
We got back to the lunch counter in a mere hour, if that! We stopped, reapplied our sunscreen, delayered and carried out across the snow fields, walking on and off on boulder fields and slushy snow.
We attempted to glissade a few more times but it was too warm by this time and the snow was too sticky and our butts simply would not move. So, we slid, stepped, foot skied? down from lunch counter to the backpack spot. This took roughly another hour so. We quickly gathered our things, delayered even more and headed out.
At this point, we just wanted to be down to the car so we booked it down the hill. Glissading here and there. However, we did get lost.... luckily, we were in good company and three other climbers were also vaguely disoriented but knew we needed to cut right and stay that way for a while. We stuck right, bushwhacking a bit until we ran into the trail. Smooth sailing down the dusty path to the parking lot where we sat down in my car and finally relaxed.
Gear we rented:
Ice Axe
Mountaineering Boots
Crampons