Trip Report

Mount Adams, Washington Climb

12-13 June 2010

“Somewhat Sleepless Near Seattle”

On 13 June 2010, four PATC-MS climbers (Jennifer Sokolower, Luciano Lima, Lucas Fisher, and Steve Brown) made it to the summit of Mount Adams, Washington, in the Cascades Range.

This trip was originally planned to be an extremely time efficient climb of the Mazama Glacier route.   That didn’t happen, but here’s what did:

1)      Climbs on the Mazama Glacier are restricted to members of the Yakima Indian Tribe before 1 July, so we changed our focus to the South Spur Route.

2)      Our team rendezvous in Seattle worked but not without some concern.  Jennifer arrived a day earlier than everyone else, and that seems to be a good idea.  On Friday night, Luciano, Lucas, and Steve wondered if delayed flights were going to cause missed connections (fortunately they didn’t) from which there was little ability to recover.  Fortunately, we all arrived before midnight Friday and we were tucked into our beds by 1:00 am for a 6:00 am wake-up.

3)      On Saturday, we got up, ate the hotel breakfast, and departed about 6:30 am for Trout Lake, Washington and the Forest Service Ranger Station to register for our climb.  We arrived at the ranger station before noon, and we were presented with bad news that avalanche conditions on the upper mountain were forecast to be ‘extreme’ due to fresh snow and high temperatures.  This, of course, dampened our spirits, but we were told other climbers were proceeding as far as the ‘Lunch Counter’ (at 9,500’ MSL) on Mount Adams as the route up to this point is not steep or avalanche prone.  We had lunch at THE local Trout Lake café, and proceeded toward the trailhead shortly after 1:00 PM.  We should have been able to start climbing by 2:00 PM but an error in driving judgment caused our low-clearance mini-van to become temporarily ‘stopped’ in a small snow patch that higher-clearance vehicles had negotiated without problems.  We used our shovel to remove snow from the vehicle’s under-side for about an hour before we were ‘rescued’ by a four-wheel-drive pickup truck with a tow strap.  We were able to start our hike/climb at 3:20 PM.

4)      Our hike to ‘base camp’ was uneventful.  The van was parked at 4,500’ MSL, and due to remaining snow we needed to hike approximately 3.5 miles to make it to the normal South climb trailhead.  On our way up the mountain we met a descending climber who reported that conditions ‘on top’ were ideal for crampons and there was zero chance of avalanche as all the new snow had blown off our route.  We also met a descending Forest Service climbing ranger who said he was going to get the avalanche warning removed from the website.  We all carried 50-60 pound packs and by 8:00 PM we had climbed to 7,500’ and traveled approximately 5 miles.  The snow was soft, but we didn’t need crampons or snowshoes to get to our selected camp near South Butte.  By 11:00 PM we had had established camp, eaten dinner, and gone to bed.

5)      We awoke at 4:00 AM on Saturday, ate breakfast, and began our climb to the summit at 5:30.  We had about 5,000’ vertical to climb and hopes were high given the reports from the descending climbers the afternoon before.  Snow conditions were great for crampons in the early morning.  We easily ascended up to the ‘lunch counter’ at 9,500’ and then the mountain became markedly steeper.  The twenty-somethings in our group attained the summit by noon, but the fifty-something was slightly delayed reaching the summit about 12:30 PM.  We took pictures, ate some food, and drank some water on a warm clear day.

6)      Decent was mostly uneventful.  Luciano did his first glissade on the upper mountain.  Below 8,000’ MSL the snow had gotten soupy and we post-holed the last half mile back to base camp.  We arrived back at camp about 4:00 PM, broke camp, donned snow shoes, and descended to the car arriving around 8:00 PM to complete a 15 hour summit day.

7)      We then drove back to Seattle, arriving around 1:30 AM, with just enough time for Lucas to organize his gear and take a shower before catching the 6:00 AM shuttle to the airport.       

Recommendations for future Mount Adams climbs:

1)      A three-day weekend is pushing the schedule.  There’s no room for recovery from airline disconnects on the front end and not a lot of time for sleep while you’re executing this climb.  This could be mitigated by planning for either a four day trip or using Portland OR as the airport of choice rather than Seattle WA.  Portland flights were more expensive and were not as frequent when we were planning this trip.

2)      Plan Mount Adams climbs after 1 July when the Mazama Glacier route is available, and it is more likely that the snow has melted up to Cold Springs Campground.

Links to some pics from the Mount Adams trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=440376&id=616315243&l=5f8ef866fc

http://picasaweb.google.com/Luciano.Lima1/MountAdams?feat=directlink