North Mt. Adams Wilderness Area, Washington June backcountry telemark skiing photos Mt. Adams is most often climbed from the south, which usually offers the shortest approach and an ascent route that is glacier-free. Due to unplowed roads, access to this route generally opens in late spring into early summer. This south spur, or Suksdorff Ridge, route is often crowded with climbers, skiers, and snowboarders. Some descend back down the south spur route, while others choose to ski or snowboard the Southwest Chutes, which offer a steeper descent. Other routes on the south side of Mt. Adams have seen skiing as well. The west and north sides of Mt. Adams are less visited, but offer a vast array of slopes for skiing and snowboarding. Access is more difficult to these sides, with longer approaches and more difficult to determine road melt out conditions. A number of adventurous ski descents have been made on the upper north side of Mt. Adams, including headwalls of Pinnacle, Lava, and Lyman Glaciers, Adams Glacier icefall, and North Face of the Northwest Ridge (NFNWR). The slopes between 6000 and 9000 feet are not as steep and provide for plenty of turns, but their vastness in reaching around Mt. Adams also invites another form of skiing, that of continuous ski touring, made possible by using waxless, fishscale skis. The north side of Mt. Adams holds extensive terrain well suited to backcountry skiing tours, telemark skiing, and waxless skis. Metal-edged waxless skis allow the free-heel skier the freedom to ski tour efficiently, ascend without having to use climbing skins, and enjoy telemark skiing descents, all without ever having to remove the skis. Ski touring terrain on this side of Mt. Adams ranges half way around the mountain in one continuous skirt of snow. Glaciers, with crevasses, such as Pinnacle, Adams, and Lyman, are connected by snowfields which allows for long ski tours. The photos in the gallery below are from a five day backcountry skiing trip to the north side of Mt. Adams in mid-June, using waxless skis. The very smooth snowpack had received just enough new snow the day before to make it completely white, and we found excellent skiing conditions - a thin coat of soft snow on a firm base. During the course of our five day stay, much of the new snow melted and the old dirty snowpack emerged. Volcanic dust often seems to help the snowpack consolidate into perfect corn, however, and the skiing remained great. We found nice runs on the eastern, central, and western parts of the lower Adams Glacier, as well as the Pinnacle Glacier. < Snoqualmie Pass Photos Snow Images Main W. Cady Ridge Photos > Click any of the photos to view the large version Climbing above camp, with Adams Glacier Telemark skiing above camp Morning sun in camp, north side of Mt. Adams Skiing up western Adams Glacier Telemark skiing 8s on Mt. Adams Summer telemark skiing Cornice and summit of Mt. Adams Approaching central Adams Glacier, with icefall Icefall descends from summit of Mt. Adams Waxless skis make snow travel easy Camp and cloud-covered summit of Mt. Adams Backcountry telemark skiing on fresh June snow Eastern Adams Glacier Figure 8s in dirty snow Telemark skiing, last day Follow this link for more galleries from South Cascades backcountry skiing trips. Follow this link for Mt. Rainier panoramas. Follow this link for other Washington volcano panoramas. Photos ©2008 Turns All Year LLC, www.turns-all-year.com   Please read the full copyright details. To contact turns-all-year.com, use this link.