June 15, 2008, Adams SW Chutes

      After the 2:30 alarm, the 3:30 alarm again, and the 4:30 soul-searching, I finally left the car at 5:40. The road's actually blocked by snow a little below the Morrison campground. Skinning up the road went easily. The rumors of a July melt-out aren't unfounded. The coverage at the summer trailhead is impressive - I had to kick steps to get back out of the functional loo. Extremely worried that I'd started too late, I kept moving as fast as my tired (from yesterday) legs would take me. I was surprised to see the signs of three sizeable slides on the Crescent - I selected a bed surface and booted up.
      More slogging later, I chatted briefly with Steve et. al. before they zipped past me to the top of Pikers' Peak. I joined them at ~12:30. The snow was good enough to merit climbing up again, so I skied the upper ~900' of the S face. As I climbed, lots of smiling people skied by :). I saw Amar zipping up toward me, but forewent socializing for the summit. I summited late - 3pm, about an hour later than I'd planned, but the SW chutes were still getting plenty of sun.
      The ski was excellent. The summit, while slightly rimed up, was perhaps the smoothest I've skied it. Mindful of the windloading, I carefully dropped into the SW chutes, following three other tracks. The snow was good, though I was too tired to properly shred it. About halfway down, I noted a big natural slide path at the base of the next chute over, putting me further on guard. The corn at the bottom was superlative, probably improved further by the adrenaline-infused need to ski smoothly. My friends that were thinking about skiing the chutes Saturday afternoon may well be glad that they didn't.
      More sketchy but fun traversing saw me on my way down toward the car. My skis first hit dirt around 500' above the Camp, and I was able to connect diminishing patches from there to the Camp proper. I opted to boot the road, but probably should have skied at least a little farther before clicking out. As I neared the car, I heard a new sound, ski bases skinning on gravel, when the Hummels (trailed by Amar and David) caught up to me. The technique is so practical that I may consider adopting it. Great meeting you guys.
      The drive back to Seattle was punctuated by a nap - arriving in town just as the sun started to rise on another beautiful day. Hope some of y'all are reaching the top of fine corn runs as I type!