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Mt Adams June 26 - 28 Corn and Wayfinding

6/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3234
9
Posted by Waddle0620 on 6/29/09 9:14am
Stu Saslow and I (Chris Waddle) set out at 6pm on Friday on the South side climb with full packs and skis.  Set-up camp at 8,000 ft on a crystal clear night.  Beautiful.  Next morning, took our camp to Lunch Counter and then followed about 150 hikers and skiers up to Pikers.  I skinned the entire way from treeline to summit, knowing it may have been easier a lot of the time to boot.  I'm stubborn. 

Amazing weather.

My first summit of Adams, and obviously my first ski descent.  Whole time, I was thinking...."am I ski mountaineering yet?"

Ended up way in front of my partner, but decided to get down and eat.  Took far skiers left and hugged the Mazama bergschrund on untracked corn.  Pretty hairy skiing that close to a cliff and massive crevasse.  Fall line right there takes you right over the edge, and at close to 60 degrees, I didn't want to lose an edge.  Hopped the cornice skiers left of False Summit, and tail-gunned all the way down.  4 hours later, received a voicemail from Stu that he had descended SW Chutes on accident and was at 7,000 ft.  Stu was wasted, and thought he might descend to the car; however I had all of his gear.  I had him ascend back to 8,000 ft, while I made a sled out of his Thermarest, packed all of his gear onto it, rigged it to the tail loop on my seat harness with my leg prussik, and then tobboganed it down to Stu.  That was interesting.

Spent the night again at 8,000 ft, and then descended with full packs on skis.  Classic error.  Tried to stay on the snow for way too long, allowing the mountain to disorient us way too far to skiers right.  Ended up about 2 miles west of Cold Springs where are car was.  Put our Sportiva's on, and bushwacked over many ridges for about 3 1/2 hours.  Missed Round the Mountain Trail--covered in snow.  Bisected the South Climb Trail less than 1/2 a mile above Cold Springs.

That was one damn good burger at KJ's Bear Creek Cafe in Trout Lake.

Rainier in 2 weeks!


Glad you both made it down okay and had a good first run at Adams -- it's a great one (and your buddy probably got the better line in the chutes).  "You never leave your wingman" as they say in Top Gun :)

If you look closely, you can see I am wearing women's garmonts.  It's an interesting point.  There is almost no difference between the mens and womens.  And I look better in gold, than in purple.  Right?

I was blinded by your willingness to hump those big-ass skis and bindings to the top :)

I love those skis.  Rossi Sickbirds with Fritschi Freeride Plus.  I have skied over 65 days since Dec. 19th.......everyday with that set-up.  They ski anything, and I don't mind them going up.  Mainly because I've never had anything else, so I don't know what a Trab feels like.  In fact, I spent 10 days in toboggan training this winter taking 200 lb dudes down icy blacks using that same set-up.  The highlight of my year was seeing them on the cover of Backcountry mag, March 2009, carried by a guy on his back in the Sawtooth with an ice axe in his hand. 

I was so proud......

Drew, I'm happy to hear that you hooked up with your partner.  You rigged a nice sled and we were amused watching you ski down with it.  As I stated when you departed the LC camp, Stu owes you a steak dinner for schlepping his gear down the hill.  Getting too far right down low is easy to do.  Been there.   ;D

Ahhh, that makes more sense -- I missed the bar on the bindings and thought it was a downhill rig...

Big Steve.....nice meeting you guys.  Fun adventure.  Sled worked much better after I re-tied the main rope half-way down.  Stu was happy to buy my burger in Trout Lake.  Hope you guys had a great climb.

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6613
mt-adams-june-26-28-corn-and-wayfinding
Waddle0620
2009-06-29 16:14:12